The Industrial Ruins of an "Empty Space": A High-Altitude Sulfur Mining Landscape in Northern Chile

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Paper / Report Submission (General Sessions)", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The Alto Cielo Archaeological Project, conducted in the Quechua indigenous community of Ollagüe in northern Chile, aims to document the industrial ruins of sulfur extraction dating from 1887 to 1993. While this high-altitude region was historically a point of transit, it has often been understood as an "empty space" due to its peripheral location to the cultural developments of the adjacent Andean regions (Atacama basin, Titicaca basin). However, from the end of the nineteenth century, Ollagüe witnessed the emergence of a steady process of capitalist mining expansion. New settlements increased the population and generated a demand for products, services, technology, and labor. As a result, industrial materialities imposed themselves and modified a high-altitude Andean region, transforming landscapes, practices, and livelihoods. The current abandoned and derelict industrial sites allow us to investigate the socio-cultural transformations that industrial mining generated in the local indigenous community.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• SHA 2023 General Sessions   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow