Injecting Rationality into a Reevaluation of Chalchihuites Mining

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Subterranean" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

As early as 1910, Manuel Gamio called attention to what he termed cavernas in the Chalchihuites area of Zacatecas. Later, in the 1960s, Charles Kelly and Philip Weigand labelled these features mines and proposed that they supplied Teotihuacan with turquoise. It has since been shown that the area is not a turquoise producing area. Nevertheless, the idea of the Chalchihuites as a mining area remains firmly entrenched even as proponents scramble to determine what may have been extracted. Logically, the mineral would have to be one that runs in veins in order to justify tunnel mining as opposed to pit or open face mining. At no point, has it been established what is being mined nor if the material runs in veins which would be consistent with tunnel mining. Even the most cursory examination of the proposed features suggests that the identification as mines is preposterous. Entrances are often tiny forcing entry and exit via crawling passage between chambers is similarly arduous. This paper proposes an alternative function for these supposed mines.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Multidisciplinary Approaches to the Subterranean   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39573.0