Isolation, Innovation, and Fraud: Assessing Failure in Historical Mining and Metallurgy

Summary

This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Failure" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Mining and metallurgy are high-risk endeavors, and failure is common. In the first, the extent and nature of ore deposits are unknown, and the second is prone to mishaps due to inadequate temperature control, poor quality ore, and refractory malfunction, among other factors. Thus, failures in this industry—as measured by output—can be easily attributed to technical problems. However, placing them in broader context can lead to more nuanced and interesting answers that frequently implicate specific social processes in the failure to produce adequate amounts of metal. An examination of early colonial smelting in Porco, Bolivia, and nineteenth-century mining in Colorado illustrates how three such processes can result in failure: isolation from a community of practitioners, innovation, particularly by novices, and fraudulent behavior intended to deceive buyers and investors. Further investigation will undoubtedly reveal multiple reasons why technologies fail, suggesting that failure is an integral part of the human experience, rather than an isolated and exceptional event.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Archaeology of Failure   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39479.0