A D V A N C E D M A T E R I A L S & P R O C E S S E S | A P R I L 2 0 2 1 2 3 The Mendoza province in Argentina isendowedwithagreat varietyand richness inmetal mineral deposits. Archaeometallurgical study of metal artifacts provides examples of precapitalist metalworking technologies, including the Mapuches in South America who through their jewelry sought a link with the universe. Although Mapuche jewelry is best known for silver work (Mapuche Silverware), this was not the only material on which they would have worked, and various studies indicate that they began toworkwith copper (Vergel Culture). Although they went through various stages of development and improve- ment of their silver work, they never abandoned copper. Copper, which they called “anta,” was used instead of iron to make weapons of war, knives, carpenter’s tools, pins to hold women’s cloaks, or hoes to dig the earth. The native Andean miner was intimately linked with the land, “Pachamama,” and the mineral was treated as one more living element of nature, which was reproduced, manipulated, and “harvested” as a crop. The native metallurgists, more than mere artisans, were intermediaries between humans and deities, owners of both technical and esoteric knowledge. CHANGING POPULATIONS The south of the province of Mendoza was part of a southern border between territories controlled by the original peoples, and the colonial government, which later became the Argentine Republic. This made the region a place of convergence for different types of societies with very different economic, productive, and social systems. The conquest of this territory by the Spanish began with the first exploration by Francisco de Villagra around 1551 and the subsequent foundation of the city of Mendoza around 1561[1]. Roughly around the same time, the migration of the Mapuche-speaking peoples from Chile, known as “araucanización” began, bringing instability to the southern border of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata, which allowed the border to move south with the native peoples. With this exchange and circulation of people, networks, and goods, it is likely that knowledge about the manufacture of metals was also dispersed, including information about its significance and use. STUDYING ARCHAEOMETALLURGY IN MENDOZA Archaeometallurgy uses metallographic and chemical techniques, and historical and bibliographic review to answer various archaeological questions. In this case, archaeometallurgy was used to study the relationship with metallurgy and metals by native peoples. The effective use of metals in Argentine territory dates back well before the 1500s, although territorially it is restricted to the northwestern region of Argentina[2]. In southern Mendoza, known use of metals corresponds to post-colonial times. However, recent evidence shows that use of metals may have been practiced in the centuries prior to the arrival of Europeans to the region[3]. Metallic elements corres- ponding to both time periods were found at sites such as the Mapuche Cemetery of Cerro Mesa, Malargüe, Mendoza. As the Mapuches were divided by the Los Andes range, those who occupied the Argentine pampas were called Puwelches, particularly those found south of the Rio Salado. Those who lived in Chile were called Guluches, and they occupied the region from the Bíobio River to the south in the Araucanía area, maintaining a great exchange on both sides of the Andes mountain range, an ideal mechanism to expand families and strengthen the transfer of goods through the region. Through the study of historical pieces of Mapuche origin, it is possible to find connections of great importance from before the expansion of the Inca Empire. It is already known that a tradition of metalworking (Vergel Culture) would have existed in the southern regions of Chile and Argentina. In the same way, the arrival of the Spanish to these latitudes left a mark regarding the use of other techniques for metalworking and the mode of supply of raw materials. In the different areas of the vast Andean territory, the path that metallurgy followed acquired its own peculiarities. The production and technical innovations of metals in the Andes was driven primarily by their use for social status and in the religious sphere where metals served as elements of connection with supernatural powers[4]. As Heather Lechtman[5] pointed out, Andean metallurgy was, above all, a way to communicate with the gods. AN EXPLORATION OF HISTORIC METALS IN SOUTH AMERICA A study of metal artifacts from the Mendoza region of Argentina reveals the influences of native migration and European conquest. Patricia Silvana Carrizo,* Mendoza Regional Faculty, National Technological University, Argentina *Member of ASM International
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