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<< Text Pages >> Mina Primavera - Ancient Mine, Quarry or other Industry in Peru

Submitted by bat400 on Monday, 11 February 2008  Page Views: 10165

Multi-periodSite Name: Mina Primavera
Country: Peru
NOTE: This site is 6.961 km away from the location you searched for.

Type: Ancient Mine, Quarry or other Industry
Nearest Town: Nasca, Ica
Latitude: 14.643S  Longitude: 75.123W
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
no data Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
no data Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
no data Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
3
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Ancient Mine in Ica State, Peru.
Mina Primavera was a hematite (Fe2O3) mine developed by the Nasca and succeeding Wari cultures beginning roughly 2000 years ago. Iron ore mining has been thought to exist only in old world cultures, with new world peoples exploiting surface deposits of iron bearing minerals (ochres). Despite the wide spread use of iron materials as paints and dyes in Peruvian ceramics and textiles, there has been no known example or contact era literature that describes intensive exploitation of such ores in the Central Andes and few examples elsewhere in the Americas. Mina Primavera changes that.

Researchers Kevin Vaughn (Purdue University,) Moises Grados (Proyecto Nasca Temprano,) and some others in the relatively new field of Archaeotechnology have been studying the works at Mina Primavera as well as the evidence ceramics using hematite based paint originating from the mine.

Mina Primavera was used as a “cave” storage area by modern miners, who secured their equipment by placing a door at the entrance, but did not closely examine the area at the back of the cavity. Researches have determined the “cave” to be a man-made mine that yielded an estimated 3700 tonnes of hematite over a 1000 year period. Tools, pottery, textiles and other items have dated the active periods of mining and indicate that raw ore was also prepared at the site for transportation as material ready for use to make paints and dyes.

Note: The location is approximate to bluffs above the river junction.
The Journal of Metals article may be found in their Dec 2007 issue.

Note: Archaeotechnologists describe Andean iron mine.
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"Mina Primavera" | Login/Create an Account | 2 News and Comments
  
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Slightly different article on Peruvian hematite mine by bat400 on Wednesday, 13 February 2008
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From National Geographic.
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Archaeologist 'strikes gold' with finds of ancient Nasca iron ore mine in Peru by bat400 on Monday, 11 February 2008
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Submitted by coldrum --

A Purdue University archaeologist discovered an intact ancient iron ore mine in South America that shows how civilizations before the Inca Empire were mining this valuable ore.

"Archaeologists know people in the Old and New worlds have mined minerals for thousands and thousands of years," said Kevin J. Vaughn, an assistant professor of anthropology who studies the Nasca civilization, which existed from A.D. 1 to A.D. 750. "Iron mining in the Old World, specifically in Africa, goes back 40,000 years. And we know the ancient people in Mexico, Central America and North America were mining for various materials. There isn't much evidence for these types of mines.

"What we found is the only hematite mine, a type of iron also known as ochre, recorded in South America prior to the Spanish conquest. This discovery demonstrates that iron ores were important to ancient Andean civilizations."

In 2004 and 2005, Vaughn and his team excavated Mina Primavera, which is located in the Ingenio Valley of the Andes Mountains in southern Peru. The research team performed field checks and collected some samples in 2006 and 2007. The findings of the excavation are published in December's Journal of the Minerals, Metals & Materials Society.

The researchers determined that the mine is a human-made cave that was first created around 2,000 years ago. An estimated 3,710 metric tons was extracted from the mine during more than 1,400 years of use. The mine, which is nearly 700 cubic meters, is in a cliffside facing a modern ochre mine.

Now that there is archaeological evidence that ancient cultures in the Andes were mining iron ore, it is important to give credit to New World civilizations, Vaughn said.

"Even though ancient Andean people smelted some metals, such as copper, they never smelted iron like they did in the Old World," he said. "Metals were used for a variety of tools in the Old World, such as weapons, while in the Americas, metals were used as prestige goods for the wealthy elite."

Vaughn says material scientists and engineers, as well as mineralogists, will be interested in this discovery.

"This study of mining is a great example of how archaeology bridges the social and physical sciences," he said.

"I hope to continue surveying for mines and mining-related sites in the region, and hopefully undertake additional excavations at the mine," he said.

For more, see this link to Purdue University news.


The Journal of Metals article can be found here.
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