Chuquicamata

This work gives the results of the first studies carried out in mining camp Chu-2, with evidence of copper exploitation activities previous to Inca rule. This site is the first of its kind in the Chuquicamata-Tomic area, and was occupied from close to the end of the Formative Period, until the Late Intermediate. The relationship between extractive mining activities, associated to ceramics from the southern Altiplano, the occidental valleys of Tarapaca, the Loa and Atacama basins, and their caravanning routes, position Chu-2 as a site that is a key to the understanding of mining labour outside the valleys, in environments far from any water resource. This enables an account of the purposes of Atacamita, and native and coloured copper mining, from the uses of the material that was needed for smelting and those used inornamental and ritual applications. We propose that the site does not represent an isolated or spontaneous event, but the presence of mining groups that came from stable settlements, suggesting expansive exploitation politics that stemmed from the middle and higher Loa regions and San Pedro de Atacama.