Ore Dressing Technics in the Andes During the Seventeenth Century: The Case of San Antonio del Nuevo Mundo, Lípez, Present-day Bolivia

Abstract

The aim of this article is to analyze the ore dressing technics present during the peak production period of a silver mine in the Seventeenth-Century Andes, from an archaeological and historical perspective. It is not focused on the silver refinery constructions, or their description and social relationships, which are presented in the specialized literature, but rather on attention to the objects that were necessary for the silver production and to their location. We redefined those constructions, identified their social relations through historical sources and their characteristics regarding this particular period, type of mining camp, stage of the mines’ silver production, and the power and labor relations.