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Science 26 September 2003:
Vol. 301. no. 5641, pp. 1893 - 1895
DOI: 10.1126/science.1087806
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Reports

Intensive Pre-Incan Metallurgy Recorded by Lake Sediments from the Bolivian Andes

Mark B. Abbott1*{dagger} and Alexander P. Wolfe2{dagger}

The history of pre-Columbian metallurgy in South America is incomplete because looting of metal artifacts has been pervasive. Here, we reconstruct a millennium of metallurgical activity in southern Bolivia using the stratigraphy of metals associated with smelting (Pb, Sb, Bi, Ag, Sn) from lake sediments deposited near the major silver deposit of Cerro Rico de Potosí. Pronounced metal enrichment events coincide with the terminal stages of Tiwanaku culture (1000 to 1200 A.D.) and Inca through early Colonial times (1400 to 1650 A.D.). The earliest of these events suggests that Cerro Rico ores were actively smelted at a large scale in the Late Intermediate Period, providing evidence for a major pre-Incan silver industry.

1 Department of Geology and Planetary Science, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA.
2 Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6G 2E3, Canada.



{dagger} Both authors contributed equally to this work.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: mabbott1{at}pitt.edu

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