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The Mines and Mining Techniques of the Chalchihuites Culture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Phil C. Weigand
Phil C. Weigand*
Affiliation:
Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Illinois
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Abstract

The Chalchihuites culture of the Colorado-Suchil river drainage of western Zacatecas began about A.D. 100 as a somewhat evolved and belated Early Preclassic colonization of simple agriculturalists. By the Alta Vista phase (ca. A.D. 350-550) it had assumed the role of a much more complex society. A great expansion of population occurred. This transition was very rapid and present evidence supports the hypothesis that highly organized social groups colonized the area in order to exploit the mineral resources located there. Extensive mining operations, coupled with self-supporting agricultural patterns, characterize the zenith of the period. The extent of mining was much more than local consumption could possibly require and therefore points to the economic dependence of the exploitative organization upon the high cultures farther south and southeast. This paper reviews the 1963 and 1965 surveys of the Alta Vista mining operations and draws some conclusions about the character of the society which sponsored them.

Type
Research Article
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , January 1968 , pp. 45 - 61
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1968

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