MINERíA Y METALURGIA EN LA COSTA ARREICA DE LA REGIóN DE ANTOFAGASTA, NORTE DE CHILE

this paper presents the results of an ongoing project on pre-hispanic mining and metallurgy in the taltal and paposo areas of antofagasta region, in coastal northern chile. we focus on data from the san ramón 15 site, the first pre-hispanic iron oxide mine known in chile, dated from archaic times. the paper proposes that mining activity in northern chile originated with the extraction of red pigment that predates copper mining by several millennia. we also summarize the information collected about pre-hispanic metallic artifacts from taltal, focusing on morphological features and preliminary chemical composition data, which affirm the existence of local metallurgy activity as well as the existence of imported metal goods.