OBSIDIAN, TURQUOISE, AND METALS IN SOUTHERN CHILE. SOCIAL PERSPECTIVES FROM THEIR PRESENCE AND PROVENANCE IN MOCHA ISLAND (AD 1000-1700)

Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/articles/05741s48q

Abstract

Compositional analyses performed on obsidian pieces, turquoise beads and metallic artefacts from Mocha Island allow us to propose a high mobility scenario for these goods for the last 1000 years in Southern Chile. These analyses lead us to hypothesize about the connections with areas such as the Coastal Range in Araucanía (35 km), central Neuquén in Argentina (390 km), and the Bolivian Altiplano/Argentinian Northwest (1900 km). The presence of these goods in Mocha Island and Southern Chile would be part of the deep social transformations undergone by the societies that inhabited these territories toward the end of the first millennium AD, leading to the formation of the El Vergel complex.

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