SITE DIRECTORY

• Main
• Map of Project Area
• History
• Traditional Smelting
• Preliminary Results
• Bibliographies
• Participants

1. Smelting requires large amounts of fuel. Mr. Cuiza produces much of the charcoal used to smelt lead from queñua trees that grow near his home. First he cuts down the trees, removes the limbs and bark, and chops the wood into smaller lengths. He then arranges alternating layers of logs and smaller branches in a dome about 3 m in diameter, with a bird’s nest, taken from the felled trees, at the center. The dome of wood is then covered with layers of leaves, bark, dried grass, and finally soil. The bird’s nest is lit with a torch, and the fire is allowed to smolder for about eight days, or until the wood is reduced to carbon. It takes 690 kilos of wood to produce 151 kilos of charcoal.

• Charcoal making process.
  
• Huayrachinas.
• Preparing Ore.
• Smelting.
  
• Tapping Lead.
  
• Remains of Dismantled
  Huayrachina.
  
• Cupellation Furnace.
  
• Preparing Silver Ore.
  
• Preparing Cupellation Furnace.
  
• Final Product.

Funding for this project provided by the National Science Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Curtiss T. Brennan and Mary G. Brennan Foundation, and Colorado State University.

Questions about this webpage or the contents herein should be directed to: Andrew.Mueller@lamar.colostate.edu