SITE DIRECTORY

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

2. Huayrachinas are small furnaces made of rocks and clay. They are perforated on two sides to allow the wind to penetrate the furnace, and they are always built on hills or ridge tops where the wind is particularly strong. This allows the wind to provide the oxygen that is necessary to smelt the lead. Huayrachinas usually last a few years, but before each smelt they have to be repaired.

• 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 Endowment for the Humanities, the National Science Foundation, 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