SITE DIRECTORY

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

Click here to see a video of the process.

4. The huayrachina is lit from below with dried grass and burro dung, and then charcoal and the mixture described above is added in alternating layers. A fresh queñua log is used to close the lower opening that faces the wind, and a queñua stick plugs the tap hole. During the course of the smelt, which takes about seven hours, the furnace operator periodically removes partially smelted material from the bottom of the furnace and shovels it into the top along with additional mineral, flux, and carbon. Lumps of slag are discarded in front of the furnace.

• 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