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Physical and Cultural Constraint of Innovation in the Late Prehistoric Metallurgy of Cerro Huaringa, Peru

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2011

Stephen M. Epstein
Stephen M. Epstein*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA 19104
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Abstract

The arsenical copper smelting technology reconstructed from the archaeological record at the late prehistoric industrial site of Cerro Huaringa, Peru, remained unchanged for the six centuries preceding the Spanish Conquest. This lack of technological innovation is argued to be a result of the physical constraints imposed by a cultural commitment to human breath as the source of draft.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 267: Symposium J – Materials Issues in Art and Archaeology III , 1992 , 747
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1992

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