San Antonio de los Cobres is the capital of the Department of Los Andes, which is located in the northwest of the Argentine Republic, in the puna of the province of Salta.
Surrounded by a unique landscape due to the aridity of its land, its salt flats, its high colorful peaks, San Antonio de los Cobres is located just 164km from the city of Salta; and now through ANTAPU, recovers part of its rich ancestral culture, Since pre-Columbian archaeological pieces can be exhibited in their place of origin for the delight not only of the tourist but also for the pride of the locals who recover their heritage.
The ETHNIC AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM OF SAN ANTONIO DE LOS COBRES, It arises as a need to explain their ancestors and the fact of building it from the idea of Community has the objective that each and every one of the inhabitants of SAC feels and considers the Museum as their own..
ANTAPU is above all an experience of community work with the natural leaders of a community originating from the Argentine Puna and represents the contemporary mirror where the community has its own space where it can establish the parameters of its contemporaneity and that of its ancestors..
Its objectives:
Reconciliation with integral heritage, its conservation and usufruct, as a shared responsibility between the museum and the community
Stimulate and promote in the community the creation of sustainable forms of use of integral heritage, jointly developing activities and projects that benefit the museum and the community.
Collect vestiges of an oral culture, myth, beliefs, rites, that tend to disappear under the mantle of the culture of the dominant society.
A project of these characteristics, Immersed in a sustainable development program, it generates genuine jobs., discouraging the migration of young people to other places and avoiding the painful estrangement from their family and culture.
The MUSEUM is part of the development of an alternative tourist circuit, “Heaven with your hands”, where the community acts as manager of its own assets, its cultural heritage and its natural beauties. “El Cielo con las Manos” brings together particular characteristics considering that it implies the training of actors in communication and conservation techniques of content and the environment in general..
There we found a ravine in front of a dry river bed.. Its rocks house a synthesis of local history printed on the rock. In Corralito there is an important gallery of petroglyphs where you can see complete scenes of shamanic ceremonies., as well as petroglyphs of dancers and other representations throughout different periods.
The First Inhabitants of the Region
The Argentine Puna rises above the 3500 meters above sea level. Human evolution in highlands was conditioned by extreme factors such as daily thermal amplitude, hypoxia and low resource productivity. Among them the wild camelids Vicuñas and Guanacos and the domestic ones: Llamas were the main ones.
In the Valley of San Antonio de los Cobres (SAC Valley), Province of Salta, our research exposed sites of Middle Holocene hunter-gatherer populations. The dates of these occupations are 5.200 years AP. The evidence supports a model of use of spaces bounded by springs, high consumption of wild camelids, and reuse of space through activities such as the making of bifacial lithic artifacts and projectile points. These hunter-gatherer populations became extinct in the Argentine Puna around the 3400 years AP, by the selective evolution of populations with pastoral food production strategies.
MATANCILLAS PLACE
Matancillas, It is a ravine lateral to the Valley of San Antonio de los Cobres, In this area, the first occupations in the region with agricultural economies were detected.. These populations occupied protected spaces suitable for growing quinoa, corn and probably potatoes. Although the agricultural strategy predominated, herding and hunting were also important. This economic diversification served to cushion the risk of this environment. Thus, these populations not only had housing constructions, but the settlements incorporated, crop gardens (canchones), and corrals (pircas). Next to the settlements there are scenes of daily life, rituals and technologies in rock representations.
The ceramics of Matancillas, dated in the 2040 years AP, belongs to the San Francisco Pottery Tradition.
The Inca empire in the region
Toward 1525, The territory under control of the Inca empire extended through the southernmost area of present-day Colombia., for Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia and in areas of what is now northern Argentina and Chile, covering an area of more than 3.500 Km. from north to south, and of 805 Km. from east to west.
Researchers estimate that this immense region was inhabited by a population of between 3 y 17 millions of people from different Andean cultures.
From the administrative point of view, The territory was divided into four large regions or their ('part'), That is why Tahuantinsuyu owes its name. (a Quechua word that literally means 'Land of the Four Quarters' or 'of the Four Parts'), that was, in turn, subdivided into four: Anti-State, This collage, Cuntisuyu and Chinchasuyu. The Antilles, eastwards towards the jungle to the border with Brazil; the Cuntisuyu, towards the west towards the Pacific Ocean passing through Puno, Arequipa and Mollendo; the Chinchasuyu, north, heading to Túmbez on the border with Ecuador; and the Collasuyu, heading south to Chile.
The Inca expansion process was very rapid and in 150 years they imposed their ideological and economic control over hundreds of towns.
The way of life of this civilization can be seen in the countless archaeological sites discovered in the area of San Antonio de los Cobres and many others still to be discovered or have public status..
Most of its volcanoes, all above 5.000 masl, like the tugzle, Get out, Cay, They are usually Inca sanctuaries since ancient times. Recently at the Llullaillaco volcano, some 380 km west of San Antonio de los Cobres, An important archaeological rescue was carried out of three children found at the top of the volcano and naturally mummified. Los “Children of Llullaillaco” They have an age of 700 years approximately. Los “children” and the very important trousseau that accompanies them are currently in the GOOD (High Mountain Archeology Museum) in the city of Salta.
