Argentina, San Juan Province. At the beginning of December, a valuable pre-Columbian ceramic vase attributed to cultures that inhabited the current territory of San Juan province was found during a biodiversity survey at the El Pachón mining project, located in the Calingasta Valley. The discovery was made as part of environmental tasks and not during extractive activities. The piece, practically complete, constitutes a direct testimony of the communities that populated the region hundreds of years ago and provides new information to understand their way of life and their relationship with the environment. After the discovery, Glencore Pachon activated the protocol established by provincial law 571-F, which regulates the conservation, protection, and preservation of the cultural and natural heritage of San Juan, and notified the Directorate of Cultural Heritage. "The importance of the find is relevant in several aspects: on the one hand, it is part of the prehistory of San Juan, and on the other, it shows that it is possible to work correctly in archaeological heritage when respecting procedures," said History Master Claudia Mallea, director of the Institute of Archaeological Research and Professor Mariano Gambier Museum of the National University of San Juan. The formal complaint was made by the specialized consulting firm Arqueo Ambiental, which coordinated the work with the Gambier Institute. The operation included the controlled lifting of the piece at the site of its discovery and its subsequent transfer to the laboratory for its study and cataloging. According to the first analyses, the vase would correspond to the late period of the Calingasta culture, between the 10th and 15th centuries, a stage that encompasses various pre-Columbian cultural expressions of the province. Environmentalists pointed out that, with the current glaciers law, the project could not be developed. The deposit, located at 3,600 meters above sea level and five kilometers from the border with Chile, is currently in the advanced exploration stage.
