Historical Archaeology in Abandoned Nitrate "Oficinas" in Northern Chile: A Preliminary Report

Introduction

The present report forms part of a general program of interdisciplinary research conducted by an
anthropologists of the Department of History and Archaeology, Universidad del Norte,
Antofagasta (Chile), concerned with man's relationship to the desert environment from as far back
as possible up to the present.

Scattered across the desert landscape of northern Chile are a series of archaeological phenomena
or ruins known as the abandoned nitrate oficinas (refineries, settlements, "towns"). Historians,
private collectors of "treasure," and those interested in the purchase and sale of scrap metal and
used building materials in general have paid them a great amount of attention, but their potential
value for study through archaeology has been neglected. The reasons for this might be, partly that
these oficinas reflect the very recent past of our own culture, and partly the idea that problems
pertaining to the nitrate industry, and the people who were involved in the work, can best be
studied on the basis of documentary sources. As a matter of fact, considerable formal history has
been written dealing with different aspects of the rise, boom, and decline of the nitrate industry in
northern Chile (for an extensive bibliography, see Bermudez 1963).

In Chile, the practice of historical archaeology is still largely associated with the reconstruction and
restoration of monuments, and efforts to attack the historical past by archaeological techniques
similar to those used in prehistory have not been made until quite recently. Interest in the
abandoned nitrate settlements was raised, partly because their ruins form an important part of
the desert land scape, difficult to ignore by anybody interested in the archaeology of the historic
past, and partly because the results of exploratory archaeological work together with a survey of
published historical records suggested that archaeological research would supplement much of
our knowledge gained from the history books on the people who lived there. Furthermore, it was
expected that archaeology would provide information not available in the written sources.
Another incentive to initiate systematic investigations was the discovery that many former
residents of the mining settlements are still alive, and that a great amount of unstudied archival
material exists.

he project has the multiple objectives of: 1) incorporating the abandoned mining settlements in to
the archaeological records; 2) attempting to demonstrate that archaeology can effectively en large
and enrich our knowledge of different aspects of life of the people who lived there, and 3)
combining the results of archaeological research with evidence obtained from historic records,
ethnography, interviews and correspondence with former residents. For purposes of comparison
the authors also aim to conduct a "living archaeology" study in one of the only two nitrate
settlements still functioning.

As present interests are largely oriented toward the non-technologically-related aspects of be

haviour, it has been preferred to use the term "historical archaeology" rather than "industrial
archaeology.
he principal goals of this paper are: (1) first to present a summary of the preliminary results of a
multi-stage project of investigation related to the abandoned nitrate oficinas situated in the II
Region-Antofagasta (formerly Antofagasta province), and (2) attempt to evaluate the effectiveness
of archaeological techniques in conjunction with evidence from other disciplines as a means of
recovering data pertinent to these settlements and their inhabitants.

The Community Defined

Despite the assumed existence of "communities," one survey of the large literature using this
concept concluded that "all the definitions deal with people. Beyond this common basis, there is
no agreement" (Bell and Newby 1971: 27, citing Hillary). However, this definition may be criticized
too, since there are, for instance "community studies" of plants and animals. Other minimal
definitions of "community" are concerned with sentiments of "belongingness" or "having
something in common." Some definitions merge the social and spatial aspects of community
studies, while others argue that a community may be geo graphically based or it may not (Glass in
Frank enberg 1966: 201; Stacey 1969: 135; Bell and Newby 1971: 19) or that different "levels" of
community must be considered (Redfield 1965). In recent years, some objections to the concept of
"community" have been raised too. Within the discipline of anthropology, Arensberg (1961:248),
for example, defines "community" as the "basic unit of organization and transmission within a
society and its culture," thus stressing relationships or networks and organization rather than
"face-to face" association" or spatial consideration in the sense of Murdock (Murdock et al. 1961:
89; Mur dock 1949: 79; Adams 1973: 337, 1977).

The nitrate settlements arose as a direct consequence of the discovery of nitrate deposits and
came to form the centers of an economic activity which constituted a far-ranging network of great
regional, national, and international significance. These settlements can be viewed as separate
com munities or as a community, namely the nitrate community. First it was assumed that the
second alternative was true, or in other words that the nitrate oficinas were "part-communities,"
that all shared a well-defined pattern of settlement and activity sets (with changes occurring
through time) which placed them apart from other contemporary communities. While there might
be sufficient rea sons to justify the existence of a single "nitrate community" (or perhaps better a
"sub-society" with a "sub-culture") the decision as to the size and location of the "community" to
be studied was affected by some rather obvious yet basic points. Among these were the criteria
related to the types of problems to be studied and also the availability of personnel, time and
money. Other criteria included the quality of archival records which would be easily available as
well as former residents who would be interviewed. Consequently, the research has been
concentrated in the Antofagasta region, in the canton formerly known as "Bolivia" or "Central"
(Figure 1), and within this zone in a group of oficinas which had worked on the basis of a high
percentage of British capital (those of the "Campagna de Salitres de Antofagasta," which were
taken over by the "Lautaro Nitrate Co., Ltda." at the beginning of the 1920s). It was then decided
to center the investigation on a number of selected oficinas of the latter group, studying each one
as a potential "past community." In the archaeological sense, each oficina was to be considered
not as a single site but as a locality of many sites with more or less sharply-defined boundaries
(dwelling units, trash middens, plaza, company store, technological activity areas, and so on). It
was assumed that most of the former residents were in daily "face to-face association." Through
oral testimony it was also learned that former residents are particularly linked emotionally to their
"oficinas." This evidence may be further corroborated by the "pilgrimages" paid to abandoned
cemeteries and oficinas (Figure 2) or to the structures of the plaza of a recently closed settlement
which were transferred to the town of Antofagasta. A further example of "sentiments of
belongingness" is the insistence on remaining together demonstrated by the population of yet
another oficina, when the plant was closed and the residents were to be moved to one of the
settlements still working. Today this group of people constitutes a "barrio" or separate entity
within their new "home town," still highly conscious of their common origin.

The Geographical and Historical Framework

Within the zone known as the Norte Grande of Chile, situated between 67?W and 70?30'W, the II
Region-Antofagasta covers an area of 125,300 km2 stretching between 21?S and 26?S. Like the
rest of northern Chile, Antofagasta region is characterized by three principal morphological
features: the Coastal Range (Cordillera de la Costa), the central pampa or desert, and the Andes.
Stretching inland from the Coastal Range to the punalies the Atacama Desert, one of the dryest
areas in the world. The outstanding features of the climate are the low humidity (less than 50%),
the almost complete lack of precipitation, the nearly cloudless sun, and the marked differences
between temperatures of day and night. Mean annual temperature is about 28?C, lowest mean
about 5?C. Part of this desert is also known as the pampa salitrera. Only a single river system, the
Loa, empties into the Pacific Ocean. The remainder of the rivers and streams do not reach the sea.
From about 1000 to 2200 m above sea level there is practically no vegetation except a few
xerophytic ants. With increasing altitude the severe desert conditions diminish and plant and
animal life gradually increase. As a result of these conditions, permanent human settlement in this
area in the pre-Columbian period was generally confined to the inter-Andean valleys between
altitudes of some 2500 and 4000 m above sea level, where there is evidence of hunter-gatherers
from about 12,000 B.P., the river valleys where agriculture with controlled animal breeding
became the basic means of subsistence from about 2,800 B.P., and the coastal strip where a
marine-based economy is thought to have started about 10,000 B.P.

When the Spaniards first arrived in northern Chile in what is known today as the Tarapaca and
Antofagasta regions, respectively (the expeditions led by Diego de Almagro in 1535, and Pedro de
Valdivia in 1540), they found this area settled by farmers and pastoralists in the zones where
natural conditions would allow for the pursuit of such activities, while the coastal region was
inhabited largely by fishermen, hunters of marine mammals, and gatherers of shellfish. However,
less than a century earlier, the Atacama Desert had been conquered and partly settled by the Inca
for purposes which are still subject to debate but which presumably included a desire to protect
and improve communication with the more fertile southern regions, and also to gain access to the
important sources of semi-precious stones and metals, especially copper.
Under Spanish administration, the Audiencia of Lima included Tarapaca, while the Provincia de
Atacama (today Antofagasta region) formed part of the Audiencia of Charcas. With the creation of
the republics of Peru and Bolivia, respectively, in the first quarter of the 19th century, Tarapaca fell
to Peru, and most of Antofagasta to Bolivia. As a result of the Pacific War (1879-82), both areas
were taken over by Chile. While colonial mining enterprises (silver, for example) had existed, large
scale exploitation of the nitrate fields, first in the Pampa of Tamarugal in Tarapaca, had been
initiated only from about 1830. These activities eventually made Chile one of the world's most
important producers of natural nitrate.

Sodium nitrate {salitre or Chile salt peter) is extracted from caliche or gravels cemented by this as
well as other salts, deposited predominantly in zones located between 19?30'S and 26?S. Caliche
is found in layers between 0.90 to 2.00 m thick, rarely in outcrops but hidden below the surface
and blasted loose by explosives. Although high-grade caliche might have been used as a fertilizer
in the early colonial period (or perhaps even in pre Columbian times), from the beginning of the
18th century, it had been used mainly for the manufacture of gunpowder. It was the development
of the system of paradas by Thaedeus Haenke at the beginning of the 19th century, and later the
Shank's system invented by James Shanks in the second half of the same century, which allowed
for the eventual large-scale production of nitrate. At first, thousands of mules were imported from
Argentina to be used in the nitrate zone for transporting along the desert trails the raw material
from the mines to the refineries, and then to the oastal ports from where the finished product was
shipped. From the late 19th century onward, a net work of railroads was established together with
systems of tramways which transported the material within the mines. John Blake (1843: 7), in the
first half of the 19th century, stated:

The nitrate of soda of Tarapaca affords employment for a large part of the inhabitants of
the province. In 1837 one hundred and fifty thousand quintals were shipped from the port
of Iquique ... Its recent introduction as a manure will probably greatly increase the demand
for it in foreign countries.

The process of refining, through which the crude salt passes before it is transported to the
ports for exportation, is rude and simple. The operation is conducted generally by Indians,
under the direction of a Spanish major-domo. Each oficina (sic) or working place, consists
of a few rude huts, the walls of which are constructed of cakes of salt, cemented together
with the mixed marl and salt obtained from the kettles in use for refining, the roofs being
formed of mats, supported by rafters of cactus. All the work of refining is conducted in the
open air. The apparatus consists of a few copper kettles, of the capacity of fifty gallons
each, set within walls formed of cakes of salt, and shallow Oblong Square vats for
crystallizing. The salt, as blasted from the bed, which is always near to the oficina, is
carried in bags on the backs of laborers near to the kettles, where women and children are
employed in breaking it into fragments of the size of hen's eggs. About two thirds of each
kettle being filled with the broken salt, and water added, a strong fire is maintained until
the water becomes saturated, then it is dipped into tubs to settle, and from thence
transferred while hot to the crystallizers. The undissolved portion which re mains
 consisting principally of chloride of sodium and earthly matter, is thrown aside as
worthless, although frequently not more than one half of the nitrate has been separated,
the same relative proportion of crude salt being at all times used, without regard to its
quality.

Aside from the want of economy displayed in the refining process, the affairs of the
officinas are well conducted. Each branch of the operation, from the breaking the salt
from the bed up to the time when it is placed on board vessels for exportation, is
conducted by a distinct class of laborers, who receive for their work a fixed sum on each
quintal of the refined salt produced.

It was the nitrate fields or the presence of sodium nitrate which first brought attention to the
Desert of Atacama as a zone of economic importance. The first discovery of important nitrate
deposits in Antofagasta has been variously attributed to two Frenchmen in the 1850s or to a
prominent miner from the port of Cobija in the 1860s. Be this as it may, the first oficina operating
in this region was "Salar del Carmen," situated some 10 km from the port of Antofagasta, then
known as La Chimba cove. Work started in 1869, and closed in 1884 when the nitrate deposits had
been exhausted. In 1872, the Compama de Salitres y Ferrocarril de Antofagasta (previously known
as Sociedad Melbourne, Clark and Co.) was formed as a Chilean company largely with English
capital and with an English manager. The first part of the future Antofagasta and Bolivia Railway
reached Salar del Carmen in 1873. From the close of the Pacific War, nitrate production boomed in
the Atacama Desert, and Chile salt peter used as a fertilizer and for the manufacture of dynamite,
became the main source of the country's revenue, attracting large amounts of foreign capital,
particularly English and German, but also Italian, Spanish, French and North American (Bermudez
1963: 373).

At the beginning of the present century, 170 oficinas were listed, 67 of which were in Antofagasta.

In Antofagasta the oficinas were distributed in five cantones (administrative units). As noted, this
study is concerned with oficinas in Canton Bolivia or Central, most of which are situated at a short
distance from the Antofagasta-Bolivia Railway, between km 122 and km 170 (Figure 1).

ween km 122 and km 170 (Figure 1). Simultaneously with the development of new oficinas in
Antofagasta, the nitrate ports such as Tocopilla, Mejillones, Antofagasta, and Taltal grew
tremendously as urban settlements and "boom towns" on the barren coast of the Atacama Desert.
Most famous of these was Antofagasta, known for its theatre visited by the famous per formers of
the era, its plaza covered with grass and trees, and the high consumption of French champagne of
its residents and the visitors who would come in from the pampa.

The "Golden Age" of the nitrates resulted in a vigorous migration to its centers of people from the
Norte Chico, and also some southern parts of Chile, farmers and others often with their families,
who came in the hope of making a better life, and perhaps become rich in the nitrate mines. In the
mining settlements, the Chileans were joined not only by migrants from the neighboring countries
of Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina, but also from more distant regions, even Europe. Although no
systematic study exists on this aspect of life, evidence of informants suggests that the process of
adaptation to the pampa must have been slow and quite painful, not only because of the
barrenness of the desert, its blazing sun during the day, and icy cold nights, but also the harsh
conditions of work, the long hours, and the need to learn the use of new tools and machinery
(Figure 3). Other aspects to which the individuals and their families would have to adapt must
have been the miserable standard of housing in the "camps" (laborers' dwell ing area), the strict
regimen imposed by many managers with respect to social structure (based upon the official
classification of the work in which the individual was employed), and having to learn to live with
people of different cultural back grounds. Some forms of amusement and recreation would be
arranged in the oficinas, particularly for the "upper levels" of the community, such as con certs,
balls, and dinners where the men would dress in dinner jackets, and in which the manager and his
family would join. The amusement of the workers would be of a different kind, hard drink ing, for
example, carried out in Pampa Union, now another "ghost town" in the desert, but formerly an
important commercial center, especially famous for its restaurants and its prostitutes.

By the turn of the century, living and working conditions in the nitrate mines, although far from
ideal, had undoubtedly improved with respect to those described by Blake in 1837. Semper and
Michels (1908: 100-04) make the following state ments:

In the pampa one works from sunrise to sunset ... At the hour of most heat? from 11 to
1?the laborers return to the oficina, and generally around 4 in the afternoon, they take a
second period of rest corresponding to the hour of the onces (Chilean afternoon meal).
The workers must strictly observe their hours in the oficinas, as all phases of elaboration
are intimately related . . . Most of the laborers work in turns of 12 hours. The period of
rest at midday for the workers operating the ma chine is from one to one and a half hours.

Wages have gone up during these last years . . . There is no work for women . . . No legal
dispositions exist concerning laborers' contracts, particularly relating to the notice which a
laborer must give in order to leave the plant. There have been rebellions in the pampa
against the European managers and the office employees because of their harsh and
violent treatment of the laborers. ... In all the oficinas wages are paid in money to the
laborers only once a month, corresponding to the amount due to them from the previous
month. However, daily they may obtain fichas (similar to round pocker chips, with their
values indicated on the surface) corresponding in value to the amount due to them. The
fichas, a sort of money, used for making transactions in the company store, are of metal or
bakelite. On the other hand, this system of paying wages has been the cause of some
oficinas having unscrupulously exploited the workers . . . In the nitrate industry, nearly all
wages are fixed in such a manner that they allow the laborers who are sober and
economical sufficient means for leading a comfortable life . . . Drunkenness has developed
to an alarming extent in spite of the laws passed to suppress it . . .
 The housing offered by the oldest oficinas were miserable huts, made from used sacks,
fragments of corrugated iron or with walls of salt. The more recent oficinas have true
camps with wide streets and extensive dwellings, made with corrugated iron, or with
peices of cakes of salt. Married workers are given two rooms, while single men generally
live several together in one room. The interior arrangement is generally neglected and
dirty . . . The food of the Chilean is much better and more nutritious than that which a
German worker permits himself. At midday as well as in the afternoon, the common
laborer, apart from beans and vegetables, asks for at least a plate of meat. Many laborers
eat meat for a third time at the hour of onces. Tea, sugar, canned fruit, fish and meat are
consumed in large quantities . . . The company stores have a large assortment of domestic
articles, clothing, and even luxury articles for the wives of the workers. (Translation ours).

World War I temporarily increased the production and consumption of nitrates for explosives and
fertilizers, but Chile lacked sufficient means to ship its products to Europe. The sale of needed raw
materials such as oil was restricted by the Allies, and the British were able to liquidate the German
owned mines. During this period, Fritz Haber dis covered the process of producing "synthetic
nitrate" (the fixation of nitrogen from the air). After the war, prices fell. This together with the
post war depression and the results of the Haber discovery, which meant that nitrate could be
produced as cheaply or cheaper in the United States and Europe, were the principal factors in the
process leading to the close of the boom era of the nitrates of northern Chile (Couyoumdjian
1974-75). The oficinas of Tarapaca and Antofagasta began to close, and the railway and tramlines
fell into disuse. As a result of the cessation of employment, large numbers of people either drifted
back to their regions of origin or sought other work in the north, particularly in the copper industry
which took over nitrate's position in Chile's economy during the 1920s, and has remained the
principal activity in the Atacama Desert since that time.

Information on living conditions in the 1920s in the canton Bolivia may be gained from
descriptions of oficinas contained in a work by Valenzuela (1926). The oficina Filomena, for ex
ample, owned by the Lautaro Nitrate Co., Ltd., and located at km 151 on the Antofagasta-Bolivia
railway employed 1500 laborers and had a total population of 4000 including the population living
in two camps situated at some distance from the main settlement (Valenzuela, 98-99). A summary
of Valenzuela's information is presented in the following:

The majority of the houses for married laborers were made of corrugated iron, a few were
of adobe. They had two or three rooms. The houses containing rooms for single men were
of corrugated iron too. These houses possessed no bathrooms nor running water. On the
other hand, the house of the administration (for the manager and some highly placed
employees) was composed of 43 bathrooms, had two large dining halls, and a garden with
a tennis court. The construction was of wood with interior walls covered with reeds and
clay. The houses of the married employees had a bathroom, five or six rooms, and a patio.
This oficina also possessed a pulperia (company store) with departments for the sale of: a)
 clothing and textiles ("ranging in price from the most expensive to the cheapest"); b) dry
goods (flour, sugar, etc.) and articles for sewing; c) fruits and vegetables; d) meat ("well
kept and hygenic"); e) coal, charcoal, etc.; 0 wine, beer, and gaseous drinks ("consumption
is restricted and controlled by the Social Wellfare Service of the oficina"); g) bread? with a
bakery section ("clean"), and also h) a taylor shop. Other facilities offered were a theater,
a philarmonic orchestra, a public library, a school, a hotel, a football ground, a cinema
functioning three times a week, a police force, a permanent doctor, his assistant, and a
mid wife. Medical visits and medicines were free of charge to the workers.

Out of the 170 nitrate plants said to have existed at the beginning of the present century, in
Tarapaca region none is operating today. In Antofagasta, two plants remain using new systems of
recovery (the Guggenheim process modified by the use of solar evaporation) which permit the
exploitation of low-grade caliche: 1) Maria Elena, situated in the northern part of the Region,
about 72 km inland from the port of Tocopilla. Production began in 1927. It has a total population
of some 9,400. 2) Pedro de Valdivia, situated 30 km to the south of Maria Elena. This plant began
operating in 1931. Today it has more than 10,000 inhabitants. Drinking water is supplied in pipe
lines from the highlands to the east, but many laborers' dwellings still have no running water.
Industrial water is provided by the Loa river or from wells. Considering the great variety of
activities in which the inhabitants of these oficinas are engaged, and the facilities which exist?
apart from the obvious ones relating to the extraction and production of nitrate and its by-
products? it may be said that they represent true urban settlements, artificially imposed on a
natural environment, which must be regarded as unfavorable to large-scale, permanent
occupation. Supplies must necessarily be provided from outside. As far as settlement pat tern is
concerned, these towns share the general lay-out of the oficinas of the past. While it is not the
purpose of this study to analyze these subjects, a description of some of the main structural
features of these towns is useful to put the present effort in context. The towns are laid out in a
pat tern reflecting a model of ridged class structure. Streets containing nearly identical houses for
the laborers and their families, as well as the special houses used by single workers, are placed
apart from those reserved for office personnel, those of the latter group being larger and better
made than the houses of the former. Well away from the abodes of the workers are the large and
comfort able houses of the professional-administrative staff, the largest and most expensive with
respect to construction materials and general conveniences being reserved for the administrator
of the oficina and his family. Industrial structures of different kinds are placed at the outskirts of
the town as are the dumps for trash pertaining to household as well as industrial activities, the
latter mainly being concentrated as the large artificial hills known as re tortas, a feature
characteristic of the entire pampa salitrera.

The non-industrial activities of the towns are symbolized by elements such as the church, schools,
the company store as well as different kinds of commercial establishments which supply the daily
necessities of the population, a library, a cinema, a hospital, laboratories for research connected
with the mining activities, casinos or restaurants (graded according to the social status of their
users), guest houses (likewise graded according to the importance of their respective visitors), a
post office, a police station, quarters for the fire brigade, a private radio station, a museum, and
grounds for engaging in different kinds of sports (tennis, football, basketball, etc.), and a
swimming pool.

Apart from these two oficinas and the mining activities taking place around them, the Chilean
pampa salitrera is characterized today by ghost towns (dismantled and/or sacked in different
degrees) with their surfaces littered with fragments of household articles, remains of clothing,
food, paper, broken glass, and many other items used by their former inhabitants. The arid climate
allows for optimum preservation of organic material. Consequently artifacts and animal and plant
remains can be recovered in amounts which may usually be considered suitable for a quantitative
evaluation. Other interesting evidence of former life in the pampa is constituted by the
cemeteries, no more in use, and sometimes sacked but which in many instances conserve their
monuments and paper flowers in good condition and the inscriptions on their tombs perfectly
legible.

The Research Program: Stage I

As Stage I of the research program was exploratory in nature aimed largely at recognizing data and
methodologies which would make further study and analysis easier, it was begun with the
following hypotheses to test:

1 Because of the unique situation of preservation in the desert, survey and excavation in middens,
structures, and other features should reveal a large variety of artifacts related to a large variety of
activities (apart from those related to technology).

2 A research strategy combining the techniques and methods of different disciplines (archaeology,
documentary history, ethnography, oral history, and correspondence) should permit not only to
illuminate evidence obtained from written records but also to gain knowledge pertaining to
different aspects of the lifeway of the former occupants of the nitrate oficinas.

3 Historical documentation demonstrate that the oficinas were occupied within a limited period of
time. Therefore dateable artifacts should tend to reflect this period.

4 If artifacts recovered from different oficinas could be analysed in a manner suitable for
establishing activity/ behavior groups similar to those developed by historical archaeologists in the
United States, then on the basis of an adequately designed research it should be possible to define
a "pattern" characteristic of the occupation sites of the nitrate industry.

5 Oral evidence suggests that domestic refuse was generally discarded away from its location of
use ("secondary refuse" as defined by Schiffer 1977), and oral evidence and historic sources tend
to place a great importance on the use of products of foreign origin (wines, canned food, ceramics,
cigarettes, etc.). Therefore the archaeological record should reveal a high proportion of imported
goods.
6 Oral evidence suggests that strict differences in status were characteristic of the cultural system.
Therefore the artifacts recovered from different sites (or part of sites) should reflect these
differences.

Documentary Research

With regard to the general ranges of documentary sources found to be of assistance (or potential
assistance) to the present research, the following main categories can be established.

1 Published materials: As no previous archaeology had been undertaken in nitrate oficinas, Stage I
of the project was partly dedicated to the search for general background material including the
assessment of the potential utility of published works available such as the results of historic,
economic, hydrological and geological research. Although there exists a relative abundance of
literature particularly dealing with historical, economic, technological, and political aspects of the
nitrate industry, only a limited part of this seemed useful to the purposes of the present
investigation. On the other hand, different types of published evidence were also consulted,
including maps, "albums" containing photographs from the period (people, machinery, housing,
etc.), and life in general in different oficinas (number of inhabitants, number of houses of different
types, facilities in terms of amusement, recreation, education, etc.) which were published yearly
during the first quarter of this century, as well as newspapers from the period (see, for example,
Valenzuela 1926; SilvaNarro 1909-1919; ElMer curio de Antofagasta, 1900-1930). Advertisements
for many different products and news items found in newspapers as well as in the "albums" and
"guidebooks" proved to be fruitful sources for gaining information on artifacts pertaining to the
archaeological part of the research. A limited amount of fiction such as a recently published novel
based on historic research also proved to be of interest (Cortes 1977).

2 Archival materials: A second category of documents that constitutes a potential source of

information of great value is to be found in regional and national archives, and also abroad,
especially in England. These materials may be divided into the following classes: a) parish and civil
registers recording baptisms, marriages, and burials. In the end these sources will yield substantial
information on migration to the nitrate centers, as well as much other data on vital characteristics
(relating to studies on aspects of demography, family reconstitution, etc.). It should also be
possible to relate the study of these materials to that of recording the data on the monuments in
the abandoned cemeteries in the nitrate zone, b) "Company Books," constituted by thousands of
papers, isolated or contained in the "archives" of individual oficinas or groups of oficinas. These
types of documents can also still be recovered archaeologically in the closed oficinas. They often
contain detailed information on an abundance of subjects; such as administration, economy,
technology, health, accidents, origin of laborers and employees, wages and salaries, education,
state of repair of housing, religion, crime and conflict, social and trade networks, subsistence,
nationality of work ers, and statistics of all sorts. The study of these types of data should be of
fundamental interest to many disciplines, but so far they have either not been analyzed or, if used,
they have not been related to community studies. A preliminary assessment of these sources
indicates that? like the church and civil records, and in conjunction with these, they will yield
important information on many aspects of life in the nitrate oficinas. However, the amount of
time, effort, and personnel required for tabulation and analysis mean that their usefulness at this
time remains potential. In view of the excellent preservation of artifacts in the desert
environment, it is expected that at least a large pro portion of the data which remain to be gained
from the study of archival records will be reflected in the archaeological context.

3 A third type of collection consists of maps, plans, photographs, private letters, fichas, and other
materials. In Antofagasta, for example, the Municipal Archives possess a valuable collection of
plans and maps relating to the nitrate industry, that? at the present time? Has been partly
cataloged but not used in any systematic study relating to the mitrate communities.

Oral Information

Oral evidence or personal recollections obtained from former residents of the nitrate plants have
proved to be promising sources of information, which not only serve to illuminate official records
but also provide a mass of information which is not present in the official data.

he search for informants was initiated through letters to the local and national press in which the
purpose of the research was explained. This resulted in a series of letters from former residents of
the oficinas which were of special interest to this research, as well as from others who had lived in
nitrate plants elsewhere. Many of these letters already contained personal recollections on the
general living, working conditions in the plants, and information on life in specific oficinas. This
information and other subjects of particular interest to the research then served as a basis for the
elaboration of a questionnaire which was sent to each of the individuals who had answered the
original letters. With some of these informants an extensive correspondence was eventually
established which proved to be highly fruitful. Some of the informants sent newspaper clippings
and other material which they thought would be of interest. One person also became so
interested in the project that he made a special journey to see the excavated materials. With his
cooperation it was possible to interpret many of the objects which had presented problems, to
correct erroneous interpretations, as well as gain new insights into how objects were used and
valued by the residents. The interviews held with this informant about the dis carded artifacts,
food residues, bits of minerals, etc. also introduced new topics for discussion which consequently
proved to be of great value for the research.

Later, contacts were established with informants still living in the nitrate zone, especially in the
two surviving plants, some of whom are old enough to remember "when people would live in
tents or huts made from old sacking and scrap." These interviews now include the use of a tape
recorder.

In sum, oral history research and correspondence has resulted in the recovery of information on
many subjects including the general quality of life, leisure time activities, indulgences, patterns of
refuse disposal, domestic life, origin of workers and employees, clothing, working conditions,
household possessions, education, the presence of domestic animals and pets (cats, dogs, guinea
pigs, chickens, ducks, pigs and goats were mentioned), food consumption, social, economic and
ethnic discrimination, and also data relating to specific oficinas in terms of location and function of
ruins, location of trash middens, and other features.

The great majority of the informants apparently look at the past with objectivity. Most individuals
tend to remember a great amount of detail about the routine of their working, social and domestic
life; they also remember events which broke the everyday routine. Preconditions needed to be
met for individuals to remember included that he/she understood the subject and that it was
found to be interesting or relevant. In general the interviews and the correspondence display
internal consistency, and apparent inconsistencies may often be explained in terms of the type of
work in which the informant was engaged or his/hers position within the local hierarchy. Former
laborers, for example, tend to be critical of the working conditions, the poor housing standards,
overcrowding, the sharing of outside water taps and bathrooms with cold water only, the system
of payment in fichas, and so on. Office employees or others having held a more privileged position
as far as social and economic status is concerned, on the other hand, like to talk at great length
about the availability of imported cigarettes, French wines and champagne, concerts, balls, and
"graceful living" in general.

Further work in the collecting of oral evidence will be oriented specifically toward obtaining
memory data related to objects of material culture. The ethnographic ("living archaeology") part
of the study is still at its initial and exploratory stage, but systematic research is being planned in
one of the mining towns mentioned above for the purpose of gaining comparative evidence.

The Archaeological Evidence

The initial part of the project was devoted to surveying a number of closed oficinas and to provide
a surface collection which could be used for establishing a classificatory scheme, at least in a
preliminary manner. On the basis of the surveys, it was decided to start excavation in the oficina
known as Jose Santos Ossa.

Jose Santos Ossa is situated at 1360 m above sea level, at km 132 along the Antofagasta-Bolivia
railroad. The railway station bearing the same name served for the loading and unloading of goods
and materials. Its total surface including the nitrate fields was 12,240,000 m2. The plant began
operating in 1910. Up to 1923, it had produced 5,873,821 quintals of salitre. In 1911 (Silva Narro
1911: 280-81), apart from the technological equipment including a place for the exploitation of
iodine, an electricity plant and two wells, this oficina had a school, a hotel, a medical doctor, a
pharmacist, a musical band, and a slaughterhouse which supplied all the oficinas belonging to the
"Compania de Salitres de Antofagasta." About 1924, it had 22 km of tram and railway line to
transport the caliche, and five locomotives with 75 cars. The living quarters of the laborers were
located in the northern part of the settlement and consisted of six streets formed by four blocks of
houses. The settlement is reported to have had 368 dwellings for families and 102 rooms for single
men (Figure 4). Other facilities included a theatre, a house for the fire brigade, and a maternity
clinic (Valenzuela 1926: 91). In 1926, apart from the machinery and other technological
equipment, the existence of a library is also mentioned (El Mercurio, December 1926). A map from
1926 (Figure 4) shows some of these features and others. This oficina had between 600 and 700
workers. As a result of the general crisis affecting the nitrate industry, the plant was closed in
1926. Today the structures which remain are in ruins, and some have been dismantled to the
extent that only the foundations exist.

Site Formation

With respect to the cultural and natural activities responsible for the general formation of the
archaeological record of Jose Santos Ossa, on the evidence of informants and estimates made
during the research, the following processes can be assumed to have operated (see Schiffer 1972,
1977; South 1979):

1 "Secondary refuse" formation symbolized by the existence of more or less extended dumps or
middens (some times deposited in pits dug for industrial purposes), particularly of a domestic
nature, situated at some distance from the places the materials they contain were in use.
"Adjacent secondary refuse" includes: (a) the retort a consisting of industrial waste, and (b) the
remains of bones and other parts of animals left in an area close to the ruins of a structure which
seems to have been used for butchering. Jose Santos Ossa had no cemetery, but as noted
mortuary behavior is evidenced in the cemeteries of other nitrate plants.

2 A planned and gradual process of abandonment is known to have been partly responsible for
the formation of the sites. Oral evidence suggests that few still usable, port able objects were
abandoned.

3 The types of processes which Schiffer (1977) terms "secondary use," "recycling," and "lateral
use," largely connected with the organized sale (as well as sacking) of materials in connection with
abandonment, including particularly the dismantling of roofs (corrugated iron), wooden materials
(door and window frames, floors, etc.), window glass, and occasionally adobe bricks. These
activities are probably also largely responsible for the great amount of surface litter characteristic
of the oficina outside the original refuse areas. It is interesting to note that former industrial waste
is being re-used today as a consequence of improved technology involving the use of low-grade
caliche. With respect to heavy industrial equipment, the majority (tram lines, railway lines,
machinery, and so on) has been re moved and sold and consequently subjected to one or more of
the processes mentioned here.

4 The destructive effects on the deposits of the actions of human feet and the traffic of vehicles.

5 Natural activities responsible for the alteration or re deposition of materials would include: (a)
earthquakes, (b) erosion, and (c) the wind displacing light objects.

6 As far as "conservatory processes" are concerned, little public action has been taken, although
the future establishment of a "Nitrate Museum" is occasionally mentioned in the press. Some
materials are kept by private institutions, and particularly fichas and papers of various kinds are
objects in great demand by collectors. In this connection it is interesting to repeat? what was
mentioned above? that the entire contents of the plaza of a recently closed and dis mantled
oficina has been transferred to the campus of the Universidad de Antofagasta, Antofagasta, and
that a car riage, a tram car, and a locomotive, from another oficina now adorn the campus of the
Universidad del Norte, in Antofagasta. As far as the archaeological project is concerned, an
attempt will be made to conserve and protect "key objects.

The majority of the finds discussed in this paper would have resulted from discard and could be
defined as material discarded away from the place it was in use, or "secondary refuse" (Schiffer
1972, 1977; South 1979).

Analysis of Excavated Material

The locality of Jose Santos Ossa was first di vided by means of a grid system into four large units.
During the initial surveying, tests had been made in various parts of the locality, and it had been
decided to start excavation in a large trash midden (Site 1) with a total surface of 180 x 80 m. Its
southern edge was located 100 m to the north of the workers' dwellings (Site 2), which were easily
identified on the basis of documentary records (Figure 4). The midden was littered with broken
artifacts which indicated its domestic nature, and it was therefore assumed that it would contain
the trash pertaining to the before mentioned workers' houses and that this would reveal much
about the cultural material which had been available to their occupants.

he present report will center on the preliminary results of the analysis of material from one of the
cuts (Cut 2) carried out in the midden. Cut 2 measured 2 x 1 m. Excavation was by 10 cm arbitrary
levels reaching a maximum depth of 1,90 m. Part of the trash had been deposited in a trench
located along the eastern edge of the midden, which? as was later learned from an informant?
had been excavated for industrial purposes. The only "natural stratification" observed consisted of
a layer of straw. All the excavated material was weighed in the field, and then sifted through a 0.5
cm mesh screen. The material which went through the screen was consequently discarded.
Although the material recovered was initially analyzed by levels, no significant separation
according to this criterion could be found. Firmly dated materials, especially newspapers indicated
that although the deposits do not appear to have been disturbed? except possibly by domestic
animals when the midden was in use? some mixture had taken place to the extent that
newspapers and other documents pertaining to the years between 1921 and 1925 were
distributed indiscriminately in both upper and lower levels. It was consequently decided to com
bine Cut 2 into a single analytic unit.

A total of 385,353 kg of material was recovered from Cut 2, including a wide range of artifacts. Out
of this, 125,400 kg (32.54%) went through the 0.5 cm mesh screen (Table 1).

The classification and description of this great quantity and variety of material have presented
many problems. One aim of the project was to develop a classificatory scheme which reflected as
much as possible cultural reality and the different kinds of activities represented by the artifacts
and other materials recovered, and which, at the same time, would permit the use of all the
evidence available (archaeological, documentary and oral) in the interpretation of these data. A
classificatory scheme based on material or the formal attributes used in prehistoric archaeology,
for example, was not satisfactory. Whether to weigh or count or both presented and still presents
a problem. The follow ing procedures were finally adopted. Everything was weighed and many
items were counted. Then everything recovered? apart from the sediments, etc. which had
disappeared through the screen? was sorted in terms of material (wood, glass, leather, metal,
paper, rubber, stone, shell, bone, ceramics, and so on). It was also decided to include groups
designated "food residue" and "non-artifact/non-subsistence flora" and "fauna" (animal fur,
coprolites, feathers, straw, etc.), and others (Table 2). Another breakdown was then made in
terms of artifacts and non/artifacts. 35,712 kg (9.27%) of the material yielded were artifacts, and
57,130 kg (14.83%), for example, were remains of food including animal bone (61.87%), shellfish
(2.91%), and fish bone (1.87%).

15,154 artifacts (or fragments of artifacts) distributed as shown in Table 3 were identified. Paper
and cardboard, for instance, amounted to 5,053 items (33.00% of total quantity of artifacts) weigh
ing 2,822 kg (10.04% of total artifact weight). This material included newspapers, books, labels,
cigarette packs, personal and business letters, medical prescriptions, playing cards, photographs,
fireworks, envelopes, luggage tickets, and so on. The next breakdown was made within the artifact
groupings based on "material" in terms of criteria such as form, function, color, method of
manufacture, or a combination of these or other attributes which seemed useful. The categories
established for "glass", for example, included window glass, bottles (further subdivided as to form,
color, function, method of manufacture, contents, and marks), jars, miscellaneous table ware
(wine glass, tumbler, etc.), and so on. Paper and cardboard labels, on the other hand, were sub
divided into "food" and "non food," and later sorted in terms of type of product represented,
brand or any other significant attribute. Metal was first subdivided into iron and steel, lead,
copper, brass, and unidentified scrap. Iron and steel formed the most important category with
respect to weight and quantity of objects, including buckles, buttons, hooks, knives, wire, nails,
cans, and so on. Nails (wire and machine cut) were the highest percentage (72.03%).

As one of the goals of our classificatory scheme was to lend cultural significance to the material
recovered in the sense of relating it to human behavior and eventually to establish "patterns"
along the lines developed by Stanley South (1977), the next step was to make a functional division
of this assemblage. As a result, a total of 13 "Activity/Behavior Groups" based on counts were
established. For purposes of description and statistics, these in turn were broken into classes,
categories, varieties, and sub varieties. A synthesized version of this scheme is presented in Table
4. It should be noted that the groupings listed present a first approximation which can be
reorganized in the future when necessary. For ex ample, a separate "Activities Group," has not
been defined? as is current in North American classificatory schemes. As percentages are based on
counts, it has obviously been necessary to exclude those materials which were not counted but
only weighed (bits of minerals, cattle bone, coprolites, and other items). It is also important to
point out that the majority of the objects recovered from Cut 2 were in a broken state and that the
quantitative analysis presented here has been performed by counting these fragments. So far, no
attempt to determine estimates of whole artifacts or other items once present has been made.
Consequently, the data presented are not really comparable (total quantity of crown caps, for
example, has been given a value equal to total number of bottle fragments, total number of pieces
of newspaper, total number of whole nails, and so on).

Beyond the data collected from Cut 2 (Site 1), test pits were also made in the workers' dwellings
(Site 2), located to the south of the midden (Figure 1). In spite of having been dismantled with
respect to roofs, door and window frames, window glass, etc., these houses are relatively well
preserved (except for one row which has been entirely razed), and the number and size of rooms
and the general layout could be studied. The finds from the sample excavations, however, seem to
be objects deposited when the houses were dismantled. On the other hand, specialized
distribution of artifacts were found in a test square excavated in a midden located to the south
east of Site 2. The nearly exclusive contents of manure, bones, hooves, fur, horns, etc. pertaining
to cattle, sheep, goat, and pig indicated that this dump (Site 3) had functioned as a place where
the unusable parts of butchered animals were discarded. This midden was located adjacent to the
ruins of a relatively large square structure which apparently had functioned as the slaughterhouse
(Site 4). Remains of walls enclosing a rectangular area located close to the assumed
slaughterhouse and characterized by large quantities of manure suggested that this would have
been the corral or pen (Site 5) where the animals were kept before being butchered. Test pits
were also dug within a large house ruin (Site 6) placed in the southern part of the locality. This
house was quite different from the workers' dwellings with respect to size, general layout,
conveniences, and the quality of the materials used in the construction of it.

Artifacts recovered included medical equipment, medicine bottles, vaccination forms, and
application forms for laborers seeking employment. The only dated material consisted of unused
printed forms indicating the year "192 . It was first thought that this might be the maternity clinic
referred to in written sources, but if this were the case, the clinic must have offered other services
too. The retorta (Site 7) is located in the western portion of the area forming a mountain of
industrial waste. To the north, east, and west of this feature can be seen the marks of the railway
and tramlines which had been used to transport materials to this and other sites of the oficina. A
brief examination was also made of some domestic mid dens situated to the east and west
respectively of the zone characterized by structures and the retorta. These deposits had a surface
much less extensive that that of Site 1, but surface debris consisted of a relatively large amount of
foreign ceramics (Figure 5). The materials recovered from these sites have not yet been analyzed
in detail.

Chronology

The exploratory excavation made in a domestic midden, Site 1, Cut 2, at the oficina Jose Santos
Ossa provided some sharp time markers. These consisted of fragments of newspapers, different
types of forms, receipts, and other dated items. The years shown on these documents are 1921,
1922, 1923, 1924, 1925, and 1992. The remainder of the material recovered cannot be dated with
the same degree of precision. So far, no reply has been received from the various manufacturers
consulted about the dating of their products. Many of the objects found are not being produced
today (cigarettes, candles, matches, gaseous drinks, for example), while others continue although
in different kinds of packs, cans, etc. On the other hand, it has been possible to confirm the
occurrence of many of the products at the period indicated, partly through advertisements in
newspapers and magazines, and partly through the evidence of in formants. As mentioned above,
however, the firmly dated items do not allow us to establish a fine chronology for the objects with
which they were associated, as some mixture of deposits had obviously taken place. On the other
hand, no objects appeared that could be securely dated to post 1925. On the evidence at hand, for
Cut 2, then, it can be suggested that the materials recovered date to the last years of the
occupation period of the settlement. Confirmation, however, is obviously a matter for the future.

Discussion

Above has been presented a list of "Activity/ Behavior Groups" which can be established in a
preliminary manner on the basis of the material excavated in Cut 2. Following some of this
evidence will be discussed in terms of what it may tell about the lives of the people who lived at
Jose Santos Ossa.

The Household

The highest percentage is the domestic or house hold group, and the largest class is represented
by "food residues" (19,880 items or 84.81% of the total) (Table 5). As noted, cattle bone was not
counted, but as far as weight is concerned this category constitutes 59.50% of the total weight of
food remains (Tables 2 and 5). Apart from the evidence on food and drink consumption (cans,
packs, labels, bottles, etc.), the "Household Group" also includes other classes of evidence of
domestic life, such as artifacts of food preparation, service, and consumption; matches (9.95% of
the total) represented by boxes, matchsticks, and paper wrappings; candles (0.05% of the total)
rep resented by paper wrappings and fuel (burnt coal and charcoal).

According to some of the informants, many im ported canned food products were available
including: pork and frankfurters from Germany, English sausages, Swiss evaporated milk, Canadian
salmon, Spanish anchovies, Portuguese sardines, and even Russian caviar. The general availability
of these foods is also indicated by lists of products which arrived at the oficina, and by the
advertisements which appeared in the press of the epoch, here products such as these were
specifically offered to the oficinas salitreras, but archaeology provided little evidence of their
presence. Most of the canned foods were made in Chile.

Archaeologically little imported packed food was identified. The most likely explanation for this is
that the laborers preferred other types of food, an idea which is supported by evidence provided
by informants, and to some extent by documentary sources. For the main meal of the day, the
laborer appears to have consumed dishes such as the typical Chilean "cazuela," a kind of soup
prepared with different vegetables and relatively cheap cuts of meat like the types used for stews.
The animal bones, especially of cattle, show evidence of the use of these kinds of cuts. According
to in formants, beef was generally abundant, the cattle being brought either from southern Chile
by sea to Antofagasta, from where it travelled by train to the oficinas, or by land from Salta in
Argentina. With respect to this, archaeological evidence yielded a receipt addressed to the "Chief
of the Pulperia" relating to the purchase and sale of cattle from Salta. Noodles (pasta), split peas,
lentils, and dried beans were also consumed in large quantities according to informants, and
residues of these foods appeared in the archaeological record (Table 5). "Mote" or wheat kernels
were also found and would surely have formed part of the dishes boiled with dried beans and
vegetables. The consumption of "mote" with "huesillos," a sweetened drink prepared from wheat
kernels boiled with dried apricots is also indicated by the archaeological evidence (Table 6), thus
suggesting a southern origin of part of the community. This drink is still very popular in southern
Chile, but scarcely known in the north. Informants also referred to the availability of fish and
shellfish, statements which were supported by the archaeological record too (Table 5).

As shown in Table 6, a considerable variety of fresh fruits were also consumed.

With respect to drink, informants told us that coffee was commonly drunk in the mornings, but
Cut 2 yielded only evidence of tea. Tea represented 78.46% of all packed foods, and 59.00% of
canned foods. The preferred brand was evidently HORNIMAN'S." The labels bear the following
text: "Cheap tea existing since 1826. It is imported and is produced in cans and packs." (Translation
Ceramics used in the setting of the table amounted to 100 fragments, nearly half of which (49
pieces) could not be identified as to form. The remainder was distributed as shown in Table 7.
Only 16 fragments of the total (16.00%) belong ing to different sets had some decoration, the
remainder was plain white. Little floral decoration appears, and narrow bands at the rim are
distinctive decorative elements. No marks were found.

To judge from the material yielded by Cut 2, only objects of relatively cheap earthenware were
used. Informants said that although "every one could buy imported tableware or any other
imported product," many laborers' families would prefer using metal utensils (cups, plates, bowls)
with enamelled surfaces "similar to those in which the 3rd class meals would be served in the local
eating house." However, no objects of this type were found except for a kettle for boiling water.

Indulgences

As far as indulgences were concerned, Cut 2 only provided evidence of the use of alcohol and
cigarettes. No distilled beverage was identified, and no evidence of imported spirits appeared
even though informants frequently refer to the consumption of French and Italian wines
("Chianti," "Marsala"), champagne ("Veuve Clicquot," "Cordon Rouge"), liqueurs ("Benedictine,"
"Cointreau"), whiskey (Scotch, Canadian, and American), brandy ("Martell," "Napoleon"), English
gin, and port wine from Portugal. These products were also advertised for sale in newspapers from
the epoch in question. The lack of im ported drink, however, may be explained if?as has been
assumed? the midden excavated represents the waste from the workers' dwellings located
nearby. Informants leave no doubt that hard drinking and drunkenness were common practices
among the nitrate workers. Bolivian laborers, for example, are said to have man ufactured their
own chicha. Cheaper Chilean wines are said to have come in barrels. Perhaps not much was drunk
at home. Only beer and wine were for sale to the laborers in the company store, and even the sale
of these was restricted. It was illegal to bring alcohol into the "camps." Archaeological evidence of
this was actually found in a booklet, which contains the rules of the "Compama de Salitre de
Antofagasta Oficina Jose Santos Ossa," stating the following:

As a guarantee for the tools which the plant supplies all the laborers must deposit $16,
which will be paid back on returning the tools. ... It is strictly prohibited to introduce
alcohol. Persons contravening this order or giving aid to others will be immediately
expelled from the Company. (Translation ours).

Legal drinking, apart from beer and wine, was reserved for those who occupied the upper levels in
the local hierarchy. To judge from the archaeological evidence, the only alcohol consumed was
wine and beer, and the only brands identified are Chilean. Fragments of beer bottles, wine bottles,
labels, corks, and crown caps provide the evidence. The consumption of wine apparently exceeded
that of beer. To judge from the marks on the crown caps that sealed the beer bottles, most of the
beer came from the town of Antofagasta (marked "CCU"). According to informants, beer and wine
bottles were generally returned to the dealers.

Smoking cigarettes was the most popular form of tobacco according to the archeological evidence,
which includes butts, packs, and seals. In fact, no other evidence of use of tobacco was recovered,
although informants mentioned cigar smoking (Habana cigars such as "Partagas"). The evidence on
cigarettes consisted of a total of 309 pieces, 170 of which were butts, 46 seals, and 93 packs or
fragments of packs (Fig. 5). Out of the packs, 81 could be identified as to brand (Table 8). Of the
butts, 13 (7.65%) had a mouthpiece. Fur thermore, four butts showed evidence of brand, namely
"FARO," "DERBY," "STEREO," and "BUEN TONO," respectively. Two of these brands were not
represented among the packs. With one exception, none of the brands listed in Table 8 are being
manufactured today. The exception is "DERBY", manufacture of which was begun again during
1980.

With respect to the cigarette brands identified, it is interesting to note that one informant talked
at length about the use of imported brands such as "Capstan," "Woodbine," "Three Castles,"
"State Express," and "Abdulla," but none of these were recognized. The large majority of the
brands listed in Table 8 were of Chilean manufacture and mostly represent the cheaper and more
popular brands. Exceptions to this seem to be "DERBY," which according to the text written on the
pack had a "golden mouthpiece," and "KISS ME," manufactured by the "CUBA AMERICAN
TOBACCO Co., NEW YORK."

Sickness

As regards sickness, to judge from the archaeological record, the medicines used by the
community of Jose Santos Ossa were products which promised to relieve headaches or were for
"requites and general weakness," "the grippe and intoxication," "tuberculosis and inflammation,"
and "irritation of the chest, bronchitis." Cut 2 also yielded a plaster of the brand "ALCOCKS," used
for "muscular pains." According to one in formant, this had been a very popular remedy, and most
effective. We also found "MENTHOLA TUM," "for relieving colds, rheumatism and neuralgia;" a
remedy used to alleviate the suffering caused by corns, and part of a devise used for clysters.
According to one informant, a special remedy used by Bolivian laborers against rheumatism
consisted in letting their dogs sleep with them in bed. Informants were inclined to emphasize the
occurrence among the nitrate workers of "muscular pains" caused by hard work and "pains in the
chest" caused by the amount of dust inhaled. It is interesting to note that statistics from the years
1936 and 1937 pertaining to another oficina show that the most frequent diseases occurring
among the population were rheumatism, problems of the respiratory system, and grippe.
Informants frequently referred to an extremely high mortality rate among children. According to
one individual, some 40% of the children died within a short time of birth. He also told us, as an
example, that his mother had nine children, only three of whom survived to adulthood. This type
of evidence can eventually be checked against civil and church records, but it seems to be
supported by the high percentage of children's tombs in the cemeteries of the nitrate zone in
general. For this same reason, it was noted that there would usually be a person in each oficina
authorized to "administer the water," a kind of preliminary baptism. If the child survived, the
priest would later arrive to perform the appropriate rites of the church. Medical doctors were
supposed to visit the oficinas, which had no permanent doc tor, twice a month, but according to
informants this rule was not strictly adhered to. Jose Santos Ossa, however, had a resident doctor
(Silva Narro 1911: 280; 1919: 323).

Recreation and Amusement

Informants specially remember recreational activities such as football, concerts, cinema,

occasional dancing, card playing, and billiards, and archaeology has demonstrated that people did
play cards and lottery and that they went to the cinema, because finds included playing cards, a
small piece of cardboard with numbers which had obviously been part of a lottery game (Figure 5),
and a used cinema ticket. Other evidence of how the members of this community spent their
leisure time includes fragments of books (a love story and a thriller), national magazines,
fireworks, and serpentines. The latter, according to informants, as well as advertisements which
occur in the press of the epoch, were particularly used at weddings, saints' days, at New Year and
the National Day celebrations. A single fragment of a grammophone record was also recovered.
One informant said that the unmarried employees would have at their disposal a place where they
could listen to music ("the latest tunes") played on the grammophone or v/ trola. Perhaps some
laborer had also possessed a grammophone.

Archaeology provided evidence of children's games too. They would play with "marbles," dolls,
and lead soldiers (Figure 5), and they also had kites. Informants told us that the latter were very
popular in the nitrate settlements, but other types of toys were not commonly possessed by the
children of the laborers.

Education

Another aspect of the lives of the children was school. Written evidence informs us that Jose
Santos Ossa had a school, and that in 1923 school enrollment totaled 49 children. The school has
not yet been located, but Cut 2 yielded some evidence of children's education: parts of a "HISTORY
OF CHILE," a book on how to learn to spell, note books similar to those still used in Chile by school
children, and writing chalk. It is also possible that the ink from an ink bottle, pencils, and pens
(marked "PERRY & CO. LONDON. J. MASON B'HAM," "R. ESTER BROOK & COS.," and "THE
RIFLEMAN'S PEN"), and the blotting paper found in Cut 2 were used at the school (Fig ure 5). All
these materials were included in the 4 4 Communication/Education'' group.

On the basis of the cultural material recovered in Cut 2, much more could be said in a preliminary
manner about the community of Jose Santos Ossa, but as mentioned above, this topic and others
will be developed in the thesis currently being written by the junior author.

Concluding Remarks

Nitrate oficinas were settlements which were rapidly created in a zone where little human
permanent settlement had previously existed. They were created with the sole objective of
performing functions related to the nitrate industry, which naturally had to include the providing
of facilities, initially in terms of some basic necessities for the employees and laborers, such as
food, water, and shelter. Later, along with improved technology, the working and living conditions
improved. As a result of the discovery of synthetic nitrate, after World War I the demand for
natural nitrate fell, and oficinas began to close, a process which has continued until present times.
The nitrate industry might be regarded as a system made up of: 1) "towns" or settlements which
functioned particularly at two levels: a) as refineries, and b) as living quarters of the staff
(manager, office employees, professional staff, laborers, etc.) and their families, and 2) the nitrate
fields or locations where the raw material was extracted, generally at some distance from the
settlements. The structure of the settlements would commonly contain the following elements: 1)
buildings and facilities related to the technological part of activities and 2) those related to the
non-technological part.

In this study, a community is defined as a group of people living in close proximity, in a place with
recognized geographical boundaries. On the other hand, it is important to point out that to
understand what goes (or went) on within a community it is necessary to view the community in
the broader context of region and nation. As far as the nitrate oficinas are concerned, they may be
regarded as the functioning parts of a single well-defined technological/economic/social system
tied into a far-ranging network of considerable importance. It was first intended to use a single
hypothetical "nitrate community" as the focus of this study. This scheme, however, was found to
be far too ambitious, above all due to limited resources in terms of money, personnel, and time. It
was therefore decided to use as units of study of "com munities" individual plants located within
easy reach of the present base of research in the hope that the results obtained would permit
achieving the major objectives of this study. The present paper has dealt with the first results of an
investigation undertaken in the oficina known as Jose Santos Ossa and the preliminary
interpretation of the analyzed data from Site, Cut 2.

The stage of research discussed in this paper may be defined as exploratory or as a stage of
discovery based on only a small proportion of the total evidence available. Consequently, no
definite evaluation of hypotheses or firm conclusions can be made. With respect to the first,
second, third, and fourth hypotheses formulated, in a preliminary manner the evidence recovered
from archaeology, documentary evidence, and interviews, tends to confirm our initial idea that
the abandoned nitrate oficinas are historically interesting and present sharply defined cultural
manifestations ideal for anthropological investigations. As already noted, the "Activity/Behavior"
groups outlined merely present a first approximation. The final definition of a "Nitrate Oficina
Pattern" must await more intensive research. With regard to the fifth and sixth hypotheses, more
specific in nature than the former, the evidence at hand indicates that the fifth may not be true.
The midden excavated did not yield many imported objects. However, the most likely explanation
of this is that the refuse recovered pertained largely to the laborers' dwellings located nearby. If
this is true, further research in different middens might eventually tend to support the original
idea. With respect to the sixth hypothesis, confirmation is obviously a matter for the future too.

As no previous research of the type attempted here has been done in Chile, it is not possible to
compare our results with those of other investigators. The lack of comparable archaeological
material also means that no evaluation can be made of the significance of the types and quantities
of artifacts and other materials nor of the "Activity/ Behavior Groups" or "patterns" established in
relation to other oficinas of the same or other periods.

It should be noted too, that the attempt to apply quantitative techniques to the analysis of the
large variety of cultural remains recovered has posed a number of problems which as yet remain
unresolved, including the following:

1 Lateral variation in sample composition. This may severely affect the data and therefore tends to
place doubts upon the validity of the attempts to quantify the importance of the materials
represented in the sample which was taken from only a small portion of the area of the site.

2 As far as the significance of remains of subsistence flora and fauna is concerned, the depositional
processes involved also make questionable the validity of the results reported here. The
proportion which was given as fodder to the animals that were kept is unknown, and no data exist
on how much of the garbage dumped on the midden might have been picked up by these animals.

3 These authors are accutely aware of the methodological limitations inherent in the weighing and
counting procedures applied. A hundred grams of broken glass, a hundred grams of potato peels, a
hundred grams of nails, and a hundred grams of fragments of newspaper simply do not present
equivalent amounts of these materials. Nor does the counting of such items seem to form any
valid basis for numerical comparisons.

These factors and others present severe limitations to the formulation of precise quantitative
statements concerning our material.

Direct historical information was found to be abundant, but usually its value to the specific
purposes of the research was limited to providing general background material concerning the
nitrate industry as a whole, rather than serving as a source of information for the study of specific
communities. Other types of historical sources, such as catalogs, newspapers, and magazines,
proved to be of much greater use. To these sources should be added the potential value of
unpublished written materials, civil and church registers, and "company books." The ethnographic
data collected proved to be of great importance, particularly in relation to the identification of
artifacts, but also because they permitted gaining some understanding of the meaning of these
things in the everyday lives of the people who had known them. An important lesson was also
learned, namely that seemingly contradictory evidence was neither 4 right" nor "wrong," but
should most likely be interpreted in terms of the position the individual had occupied in the local
social hierarchy.

Future endeavors of the project shall attempt to: 1) develop better techniques and methodologies
relating to the quantification of the material; 2) test and re-evaluate the statements made in this
paper, which now stand as hypotheses related only to the community of Jose Santos Ossa, and 3)
expand the archaeological activities in combination with archival and ethnographical research.