Historical Horseshoes: Connection with the Origins of the “Village of the River"

In the current province of Mendoza, two regions or geographical areas are established: the north where the Huarpes lived, who were later linked to the Inca empire and then to the Spanish conquerors, and the south where the Puelches and Pehuenches lived. In the 16th century, the Spanish conquerors, arriving from Chile and Peru, carried out the first explorations in lands inhabited by docile and industrious indigenous families: the Huarpes. The Chief Oliunta was the owner of the territory that includes the current Luján de Cuyo and had his camps on both banks of the Mendoza River. After the Foundation of Mendoza (1561) and with the creation of the royal road in approximately 1747, the system of fixed posts was established, preceding the "post regulations" that emerged with the creation of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata (1776), as well as the improvement of roads and greater comforts for travelers. Thus, in the Relays the horses were changed and the travelers were accompanied to the next post or relay. In Luján de Cuyo there has been a Relay on the north bank of the Mendoza River that, due to its irregular flow, travelers had to stay to rest and attend to the horses and mules. This is how different populations settled, and later it became the Villa de Río and today it is "Luján de Cuyo". In this work, two horseshoes from the colonial era are studied, belonging to a set of horseshoes found in the historic center where the first relays and farmhouses were located. Chemical composition measurements, hardness studies, metallographic studies were carried out to learn about the manufacturing process and SEM-EDS studies to deepen and corroborate the previous studies.