The site belongs to the Sican (or Classic Lambayeque) Culture of Peru's North Coast, and was dated to A.D. 1500 ± 60 by radiocarbon. Metallurgical remains consisting of prills (droplets of copper solidified in a slag matrix), ingots and copper spills were analyzed by proton-induced x-ray emission. The results are consistent with the smelting of local oxide ores with the addition of arsenic in the form of imported sulfide ores. The two ignots studied were made by the remelting of separated prills, rather than found at the bottom of a smelting furnace.