Pinturas rupestres y contextos arqueológicos de la precordillera de Arica (extremo norte de Chile)

Abstract

Evidences from sites Pampa El Muerto 3 (PM-3), Pampa El Muerto 8 (PM-8) and Tangani 1 (TAN-1) allow reaffirming that rock art found at the foothills of northern Chile is synchronic with a late colonization of this zone, 7000 BP. Its occupation by hunter-gatherers was intensified towards the end of the Archaic (ca. 6000-3700 years BP), continued until the Late Formative (ca. 1500 years BP), and reemerged during Late Intermediate and Late periods (800-500 years BP). Throughout the Late Archaic phase the creation of a common cultural landscape for northern Chile and southern Peru is evidenced by rock art paintings naturalistic on the walls of rock shelters. Lithics, archaeological plant and bones remains indicate temporary domestic activities. Thus rock art painting sites are interpreted as seasonal logistical camps. Consecutively, more than articulating different ecological floors, these sites evidence horizontal mobility in foothills between 2500 and 3800 m.asl, in times of increased complexity in coastal and low valleys of the region and the Circumtiticaca subarea.