Around 400 B.C., in the Upper Salado River basin, a style of rock painting emerged that had never been seen before in the region. This style was…
Marine hunter-gatherers
…source of subsistence. These marine hunter-gatherers learned quickly to take advantage of the sea’s potential as a source of fish, mollusks, crustaceans and seaweed, as well as marine mammals such…
Patrón de Asentamiento
Some of the Llolleo residential sites identified are relatively large, and would have housed several families. These cannot be considered villages, however, as each family was located some…
Beliefs and funeral rites
The Inka ruled a theocratic state in which social and economic life were governed by religious beliefs. Their central deities —Wiraqocha (the creator), Inti (sun god) and Killa…
Settlement pattern
The Inka used architecture as a means to subjugate local populations, transforming physical space to express power and domination throughout Tawantinsuyu. Emblematic Inka structures are identifiable by their…
Patrón de Asentamiento
The inland groups inhabited caves and rock overhangs located near the lakes of the Andean foothills, and practiced a highly mobile lifestyle. In contrast, on the coast the…
Art
The ruling class of Tiwanaku is thought to have legitimized its rule through emblematic iconography, which was designed to proclaim and maintain its domination over the empire’s many…
Arte
Pitrén pottery is the oldest in the region and tends to share some stylistic features with other early ceramic traditions of the Southern Cone of America, such as…
The Kultrun
…The kultrun is the quintessential musical instrument of the Mapuche machi (shaman). It is a large wooden kettledrum made from the hollow-out trunk of a “tree of power”…
History
In the Early Archaic period (11,000 – 6,500 BCE), the presence of discoidal stones at sites attributed to the first coastal communities suggests a connection or underlying cultural…
Settlement pattern
Their settlements were distributed mainly in valleys, foothills and interfluvial ravines. Despite the fact that the El Molle groups were highly mobile, they also achieved a large degree…
The pictographs of Milla
The rock art panels of Milla are not far from Alero de Taira, and there is little doubt that they were derived from the figures found at…
The Story of the Toads
As told by José Tonko Wide (Kstákso) Horcón, 1976 The east wind and the west wind say this, that … they blew, were blowing against one another, so…
Marine hunters, fishers and gatherers
The invention of fish hooks and then seagoing vessels by some early marine hunter-gatherer groups was a turning point that transformed their way of life, transforming fishing…
Social organization
Little is known of the social organization of these groups. However, it is likely that they lived in small family bands that enabled them to move around easily,…
Culto y Funebria
While cemeteries in different valleys exhibit some major differences, the custom of burying dead individuals along with whole or partial guanaco cadavers was common, perhaps as a form…
Economía
The Las Ánimas people developed an economy based on horticultural activities with a marked emphasis on exploiting coastal resources. They grew maize, squash and beans, among other plants,…
Patrón de Asentamiento
The El Vergel people occupied the valleys and coast of this region, taking advantage of wetlands, lakes, forests, nearby rivers, the coastline and offshore islands. They maintained extensive,…
Arte
El Vergel ceramics featured large dishes used as funerary urns and jugs in the form of ducks (called ketru metawe in the local Mapudungun language), decorated with geometric…
Organización Social
The cultural variations observed among Las Ánimas groups living in different valleys suggest the existence of distinct populations, each under the direction of its own leaders and religious…
The geoglyph of Cerro Sagrado
Cerro Sagrado (Sacred Mount) is located in the Azapa Valley, eight kilometers from the Pacific coast. The mountain slope that faces the valley holds a geoglyph outlined…
History
The El Molle people were heirs to the hunter-gatherer tradition of the Archaic period, but they developed a new way of life based on horticulture and village life….