Marcela Sepúlveda

FLUJOS DE INFORMACIÓN VISUAL, INTERACCIÓN SOCIAL Y PINTURAS RUPESTRES EN EL DESIERTO DE ATACAMA (NORTE DE CHILE)

El presente articulo explora la interaccion social en la region atacamena a partir del estudio de sus pinturas rupestres. Mediante el estudio cuantitativo y cualitativo de las distribuciones pictoricas, tanto por las estructuras compositivas como por los iconos claves que aparecen simultaneamente en dos o mas localidades rupestres, se determinan flujos diferenciales de informacion visual. Esta circulacion de conocimiento y personas habria operado como expresion de relaciones sociales preferenciales entre las distintas comunidades del desierto de Atacama. Palabras claves: interaccion social - pinturas rupestres - flujos de informacion visual. Abstract This article explores social interaction in the Atacama region through the local rock art paintings. Using a quantitative and qualitative study of pictorial distribution, including both compositional structures and key icons that appear simultaneously in two or more areas with rupestrian art sites, we can determine the presence of differential visual information flows. This flow of knowledge and people would have operated as an expression of preferential social relations between the different Atacama Desert communities. Key words: social interaction - rock art paintings - visual information flows.

PINTURAS RUPESTRES Y CONTEXTOS ARQUEOLÓGICOS DE LA PRECORDILLERA DE ARICA (EXTREMO NORTE DE CHILE)

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.

RAMAN SPECTROSCOPY AND X-RAY FLUORESCENCE IN MOLECULAR ANALYSIS OF YELLOW BLOCKS FROM THE ARCHEOLOGICAL SITE PLAYA MILLER 7 (NORTHERN CHILE)

Yellow blocks from the archaeological site Playa Miller 7 (PLM7), on the coast of Atacama Desert in northern Chile, were analyzed by Raman spectroscopy and X-ray fluorescence (XRF) portable. Our results identify for the first time the use of K-jarosite and natrojarosite in prehispanic times (approx. 2500 year BP). In search of a possible source of supply for this mineral hydrothermal origin, our surveys were focused on Andean geothermal areas with identification, so far, from a single source in the region of Arica and Parinacota: Jurasi (JU), located at 4000 mamsl. Comparison of the Raman spectra between samples archaeological and Jurasi, allow us to infer that this hydrothermal source could be used as obtaining source of yellow pigment by prehispanic inhabitant of Formative period (3700-1500 years B.P.).

Copper Pigment-Making in the Atacama Desert (Northern Chile)

Results of physico-chemical analysis of samples of rock paintings and blue and green pigments from the Atacama Desert (northern Chile) allow us to incorporate a new technology, pigment production, to processes of mining and copper production, which until now have been related only to lapidary and metal working. Archaeological contexts associated with paints and pigments, as well as information available from historical times, allow us to suggest hypotheses about their importance in sharing networks of late prehispanic times (A.D. 900—1550) and after Spanish contact. In these times, the production and circulation of pigments would have closely connected the Upper Loa region to the Lipez region in south-western Bolivia and other regions of the Atacama Desert.

Micro-Raman spectral identification of manganese oxides black pigments in an archaeological context in Northern Chile

The micro-Raman spectroscopy was used to identify manganese oxides, pyrolusite, manganite and cryptomelane in archaeological sites in northern Atacama Desert, Chile. The present micro-Raman data allow us to compare and expand the origins of raw materials used by archaic groups of the Atacama Desert. In the Andean highlands, pyrolusite and manganite were identified while in the coastal lowlands manganite and cryptomelane were found. The present results complement the data obtained from the lithic materials and rock art painting analyses pointing to a better understanding of the daily life of ancient populations and minerals use in this region.Graphical abstract:Black pigments found in three archaeological sites from northern Chile. Two of them are from the highlands: Tangani (Ta-1 and Ta-14) and one from the coast, Maderas Enco (Ari-26 and Ari-27). Raman spectra of different manganese oxides a) Ta-1, b) Ta-14, c) Ari-26 and d) Ari-27.

Hunter-Gatherer Mobility Strategies in the High Andes of Northern Chile during the Late Pleistocene-Early Holocene Transition (ca. 11,500–9500 CAL B.P.)

ABSTRACT The high Andes of western South America feature extreme ecological conditions that impose important physiological constraints on humans including high-elevation hypoxia and cold stress. This leads to questions regarding how these environments were colonized by the first waves of humans that reached them during the late Pleistocene. Based on previous research, and aided by human behavioral ecology principles, we assess hunter-gatherer behavioral strategies in the Andean highlands during the late Pleistocene and early Holocene. Specifically, we formulate three mobility strategies and their archaeological expectations and test these using technological and subsistence evidence from the six earliest well-dated highland sites in northern Chile. Our results suggest that all of the studied sites were temporarily occupied for hunting, processing animals, and toolkit maintenance. The sites also exhibit shared technological features within a curatorial strategy albeit with different occupation intensities. From this evidence, we infer that the initial occupations of the highlands were logistical and probably facilitated by increased local resource availability during a period of environmental amelioration.

Pigmentos y pinturas de mineral de cobre en la región de Tarapacá, norte de Chile: Nuevos datos para una tecnología pigmentaria prehispánica

La explotacion de los recursos minerales de cobre en el norte de Chile implico la produccion de pigmentos azules y verdes identificados, hasta ahora, en pintura rupestre, en nodulos y en estado de polvo al interior de contenedores de cuero provenientes de distintos cementerios de la cuenca del rio Loa, region de Antofagasta, desierto de Atacama. En este articulo se presentan los primeros resultados de analisis fisico-quimicos de pintura verde aplicada sobre distintos soportes de cuero: mascaras, tocado y carcajes, de la region de Tarapaca, situada mas al norte. Comparados a nuestros resultados previos, estos nuevos analisis nos permiten ampliar la discusion relativa a la produccion e intercambio de estos pigmentos a base de minerales de cobre para periodos tardios en el norte de Chile. The extraction and use of copper ore in northern Chile enabled the production of blue and green pigments identified to date in rock paintings. These pigments have also been found as nodules and in powdered form inside leather pouches that were discovered in several cemeteries in the Loa River basin in the Antofagasta region of the Atacama Desert. This article presents the initial results of physical-chemical analyses performed on selected samples of green paint found further north, in the Tarapaca region. The paint had been applied to different supports made of animal hide, including masks, headdresses and quivers. When compared to our previous results, these new analyses allow us to expand the discussion of the production of these copper-ore based pigments during late periods in northern Chile and the interactions their presence implies.

Programa iconográfico y material en las pinturas murales de la iglesia de San Andrés de Pachama, Chile

iglesia de San Andrés de Pachama, Chile Fernando Guzmán, Marta Maier, Magdalena Pereira, Marcela Sepúlveda, Gabriela Siracusano, José Cárcamo, Diana Castellanos, Sebastián Gutiérrez, Eugenia Tomasini, Paola Corti, Carlos Rúa Centro de Estudios del Patrimonio, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez; CONICET Universidad de Buenos Aires, Unidad de Microanálisis y Métodos Físicos Aplicados a la Química Orgánica; CONICET Centro de Investigación en Arte, Materia y Cultura, Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero; Investigadora de la Fundación Altiplano; Universidad de Tarapacá, Instituto de Alta Investigación, Laboratorio de Análisis e Investigaciones Arqueométricas; Taller Nacional de Patrimonio Mueble, Ministerio de Culturas y Turismo, La Paz-Bolivia

Contextos vegetales de aleros con pinturas (precordillera de Arica, norte de Chile)

Resumen es: Se presentan los resultados obtenidos del analisis de los restos vegetales provenientes de tres aleros con pinturas rupestres de la precordillera de Aric...

Micro X-ray Fluorescence Study of Late Pre-Hispanic Ceramics from the Western Slopes of the South Central Andes Region in the Arica y Parinacota Region, Chile: A New Methodological Approach.

Archeological ceramic paste material typically consists of a mix of a clay matrix and various millimeter and sub-millimeter sized mineral inclusions. Micro X-ray fluorescence (XRF) is a standard compositional classification tool and in this work we propose and demonstrate an improved fluorescence map processing protocol where the mineral inclusions are automatically separated from the clay matrix to allow independent statistical analysis of the two parts. Application of this protocol allowed us to enhance the discrimination between different ceramic shards compared with the standard procedure of working with only the spatially averaged elemental concentrations. Using the new protocol, we performed an initial compositional classification of a set of 83 ceramic shards from the western slopes of the south central Andean region in the Arica y Parinacota region (Chile). Comparing the classifications obtained using the new versus the old (average concentrations only) protocols, we found that some samples were erroneously classified with the old protocol. From an archaeological perspective, a broad and heterogeneous regional sample set was used in this experimental study due to the fact that this was the first such analysis to be performed on ceramics from this region. This allowed a general overview to be obtained, however further work on more specific sample sets will be necessary to extract concrete archaeological conclusions.