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ResumenLas evidencias de los sitios Pampa El Muerto 3 (PM-3), Pampa El Muerto 8 (PM-8) y Tangani 1 (TAN-1) permiten reafirmar que el arte rupestre de la precordillera en el extremo norte de Chile se asocia a una colonización más bien tardía de este espacio, hace 7000 años AP. Su ocupación por cazadores recolectores se intensificó hacia fines del Arcaico (ca. 6000-3700 años AP) perdurando hasta el Formativo Tardío (ca. 1500 años AP), y luego reiterarse en los períodos Intermedio Tardío y Tardío (800-500 años AP). En el Arcaico Tardío destaca un paisaje cultural común para el extremo norte de Chile y sur de Perú evidenciado por pinturas rupestres naturalistas en aleros rocosos. Las evidencias líticas, vegetales y arqueofaunísticas excavadas en estos lugares dan cuenta de actividades temporales, por lo que interpretamos los sitios con pinturas como campamentos logísticos estacionales. Además de articular diferentes pisos ecológicos, las poblaciones arcaicas tuvieron una movilidad horizontal precodillerana que unía toda el área situada entre 2500 y 3800 m.snm, cuando en la costa, valles bajos y subárea Circumtiticaca, simultáneamente, ocurrían otros procesos de complejización social.Palabras claves: pinturas rupestres -estilo naturalista -movilidadprecordillera -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.

ResumenEl presente artículo explora la interacción social en la región atacameña a partir del estudio de sus pinturas rupestres. Mediante el estudio cuantitativo y cualitativo de las distribuciones pictóricas, tanto por las estructuras compositivas como por los íconos claves que aparecen simultáneamente en dos o más localidades rupestres, se determinan flujos diferenciales de información visual. Esta circulación de conocimiento y personas habría operado como expresión de relaciones sociales preferenciales entre las distintas comunidades del desierto de Atacama.Palabras claves: interacción social -pinturas rupestresflujos de información 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 paintingsvisual information flows.Recibido: diciembre 2011. Aceptado: marzo 2012. Figura 1.Ubicación geográfica de las áreas incluidas en el estudio.

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.

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From the literature research review of studies that involved the physicochemical characterization of rock art paintings in Argentina and Chile, we evaluate the impact of this analytic approach in our understanding of these visual and material practices in the southern region of South America. We identify the techniques, protocols and sample preparation, the information obtained, and archaeological questions addressed with these analyses. Consequently, we propose the need for a microarchaeological approach. We stress the materiality and particularities of the rock art practice, as an action performed over continuously altered walls, which forms complex microstratigraphies. Moreover, we highlight the benefits of obtaining comparable results with the use of paintings on different supports and contexts to hold an Archaeology of Color that allows studying not only the meaning, but also understand the exploitation, production, and consumption of color, being the painted rock art one form of the final stage of a complex sequence related to color materials.

This article presents the results of physical-chemical characterization of the layers of coating covering the bodies, faces and stuffed of four mummified human bodies and seven grave goods from the Chinchorro Archaic funerary tradition that inhabited the Atacama Desert of the far northern coast of Chile. Using Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy-Dispersive X-Rays (SEM-EDX) and X-Ray Diffraction (μDRX), the study identified the use of different pigments including iron, manganese and copper oxides that were combined into different preparations or pictorial recipes for paste and coating bodies and faces. The results indicate that the Chinchorro, an archaic hunting, gathering and fishing society (7000-3500 B.P.) managed a complex color technology for their mortuary practices.