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Palaeoindian occupation of the Atacama Desert in northern Chile has been found between 12 600 and 10 200 cal. yr BP. The new site at Salar Punta Negra (24°28′S/60°53′W/2976 m) includes about 1000 classifiable, mostly unifacial artefacts and, uniquely, three different diagnostic types of early projectile points. Two of the Lateglacial/early Holocene projectile types have wide distribution and are known from different geographical areas in South America: the Palaeoindian ‘Fell’ fish‐tail point mainly from the southern cone of South America, and the triangular ‘Tuina’ points typical of the Puna of the south‐central Andes in northern Chile and northwestern Argentina. In addition, we found a third type, a stemmed point typical for the Salar Punta Negra. Filling a large geographical gap of ‘Fell’ occupation, the site at Salar Punta Negra provides evidence for generally much higher mobility and diversity of early cultures, and supports an Andean‐Pacific route for early human exploration of South America to the south through the desert at intermediate altitudes. Contemporaneous high‐amplitude climatic changes were fundamental preconditions to provide adequate environments and habitats, and to make Palaeoindian hunting‐gathering occupation possible in the Atacama Desert. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Twenty archaeological campsites intercalated between more than 30 debris flows caused by heavy rainfall events between 6200 and 3100 14C yr B.P. have recently been discovered at Quebrada Puripica in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. This record provides detailed information about extreme, short-lived climatic events during the hyperarid mid-Holocene period. For the first time, we found evidence of continuous human occupation in this area, filling the regional hiatus in the Atacama basin (“Silencio Arqueologico”) between 8000 and 4800 14C yr B.P. The transformation of Early Archaic hunters into the complex Late Archaic cultural tradition was an adaptive process. During this time, the site was a local ecological refuge with abundant resources in a generally hostile environment.

… había una ceremonia de clausura, luego de que una delgada capa de relleno de montículo o arena fuera dispuesta sobre el piso, se procedía a sellar esta superficie, quemando madera y paja (Hastorf 2008a:9).En el presente trabajo se discuten las evidencias del sitio Tulán-54 con especial énfasis en el templete central. Este sitio es parte de un sistema de tres grandes asentamientos formativos tempranos sincrónicos (3450 a 2370 años cal. a.p.), dispuestos en el transecto Tulán, en un tramo de 15 km en el SE de la cuenca del salar de Atacama. Cada uno presenta funciones diferenciadas asociadas a la caza, pastoreo, recolecta y horticultura subsidiaria. En este contexto, el sitio Tulán-54 se perfila como el eje religioso con un marcado componente local orientado a los grupos que ocuparon la quebrada dentro de un contexto de redes macrorregionales. El templete no solo se caracteriza por su arquitectura monumental y los entierros de infantes, sino también por sus ofrendas, la incorporación de arte rupestre y por la reiteración de eventos rituales en su interior, cuyos restos lograron colmatar el templete en un lapso de ca. 200 años. La reiteración de eventos ceremoniales habría estado orientada a la cohesión social de grupos con una amplia movilidad que ocuparon recurrentemente los asentamientos de la quebrada Tulán, donde el comienzo de la desigualdad y las distintas formas productivas habrían sido conducidas por medio de la hegemonía ritual del liderazgo local.Palabras claves: circumpuna, Fase Tilocalar, Formativo Temprano, templete, pastoralismo. Archaeological evidence of the Tulán-54 site is discussed with a special emphasis on the central temple. Situated in the

Widespread evidence for human occupation of the Atacama Desert, 20 degrees to 25 degrees S in northern Chile, has been found from 13,000 calibrated 14C years before the present (cal yr B.P.) to 9500 cal yr B.P., and again after 4500 cal yr B.P. Initial human occupation coincided with a change from very dry environments to humid environments. More than 39 open early Archaic campsites at elevations above 3600 meters show that hunters lived around late glacial/early Holocene paleolakes on the Altiplano. Cessation of the use of the sites between 9500 and 4500 cal yr B.P. is associated with drying of the lakes. The mid-Holocene collapse of human occupation is also recorded in cave deposits. One cave contained Pleistocene fauna associated with human artifacts. Faunal diversity was highest during the humid early Holocene.