ResumenEste trabajo pretende introducir a los usos e imaginarios relacionados con las plantas en las aldeas formativas de la Pampa del Tamarugal, Tarapacá (Chile). Se estudiaron los restos vegetales recuperados de las excavaciones de los sitios Pircas y Caserones, en la quebrada de Tarapacá, así como de Guatacondo 1 y Ramaditas, en la de Guatacondo. Estas aldeas poseen contextos domésticos, ceremoniales, mortuorios y de almacenaje, asociados a alimentos silvestres y cultivados, así como un amplio universo artefactual, principalmente en madera, que incluye materias primas, instrumentos y desechos de talla. Se concluye que, si bien las cuatro aldeas comparten aspectos significativos como su orientación agrícola y forestal, las ocupaciones de ambas cuencas expresan situaciones disími-les que permiten cuestionar la noción evolucionista que se ha tenido del período Formativo como una sucesión unilineal de etapas de progreso.Palabras claves: aldeas -Prosopis -alimentos -tecnologías vegetalesperíodo Formativo -Tarapacá. AbstractThe aim of this work is to introduce to the uses and imaginaries related to the plants in the formative villages of Pampa del Tamarugal, Tarapacá region (Chile). To accomplish this, we studied the plant remains recovered from excavations in the sites of Pircas and Caserones in the ravine of Tarapacá, as well as Guatacondo 1 and Ramaditas in the Guatacondo ravine. These villages have domestic, ceremonial, mortuary and storage contexts, from which were recovered wild and cultivated food and a wide artefactual universe, mainly in wood, including raw materials, artifacts and wastes. We conclude that while the four villages share significant aspects like their agriculture and forestry orientation, their occupations are dissimilar, which permits us to question the evolutionary notion that understands the Formative period as a unilinear succession of stages of progress.

The archaeological record shows that large pre-Inca agricultural systems supported settlements for centuries around the ravines and oases of northern Chile's hyperarid Atacama Desert. This raises questions about how such productivity was achieved and sustained, and its social implications. Using isotopic data of well-preserved ancient plant remains from Atacama sites, we show a dramatic increase in crop nitrogen isotope values (d 15 N) from ~AD 1000. Maize was most affected, with d 15 N values as high as +30‰, with human bone collagen following a similar trend; moreover, their carbon isotope values (d 13 C) suggest a significant increase in the consumption of maize at the same time. We attribute the shift to extremely high d 15 N values -the highest in the world for archaeological plants -to the use of seabird guano to fertilise crops. Guano -"white gold" as it came to be called -thus sustained agricultural intensification, supporting a substantial population in an otherwise extreme environment.

En este trabajo se describen las relaciones que las sociedades humanas establecieron con su entorno durante el período Formativo (3000-1000 aP) en la Pampa del Tamarugal, Desierto de Atacama, desde una perspectiva teórico-metodológica que pone el acento en el potencial del registro ecofactual. Éste, al mediar entre lo cultural y lo ambiental, proporciona información vital para una mejor comprensión de la relación entre naturaleza y cultura construida por estas sociedades. Queremos demostrar que este proceso forma parte de una larga historia de racionalización del desierto y de sus recursos silvestres, locales e introducidos, así como de la vivencia particular que tuvieron estas comunidades andinas. Por consiguiente, proponemos que la intervención humana en la Pampa del Tamarugal puede ser entendida como un cambio no sólo ecológico y económico, sino también cosmológico.

Chungara Revista de Antropología Chilena The social groups that initially inhabited the hyper arid core of the Atacama Desert of northern Chile during the late Pleistocene integrated a wide range of local, regional and supra regional goods and ideas for their social reproduction as suggested by the archaeological evidence contained in several open camps in Pampa del Tamarugal (PdT). Local resources for maintaining their everyday life, included stone raw material, wood, plant and animal fibers, game, and fresh water acquired within a radius of ∼30 km (ca. 1-2 days journey). At a regional scale, some goods were introduced from the Pacific coast (60-80 km to the west, ca. 3-4 days journey), including elongated rounded cobbles used as hammer stones in lithic production, and shells, especially from non-edible species of mollusks. From the Andes (ranging 80-150 km to the east, ca. 5-8 days of journey), they obtained camelid fiber, obsidian and a high-quality chalcedony, in addition to sharing knowledge on projectile point designs (Patapatane and Tuina type forms). Pieces of wood of a tropical forest tree species (Ceiba spp.) from the east Andean lowlands (600 km away, ca. 30 days of journey) were also brought to the PdT. While local goods were procured by the circulation of people within the PdT, the small number of foreign items would have been acquired through some sort of exchange networks that integrated dispersed local communities throughout several ecosystems. These networks may have been a key factor behind the success exhibited by these early huntergatherers in the hyper arid ecosystems of the Atacama Desert at the end of the Pleistocene. Different lines of archaeological evidence including open camps, workshop-quarries, lithic artifacts, archaeofaunal remains, plant and animal fibers and textiles, archaeobotanical remains, and paleoecological data show that people of the PdT managed a wide range of cultural items from the Pacific coast, the Andean highland and the tropical forest, that were integrated with resources

Se presenta el sitio Iluga Túmulos de la región de Tarapacá, Chile. El sitio se localiza en Pampa Iluga, al sur del Cerro Unitas donde se dispone el geoglifo Gigante de Tarapacá y al oeste de la quebrada de Tarapacá. Se asocia a miles de hectáreas de campos de cultivo y sistemas de irrigación, vinculados a un notable complejo de túmulos y arquitectura pública y residencial. En medio de las “chacras” existe un conjunto de 122 túmulos que presentan agrupamientos específicos. También se observan áreas de actividad y recintos con y sin arquitectura. Entre éstos, destacan estructuras de barro con diferentes formas y escalas incluyendo recintos circulares, rectangulares y cuadrangulares con funciones múltiples. Esta concentración de monumentos y paisajes materiales se extiende desde inicios del período Formativo hasta la llegada de los incas y momentos coloniales, generando un entramado histórico complejo. Proponemos, por lo tanto, pensar este palimpsesto productivo y ceremonial desde las formas andinas de memoria.