PAINTED LANDSCAPES THROUGHOUT TIME IN THE ANDEAN HIGH LANDS: ROCK ART FROM PAMPA OXAYA, PRECORDILLERA DE ARICA (CHILE)

Abstract

The surveys carried out during the year 2007 in the Pampa Oxaya sector of the foothills of Arica,
Northern Chile, allowed to identify the existence of a dozen rock shelters with rock art which were
unknown until the date. The painted images were approached integrally by a methodology at
different scales. This tool is detailed at the motive, panel and site level, which can be susceptible of
being applied to other desert areas where the goal is the stylistic systematization. The presentation
of the results obtained from such analysis is one of the purposes of this work in which each one of
thethree diachronic styles are detailed. The proposed stylistic sequence agrees with the information
previously available in the foothills, which allows Pampa Oxayato be compared with other localities
in the highlands of the region.As a consequence of this comparative exercise, the existence of
graphic relationships and possible flows of visual information between the different archeological
sites is proposed, as well as the differential construction of rock art landscapes over time, according
to the social and economic changes that occurred during the occupation of this territory from the
Early Archaic. Finally, we propose that the results obtained will may allow, in subsequent studies, to
discuss possible connections that existed between the study area and other corpus of images
recorded in the Atacama Desert.