Advances in Technological Studies of Northern Chile Ceramics: Petrography and Geochemistry of Fabrics and Paintings (Iluga Túmulos, Tarapacá)

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Andean and Amazonian Ceramics: Advances in Technological Studies" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Over the last decades, ceramic research in the region of Tarapacá has nourished our comprehension on past societies. First, pottery has played a key-role in defining chrono-cultural periods of the south-central Andes. Second, archaeometric studies have allowed to discuss these social, cultural, political, and economic dynamics of prehispanic communities. Iluga (900 BC–AD 1600) is an archaeological area of great significance in northern Chile, with abandoned agricultural field crops and public monuments, partially buried by the Atacama Desert. Ceramics are the most abundant material with evidence from the Formative until Late Intermediate period, Late Horizon, and extend to Hispanic colonial times. Their styles imply different areas of origin, such as the western valleys, the Altiplano, and Circumpuna. We will present an update of our studies on the Iluga ceramic record, where the objective is to combine results obtained by ceramic petrography (thin sections and automated mineralogy) and geochemistry (major, minor, and trace elements and radiogenic isotopes). The application of these techniques has allowed the identification of possible sources for supply of raw materials, exchange networks, and circulation of vessels, pigments, and knowledge of different prehispanic populations of the central-south Andes who converged in Iluga Túmulos through time.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Andean and Amazonian Ceramics: Advances in Technological Studies   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35590.0