# Las Losas: a horizontal rock art site on the coast of the Atacama Region, northern Chile

Benjamin Ballester, Fernando Bastias, Gloria Cabello, Elisita Balbontín,
Patricia Domínguez, Benjamin Molina

► To cite this version:

Benjamin Ballester, Fernando Bastias, Gloria Cabello, Elisita Balbontín, Patricia Domínguez, et al. Las Losas: a horizontal rock art site on the coast of the Atacama Region, northern Chile. Rock Art Research, 2025, 42 (3), pp.253-258. 10.69978/fy3k2614. hal-05475633

HAL Id: hal-05475633

https://hal.science/hal-05475633v1

Submitted on 2 Mar 2026

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<figure><img src="image_1.png" /></figure>

Distributed under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 - Attribution - International License
behind its back, in the metaphor of the future of the Andean people, a heavy, metallically contaminated environment is revealed—lifeless, filled with death and amnesia of the past.

On the contrary, the Talabre geoglyphs, with their millennia-old memory and diachronic assemblages, seem to be agents of a future in which all times have a place, with the future-past, with backward and forward ...

Acknowledgment
To FONDECYT 1221590 Project.

Dr Gonzalo Pimentel G.¹, Mariana Ugarte F.², Juan Gili H.³, Javier Arévalo L.⁴ and Claudia Montero P.⁵

¹Universidad de Tarapacá; Fundación Desierto de Atacama, Chile. Email: gpimentel@desiertoatacama.com

²Fundación Desierto de Atacama, Chile. Email: mugarte@desiertoatacama.com

³Universidad Andrés Bello; Fundación Desierto de Atacama, Chile. Email: juan.gili@unab.cl

⁴Fundación Desierto de Atacama, Chile. Email: javier.arevalo@ug.uchile.cl

⁵Fundación Desierto de Atacama, Chile. Email: cmontero@desiertoatacama.com

REFERENCES

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CODELCO 2024. *Geoglifo de Talabre. Puesta en valor del patrimonio arqueológico*. Ograma Impresores, Calama. https://issuu.com/micodelco/docs/codelco_geoglifo_de_talabre_2023-calidad_web

DELEUZE, G. and F. GUATTARI 1987 [1980]. *A thousand plateaus. Capitalism and schizophrenia*. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.

DELEUZE, G. and C. PARNET 1987 [1977]. *Dialogues*. Columbia University Press, New York.

GALLARDO, F. 2018. Estilos de arte rupestre e interacción social en el desierto de Atacama. *Mundo de Antes* 12(1): 13-78.

GALLARDO, F., G. CABELLO, G. PIMENTEL, M. SEPÚLVEDA and L. CORNEJO 2012. Flujos de información visual, interacción social y pinturas rupestres en el desierto de Atacama (norte de Chile). *Estudios Atacameños* 43: 35-52.

LANNING, E. P. and T. C. PATTERSON 1967. Early man in South America. *Scientific American* 217(5): 44-50.

LE PAIGE, G. 1959. Antiguas culturas atacameñas en la cordillera chilena: época paleolítica. *Revista Universitaria* 43(22): 139-165.

NÚÑEZ, L. 1967. Descubrimiento arqueológico en el Salar de Talabre, norte de Chile. *Boletín de la Universidad de Chile* 76: 4-12.

PIMENTEL, G. 2009. Las huacas del tráfico. Arquitectura ceremonial en rutas prehispánicas del desierto de Atacama. *Boletín del Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino* 14(2): 9-38.

PIMENTEL, G. 2011. Geoglifos e imaginarios sociales en el Desierto de Atacama (Región de Antofagasta, Chile). In

A. Hubert, J. A. González and M. Pereira (eds), *Temporalidad, Interacción y Dinamismo Cultural. La Búsqueda del Hombre. Homenaje al Profesor Lautaro Núñez Atencio*, pp. 163-200. Ediciones Universitarias Universidad Católica del Norte, Antofagasta.

PIMENTEL, G. 2013. Redes viales prehispánicas en el desierto de Atacama: viajeros, movilidad e intercambio. Unpubl. PhD thesis, Anthropology, Universidad Católica del Norte and Universidad de Tarapacá, Chile.

RIVERA CUSICANQUI, S. 2015. *Sociología de la imagen. Miradas ch'ixi desde la historia andina*. Tinta Limón, Buenos Aires.

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Las Losas: a horizontal rock art site
on the coast of the Atacama Region,
northern Chile

By BENJAMÍN BALLESTER, FERNANDO BASTÍAS, GLORIA CABELLO, ELISITA BALBONTÍN, ELISITA DOMÍNGUEZ, PATRICIA DOMÍNGUEZ and BENJAMÍN MOLINA

Introduction

The discovery of a horizontal rock art site located on the coast of the Atacama region in northern Chile is presented. It is a unique site, as no other similar sites are currently known in the region. This preliminary report makes its location, dimensions, manufacturing technique, number of motifs, arrangement and iconographic characteristics public. Finally, the finding is discussed in relation to another similar unpublished case and to the rock art traditions of this section of the Atacama Desert.

The majority of rock art is executed on vertical supports that facilitate its observation from a frontal perspective. However, there are also rock art manifestations made on inclined or completely horizontal, pavement supports intended to be observed in the zenith, nadir or oblique viewpoints, such as on the roof of caves and rockshelters, as well as on their floors or directly on the ground in open-air sites. Among the latter, the most popular are probably the geoglyphs, many of which are so large that they are truly monumental visual masterpieces. Unfortunately, due to their location on the ground, they are subject to various environmental and human factors that may affect their preservation and study at present.

The Atacama Desert in northern Chile is a privileged place for the conservation of these visual manifestations in their different variants, due to the low erosion of its soils and the large areas still uninhabited. Notwithstanding, apart from the large and popular geoglyphs, there are practically no references to horizontal or flat rock art sites in northern Chile. We
<figure><img src="image_2.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 1.** Map of the study area.</figcaption></figure>

present the preliminary report of a unique finding in the region, given that it is one of the first sites of these characteristics known so far, whose preservation has occurred thanks to its location within a dune field which, with the wind, has covered it and protected it from the various environmental and human factors.

## Site characteristics: location, composition and motifs

The rock art site of Las Losas is located on the coast of the Atacama region, in northern Chile, in the interfluve between the Copiapó and Huasco rivers. Although there is a history of painted and engraved rock art in this area, this particular site has not been documented, mainly due to the lack of systematic research and the difficulty of access to the area (Niemeyer 1955; Iribarren 1957, 1958, 1968a, 1968b, 1973a, 1973b; Mulet and Sanguinetti 1958; Niemeyer and Montané 1968; Castillo 1985; Cervellino 1985; Arévalo and Arancibia 2020). Specifically, it is placed in the sector called Punta Nunwick (also known as Punta Hardy), a small peninsula that separates Caleta del Medio from Bahía Maldonado, right in the centre of Bahía Salado (Fig. 1). The Punta Nunwick sector is no

<figure><img src="image_3.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 2.** Aerial views of the site of Las Losas: (A) drone photograph looking south; (B) zenith view distinguishing the main sectors of concentration of rock art motifs.</figcaption></figure>
<figure><img src="image_4.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 3.** Detail of the differentiated sectors in Figure 2. The motifs were digitally highlighted in the photograph.</figcaption></figure>

more than 50 m asl, so it is a relatively flat and open space, with high and extensive visibility, without immediate mountains or hills, dominated by a complex of active dunes that move due to the prevailing south-westerly winds (Fig. 2A). The site is situated almost at the centre of the peninsula, one kilometre from the coastline towards Caleta del Medio (SW) and almost the same distance from the beach of Bahía Maldonado (N) (Fig. 1).

The dune practically covers the site. It is only possible to recognise it in certain specific sectors

where the wind has cleared the surface, exposing a floor of horizontal slabs of compact sand that forms a sedimentary rock of the sandstone type of medium to soft hardness that reaches a depth of about 50 cm (Fig. 2A). At other points the site has been cleared by human action, specifically due to the traffic of four-wheel drive vehicles that make their way to the beach and recently as a result of the construction with a backhoe of a dividing channel between private properties that destroyed an important part of the site. On this flat rock formation, the rock art motifs were created
<figure><img src="image_5.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 4.** *Some examples of the motifs represented on the site.*</figcaption></figure>

horizontally, and the area of dispersion of the motifs is still uncertain because most of the terrain is covered by sand. Still, for the time being, the site is over 8000 m² in size.

The petroglyphs were made on the rock using engraving and incision techniques. There is no evidence of paint or other solutions for the aggregation of matter. The engravings were made with continuous and discontinuous impact.

The distribution of motifs on the rock platform is not homogeneous, and there are sectors with higher concentrations of motifs (Fig. 2B). In total, we have identified at least 130 motifs. These are mainly elements that we can associate with geometric shapes: lines, crosses, arrows, rectangles, circles and dots,

among others (Fig. 3). Most of them were made independently, while others are grouped together to form composite figures (N=35), either by intersection, symmetry or inscription. In addition, other motifs can be identified as foot imprints, possibly human (N=7), having between two to six 'fingers' (Fig. 3A, C, D), and tridents, possibly bird feet (N=14) (Fig. 3A, D, G).

Among the composite motifs, one type stands out for its size and composition. It consists of two pairs of circular figures formed by a perimeter of smaller circles made by percussion in an area, one next to the other, leaving an opening, in the centre of which there is a formal hole about 10 cm deep and almost the same size as the perimeter circles (Figs 3B-C, 4A-B). One of these composite circles encloses other linear
<figure><img src="image_6.png" /><figcaption>**Figure 5.** Old photographs of the site of Las Losas at the port of Huasco: (A–B) Oswald Menghin (1964: 4.9, 4.10); (C–D) Jorge Iribarren (Archivo Documental of the Museo Arqueológico de La Serena).</figcaption></figure>

motifs, mainly abstract and human foot figures, an arrangement that appears not random but is part of the visual composition.

**From the single site to the unconsidered previous cases**

Despite the uniqueness of this rock art site, there is a reference to another similar one in the same region, also called Las Losas, which is located on the coast. It is situated immediately south of the town of Huasco and was completely destroyed some decades ago during the construction of the city's port facilities, making it virtually unknown in today's archaeological scene. Jorge Iribarren (1957, 1968a) was able to see it before

its disappearance and states that the petroglyphs were incised on a horizontal platform of sedimentary calcareous rock with geometric and figurative motifs, the latter including vulvas and anthropomorphs. Years earlier (1956), Herbert Hornkohl took some photographs of the site and sent them to Oswald Menghin (1964), who compared these figures with others from Bolivia and south-central Chile, mainly due to the use of the engraving technique on horizontal supports of open-air sites. The motifs were distributed "on a flat granodiorite terrace extending along the coast at a height of 10 to 20 m asl" (Menghin 1964: 381; our translation); hence the appellation of Las Losas ('The Slabs' in English), as well as that of Bahía Salado.
In his article, Menghin (1964) reproduces some photographs where motifs of human feet, crosses, lines, rectangles and other geometric figures very similar to those of this new site can be recognised (Fig. 5: A–B). Years later, Iribarren took his own photographs at the site, now in colour, which unfortunately were never published. Nonetheless, we have recently found them in slide format in the Archive of the Museo Arqueológico de La Serena, where his documentary legacy is preserved (Fig. 5: C–F). The latter is a visual material of enormous archaeological value, as it helps to complement our fragmentary knowledge of this unknown rock art site, which has now completely disappeared. In addition to the above-mentioned motifs, these new missing images also show trident motifs similar to bird footprints, identical to those described for Bahía Salado.

Overall, it can be preliminarily concluded that the site of Las Losas of Bahía Salado is a local and coastal expression of few similar records at the regional level, which presents clear similarities to other sites further south in the country (Iribarren 1957; Menghin 1964; Niemeyer and Montané 1968). In terms of its manufacturing technique and iconography, it is more similar to the stylistic traditions of the semi-arid region and less to those of the north of Chile (Niemeyer 1955, 1977; Iribarren 1957, 1968a, 1973a; Mulet and Sanguinetti 1958; Mostny and Niemeyer 1983; Castillo 1985; Niemeyer and Ballereau 1996; Troncoso 2022). Despite this, for a better understanding of this site and its cultural correlations on a regional and macro-regional scale, further research is needed, not only of this rock art and its motifs but also of the rest of the archaeological sites to which they are associated in the surroundings of Bahía Salada, the challenge we are currently addressing in our investigation.

### Acknowledgments

Project ANID-FONDECYT 1210046. To Las Gaviotas Foundation for allowing us to study and make this site publicly known, especially to Gonzalo Domínguez Veytes (RIP), one of the main defenders of the Atacama region's heritage and environment. Finally, to the Museo Arqueológico de La Serena, particularly to Lorena Troncoso.

Dr Benjamín Ballester¹,*, Fernando Bastías², Dr Gloria Cabello², Elisita Balbontín³, Elisita Domínguez³, Patricia Domínguez³ and Benjamín Molina³

¹ Universidad de Tarapacá, Arica, Chile, corresponding author; benjaminballesterr@gmail.com

² Estudios Aplicados, Escuela de Antropología, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago. fernando.bastías@uc.cl, gloria.cabello@uc.cl

³ Fundación Las Gaviotas, Copiapó, Chile. elisitapunto@gmail.com, elisitadominguez@gmail.com, mpdoming@gmail.com, molina.benja@gmail.com

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