Abstract

Results of physico-chemical analysis of samples of rock paintings and blue and green pigments from the Atacama Desert (northern Chile) allow us to incorporate a new technology, pigment production, to processes of mining and copper production, which until now have been related only to lapidary and metal working. Archaeological contexts associated with paints and pigments, as well as information available from historical times, allow us to suggest hypotheses about their importance in sharing networks of late prehispanic times (A.D. 900-1550) and after Spanish contact. In these times, the production and circulation of pigments would have closely connected the Upper Loa region to the Lipez region in southwestern Bolivia and other regions of the Atacama Desert.