ROCK ART PAINTINGS IN THE SEMIARID NORTH OF CHILE: A FIRST PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL APPROACH FROM THE LIMARI'S RIVER BASIN

This paper offers a preliminary technological characterization of rock art paintings in the Limari River Basin. Previous research has associated these paintings with Late Holocene hunter-gatherers (ca 2000 BCE to 500 CE). Molecular chemical-physical analyses of the paintings with microscopy and Raman Spectroscopy enabled the identification of the pigments used to produce this rock art as well as some organic components. The paper offers a discussion of those data in relation to local hunter-gatherer rock art production and proposes a chronological framework for the application of the different colors in the paintings.