Cecilia Sanhueza, José Berenguer, Carlos González, Cristián González, Juan Cortés, Sergio Martín and Jimena Cruz

This paper presents new results of our ethnohistorical, archaeological, and astronomical research in the Qhapaq Ñan of the Despoblado of Atacama, specifically in the Punta Negra salt basin. Two sets of saywas -Tocomar and Vaquillas-, their associated contexts, and the general characteristics of the road in the studied sectors, were recorded and analyzed. In both cases, alignment with the sunrise on the day of the winter solstice and the equinox, respectively, was checked. From a temporal and spatial perspective, an interdisciplinary discussion is presented on these localities and structures, as well as their meanings. Furthermore, the new information collected allows for resuming previous analyzes and proposals on the Qhapaq Ñan of the Despoblado, the astronomical saywas, the geographical environment, and the symbolic construction of a sacred space and an imperial oral cartography.

During the process of territorial expansion of the Incas, the road systems played an essential structural role by shaping a type of spatial continuity through built infrastructure, which started in the capital of Tawantinsuyu and spread to distant peripheries. Far from being considered as obstacles or inaccessible places, the vast Andean landscapes and their high mountains were the abode of deities, which shaped a symbolic and ideological territoriality with strong material and cultural presence in the landscapes. So far, a little more than two hundred mountains with archaeological evidence have been studied in the Andes and other neighboring mountain ranges. On fifteen of these mountains human offerings were made, and in many of them, ceremonial roads leading to the top of the peaks have been surveyed. We have previously referred to the paths of Mount Chañi and the Llullaillaco volcano. Here, we present an extensive list of mountains with roads in an attempt to establish some archaeological and spatial indicators of these particular paths, built in some of the most extreme environments in the world.

Jesús Maza and Andy Combey

This article presents a study of the hydraulic structures -known as dams- in the Jimbe River sub-basin of the headwaters of the Nepeña Valley (Ancash), based on systematic surveys carried out in that sector. This study allowed for recording 14 pre-Hispanic dams in three different sub-valleys. The morphological and spatial analysis of these hydraulic systems suggests differentiated management of water on the western side of the Cordillera Negra and provides evidence for a reassessment of land use strategies set up by Sierra people during the late pre-Hispanic Period.

This paper analyses the material attributes and discovery contexts of a set of rocks that were intervened and circulated during the first Millennium of the Christian Era in settlements of the locality of Anfama, southern end of Cumbres Calchaquíes. Archaeological studies have made it possible to identify the original settings where these pieces were used, to propose chronological relations, and to discuss their traditional categorization as rocks exclusively associated with the cult of ancestors. The results allow to state that the manufacture and circulation of these objects took place mostly during the first half of the first Millennium, within a context of emergence and consolidation of village life, and that they acted as ordering entities in household routines and relationships.