How Was the Trinacrio Painted? An Approach to the Ways of Painting in the Maipo Basin During the Late Intermediate Period (1000/1200-1450 AD)

Abstract

This article aims to show an approach to the ways of painting pottery in the Aconcagua groups of the Maipo river basin du­ring the Late Intermediate Period, focusing on the iconogra­phic motif of the trinacrio, which is used to understand the degree to which the modes of doing were shared among these populations. This iconographic motif was chosen for the analy­sis since it is present in most of the painted pottery of these groups. For this, the motifs present in bowls or pucos from six archaeological sites were analyzed: Chicauma, Til Til, Hue­chún, María Pinto, Talagante and Alhué. The results are then compared at site and basin level, after which the same way of painting was identified in the pieces at the Maipo basin sites and a different way of painting the trinacrio in the Alhué site, concluding that there is an interaction between the Aconcagua groups of the Maipo basin, where the techniques used to paint the pieces are shared.