Ch’allando (sprinkling) Beads for a Good Trip: Perforated Objects in Atacama Desert Roads (Antofagasta Region, Chile)

Abstract

The paper presents the results of the analyses of perforated objects found on pre-Hispanic internodal roads related to the localities of Calama, Chuquicamata, Quillagua and Caleta Huelén, in the Antofagasta Region, Chile. This paper introdu­ces a typological classification of the group of perforated ob­jects, in which differences and similarities are evidenced as­sociated to specific periods. We discuss the correspondence of the materials with the typologies for different periods in Ataca­ma, the circulation dynamics of these objects and the role they played in the context of the studied roads.