José BerenguerMuseo Chileno de Arte Precolombino · Departamento Curatorial
José Berenguer
PhD in Anthropology
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Publications (128)
The chronology of the Inka Empire is poorly resolved, with most scholars utilizing a post hoc ethnohistoric reconstruction of imperial expansion as a common reference point. Radiocarbon-based analyses can now accomplish sufficient resolution for meaningful independent estimates of Inka chronology, however, and it is incumbent upon archaeologists to...
The exhibition Women - Echoes of the past, voices of today is a project of the workers (mainly women) of the Chilean Museum of Pre-Columbian Art, who, in the heat of the social movements of the moment, for months were debating how they could tune in with it in an exhibit. Aware of the leading role achieved by women and feminist movements in the mob...
In this introductory text, José Berenguer comments on several passages from the electronic book "Eso decía la gente antigua: Memorias de Taira", by Claudio Mercado, offering a personal profile of his lifelong friends, the shepherds of the river Loa (Antofagasta region, northern Chile) Nicolás Aimani, Luisa Huánuco and Rumualda Galleguillos.
El Norte de Chile es conocido por la importante explotación cuprífera contemporánea. Las evidencias arqueológicas indican que tal explotación no es un fenómeno moderno, sino que ha existido en el Norte Grande desde al menos el Período Arcaico Tardío. Para identificar las materias primas minerales usadas en los procesos minero-metalúrgicos prehispán...
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 ana...
Se presentan nuevos resultados de nuestra investigación etnohistórica, arqueológica y astronómica en el Qhapaq Ñan del Despoblado de Atacama, especí camente en la cuenca del salar de Punta Negra. Se registran y analizan dos conjuntos de saywas (Tocomar y Vaquillas), sus contextos asociados y las características generales del camino en los sectores...
As part of a project funded by Fondart on collective memory of the Chilean Museum of Pre-Columbian Art, the authors recall the political context, the activities carried out in the field, the results of the research, the archeology capacity for this kind of forensic investigation and experiences that each of them experienced before, during and after...
This is the introduction to the issue number 3 of the electronic series ArtEncuentro, called Taira's rock art exhibition behind the scenes, where curators, museographers, graphic designers, producers of interactive zones, journalists and documentalists relate the circumstances, reasons, decisions and alternatives considered in each of those special...
En este artículo (1) se examina la estructura de la analogía etnográfica, (2) se analiza la necesidad de un tratamiento etnoarqueológico de los datos, (3) se pasa revista a los dos géneros de analogía etnográfica que ña arqueología tiene a mano para interpretar los restos -el Método de los Paralelos Etnográficos y el Método o Enfoque Histórico Dire...
This article is the introduction to the compilation of works resulting from the symposium referred to in the title, which was held in 2015, within the framework of the XX National Congress of Chilean Archeology held in Concepción. After a brief history of the term "internodal", the authors analyze the way in which it has evolved from its beginnings...
This work presents the results of a study of mining-metallurgical production in late pre-Hispanic times in the Collahuasi Mining District (Northern Chile), specifically examining the technology employed and changes in the scale of production. We focus on recent results obtained in a study of 50 pyrometallurgical furnaces identi ed at the Ujina 8 an...
This book is a publication associated with the exhibition of the same name (November 30, 2017 - May 30, 2018), one of the first temporary rock art exhibitions in the world designed as an immersive experience. The text is aimed at the general public, but, following the style of the publications of the Chilean Museum of Pre-Columbian Art, includes no...
We will present two cases with representation of cetaceans in South America: El Médano site in north Chile and the Nasca region in Peru.
The economy of pre-Hispanic societies on the coast of north Chile was largely dependent on the use of maritime resources. El Médano, an exceptional rock art site in the Atacama desert coast contains more than a t...
This paper aims to make a contribution to the study of the human circulation in internodal spaces by studying passing places in arid and semi-arid zones. Research focuses in a specific locality: Incaguasi (Antofagasta Region, Chile), a currently uninhabited landscape in the upper ravine of the Loa river, a crossing point to travellers from at least...
El norte de Chile es conocido por su potencial minero, donde existe un número importante de yacimientos que alojan diversas mineralizaciones. Esta riqueza mineral fue tempranamente reconocida por las sociedades prehispánicas, quienes las explotaron para lapidaria, pigmentos y metales. El presente estudio tiene como objetivo conocer las materias pri...
This article discusses one of the ways in which the Inkas used
local production factors and created territoriality to extract
mining resources in Northern Chile. Based on the extensive
archeological information available for the upper Salado river
basin (ii Region of Antofagasta), the authors argue that, to a
large degree, the Inka occupation of th...
En este prólogo, su autor presenta el libro de Gonzalo Ampuero y comenta de manera detallada su contenido.
In this prologue, the author present the book by Gonzalo Ampuero and comments its content in a very detailed way.
This article discusses one of the ways in which the Inkas used local production factors and created territoriality to extract mining resources in Northern Chile. Based on the extensive archeological information available for the upper Salado river basin (ii Region of Antofagasta), the authors argue that, to a large degree, the Inka occupation of th...
Resumen Este artículo busca contribuir al estudio de la circulación humana en los espacios internodales, investigando lugares de uso pasajero en zonas áridas o semi áridas. La investigación se concentra en una espe-cífica localidad: Incaguasi (región de Antofagasta, Chile), un desértico paraje actualmente deshabitado del valle superior del río Loa...
This chapter is a synthesis that is updated to the year 2012-2013 of the prehistory of the Antofagasta Region, Chile, which attempts to characterize the social and economic organization systems, settlement patterns, the funerary evidence, interaction networks and ways of life of the communities that inhabited this part of the Atacama Desert between...
Como un guiño al clásico de Benjamín Subercaseaux, Chile o una loca geografía, este libro divide el territorio nacional en seis “países” para contar la historia larga de Chile a connacionales y extranjeros. Precedidos por un prólogo de Héctor Soto y seguidos por un capítulo final sobre nuestro mundo indígena actual de José Luis Martínez y Pedro Meg...
With a nod to the classic Benjamín Subercaseaux's classic book, Chile, A Geographic Extravaganza, this volume divides the nation's territory in six "lands" as it recounts Chile's extensive history in a manner accesible to citizens and foreigners alike. Preceded by a foreword by Héctor Soto and followed by a final chapter on our current indigenous w...
En este trabajo se exponen los resultados acerca de la producción minero-metalúrgica en momentos prehispánicos tardíos en el distrito de Collahuasi, en el norte de Chile. Se trata de una zona ubicada a 4500 msnm, con escaso potencial agrícola pero con importantes recursos cupríferos. Nos centraremos en los resultados recientes del estudio de los ho...
HIGH-ALTITUDE SHRINES AND INCA DOMINATION IN THE ALTO LOA, NORTHERN CHILE. Mountain
shrines are one of the most important expressions of Inca domination across the Collasuyu related to the ideological
manipulation of local religious beliefs and practices. Recent archaeological surveys conducted on the Colorado,
Palpana, and Miño mountains in the Al...
This article presents and synthesizes theoretical and methodological aspects of the application of semiotics of architecture to the study of archaeoarchitectural objects generated by past societies, regardless of their cultural and chronological, and its sociopolitical definitions. Also, social, architectural and archaeological implications of usin...
En este artículo se presentan y sintetizan aspectos teóricos y metodológicos de la aplicación de la semiótica de la arquitectura al estudio de los objetos arqueoarquitectónicos,generados por sociedades pasadas, indistintamente de sus adscripciones culturales y cronológicas, como de sus definiciones sociopolíticas. Asimismo, se analizan las implican...
The headdresses bequeathed by the desert and its ancestral inhabitants
represent an invaluable cultural legacy that must be conserved, studied and
exhibited. This is due not only to their aesthetic qualities as objects, to the
capacity they once had to imbue their users with distinctive symbolic values,
or even solely to the technical skill require...
The focus of this investigation is the function of seven small tubular bird bones, from a de-contextualized archaeological collection in the Antofagasta Region, Chile, dated on the Late Intermediate Period. Three functional hypotheses are contrasted: 1) The bones were used as tubes for nasal inhalation of psychoactive powders, 2) they were used to...
Archaeological research shows that humans lived in the Atacama desert since almost thirteen thousand years ago and that the extreme aridity never represented an insurmountable obstacle to settle in this territory. The fact that resources were so scattered distributed nor constituted a crucial limitation. The keys to overcome these environmental res...
Las investigaciones arqueológicas demuestran que las comunidades humanas vivieron en el desierto de Atacama desde hace casi trece mil años y que la aridez extrema jamás representó un obstáculo insalvable para asentar en este territorio. El hecho de que los recursos estuvieran tan dispersamente distribuidos, tampoco constituyó una limitación decisiv...
The focus of this investigation is the function of seven small tubular bird bones, from a de-contextualized archaeological collection in the Antofagasta Region, Chile, dated on the Late Intermediate Period. Three functional hypotheses are contrasted: 1) The bones were used as tubes for nasal inhalation of psychoactive powders, 2) they were used to...
This paper is part of the archaeological meeting organized in Punta de Tralca (Region of Valparaíso), in October 2013, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Chilean Society of Archaeology. Berenguer belongs to the so-called generation of the 1970s, i.e. of those archaeologists who began his professional career in that decade. As such, he p...
The author recalls his formative years as an archaeologist at the University of Chile and the political, social and cultural context that then existed in the country (1967 – 1973). The article is part of a series of testimonies on that time published in the Bulletin of the Chilean Society of Archaeology. Apart from the testimony of José Berenguer,...
Se investiga la función de siete pequeños tubos de hueso de ave de una descontextualizada colección arqueológica de la Región de Antofagasta, Chile, fechados en el Período Intermedio Tardío. Se confrontan tres hipótesis funcionales: 1) se usaron para inhalar polvos psicoactivos por la nariz, 2) se emplearon para aplicar sustancias colorantes y 3) s...
Despite being written for the general public, the publications of Grete Mostny and Hans Niemeyer (1983, 1984) offer the first scientific study of the pictographs of El Médano, a remote coastal ravine in northern Chile that contains more than a thousand marine and terrestrial images, including scenes of group hunting and fishing from seagoing vessel...
This is the exhibit guide of a new permanent
exhibition centered on the native peoples that inhabited Chilean territory
from ancient times to the present. Named after the project itself, this exhibit is
being installed in the newly built gallery and is intended to draw attention to the
creativity and art of the societies occupying the different ge...
En el presente trabajo ponemos a prueba interpretaciones en boga que le otorgan a la actividad minera un rol central dentro del expansionismo incaico al norte de Chile, y en particular a la región atacameña y el altiplano sur de Tarapacá. Luego de sintetizar la información acerca de la minería en la región durante el Período Intermedio Tardío (ca.9...
The present paper examines current interpretations of the importance of mining activity in Inka expansion into northern Chile, and particularly into the Atacama and Southern Tarapacá regions. We first present a synthesis on the evidence for pre-inka and inka copper mining and metallurgy in the study area. We then go on to infer the organizational s...
This essay incides on the debate about the rock art related to the Inka, focusing on the representation of unkus with checkered patterns in sites of pictographs. The objectives were to determine if this visual material qualifies as "inka style", if it has similes in the Southern Tawantinsuyu and if it played any role in the southern expansion of th...
Recent research on the organisation of copper production tends to show that metallurgy has rarely developed on a simple and linear manner but rather along quite tortuous paths. A team of Chilean and French archaeologists, archaeometallurgists, and geologists are currently comparing different social and technological contexts surrounding the emergen...
El libro relata la historia del Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino entre 1981 y 2011 a través de las voces de sus propios integrantes, de quienes lo integraron por algún tiempo y de quienes giraron o giran todavía en torno a su quehacer.
Parte recordando los tiempos en que se ideó el Museo, para luego recorrer su trayectoria desde los comienzos, d...
This curatorial script made for the nomination of the Qhapaq Ñan as a World Heritage Site of UNESCO, describes six Inca´s routes in Northern Chile: 1) The Sierra Route, 2) The Copper Route, 3) The Topa Inca´s Route I, 4) The Topa Inca's Route II, 5) The Capricorn Route, and 6) The Gran Despoblado Route.
Este libro es una publicación en español e inglés asociada a una exposición homónima del Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino que estuvo abierta entre noviembre de 2009 y mayo de 2010. Describe la ocupación inkaica del actual territorio chileno que tuvo lugar aproximadamente desde 1400 a 1535 d.C. Varios recuadros intercalados a lo largo del texto, d...
In this article I explore the hypothesis that caravaneer motifs in the Santa Barbara rock art (Región of Antofagasta, Chile) have to do with violent conflicts occurred in the Circumpuna Subarea during the Late Intermediate Period (AD 1000 - 1450). My analysis concludes that there is no incompatibility between a visual discourse related to warfare a...
This article is a reassessment of the El Tojo site and the surrounding area in the Huasco basin, an isolated, sparsely populated strip of land usedfor animal husbandry in the southem Altiplano of Tarapacá, situated between large agricultural population nodes. The article addresses three main issues: (1) the time depth and cultural diversity ofthe l...
This article is a reassessment of the El Tojo site and the surrounding area in the Huasco basin, an isolated, sparsely populated strip of land used for animal husbandry in the southem Altiplano of Tarapacá, situated between large agricultural population nodes. The article addresses three main issues: (1) the time depth and cultural diversity of the...
The Changos and their ancestors
Described by 16th Century Europeans as “brutish
people”, “poor” and “barbarians”, because of their simple
material culture, or even foul-smelling due to their
custom of drinking the blood of sea lions and smearing
their bodies with its oil and with whale fat. These were
the Changos, the last descendants of the gather...
El objetivo principal de este informe es enriquecer la información que se dispone para la postulación del Qhapaq Ñan en la Lista de Patrimonio Mundial de la UNESCO. Los objetivos específicos son argumentar sobre el valor patrimonial y la excepcionalidad del Tramo 2, así como sugerir secciones de la arteria que
pudieran ser consideradas por el Progr...
La duda acerca de si en realidad existió un arte rupestre propiamente incaico ha obsesionado a los investigadores durante décadas. En este artículo se discute este problema con datos del sitio SBa-518, un pequeño asentamiento agro-pastoril con arte rupestre figurativo tanto naturalista como esquemático, situado a un kilómetro del camino inca del Al...
Doubts about whether a truly Inca rock art ever existed have obsessed researchers for decades. This article reflects upon this problem with information gathered from site SBa-518, a small herder-farmer settlement with both naturalistic as well as schematic figurative rock art, located one kilometer from the Inca Road of Alto Loa, in the Antofagasta...
Capítulo único sobre los gorros prehispánicos del desierto chileno en Gorros del desierto, publicación asociada a la muestra del mismo nombre exhibida por el Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino desde octubre de 20065 a mayo de 2007
ABSTRACT. In this paper we present the results of a 125 km-long, full-coverage, pedestrian survey of the Inka route in the upper Loa River basin, between Miño and Lasana (21°39' -22°20' Lat. S). We describe and discuss (1) the course and constructive characteristics of the road in relation to the topography and the nature of the terrain; (2) its re...
This paper provides a synthesis of the main styles of rock art in the Atacama Desert, together with the climatic, cultural, and historical changes that the regíon has experienced in the last 5000 years.
Este libro es un estudio arqueológico de los alcances y aplicabilidad del modelo de Movilidad Giratoria, propuesto por Lautaro Núñez y Tom Dillehay para los Andes Centro-Sur hace 25 años. Se trata uno de los varios modelos de complementariedad económica que implican tráfico de caravanas de llamas. El estudio de José Berenguer se centra en las inter...
In this paper I analyze the main styles of engravings and paintings of the Antofagasta Region (Northern Chile), vis a vis with environmental, cultural, and historic changes experimented by the Atacama Andes for the last five-thousands years. I discuss the relative importance of external stress and the Andean culture tradition over this rock art as...
This paper attempts to determine the main representational conventions that rule the
iconographic system of Tiwanaku's lithosculpture, specifying the dffirent interuelation
and combinationforms of its various components. On this basis, a stylistic sequence of
its main sculptures is built, as a means to approach the politicalforms developed between...
This dissertation studies the scope and archaeological applicability of the concept of Revolving Mobility or Movilidad Giratoria, one of several Andean models of ecological complementarity implying tthe movement of people, goods, and llama caravans. The study is focused on the interrelations between caravan dynamics and socio-political change on an...
This work reviews the artifactual evidence for snuffing in Tiowanaku, Bolivia. The iconography of this culture is examined, specifically probable representations of snuffing practices and of its effects on the body of some personajes which frequently are presented in the Tiwanaku art. Ethnographic and iconographic information is used to support the...
Book for a general audience that offers a vision of the development of the Tiwanaku society in the Lake Titicaca basin and its sphere of interaction in the South-Central Andes. The first part focuses on the urban-ceremonial core of Tiwanaku. The second part focuses on areas such as Arica, Moquegua, Cochabamba and San Pedro de Atacama. Six text boxe...
Book for a general audience that offers a vision of the development of the Tiwanaku society in the Lake Titicaca basin and its sphere of interaction in the South-Central Andes. The first part focuses on the urban-ceremonial core of Tiwanaku. The second part focuses on areas such as Arica, Moquegua, Cochabamba and San Pedro de Atacama. Six text boxe...
