干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

This article presents the results of a stylistic and iconographic study of the images carved onto the various components of the hallucinogenic complex of the Atacama area (these objects are currently curated at the Instituto de Investigaciones Arqueologicas y Museo R. P. Gustavo Le Paige S. J. in San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, IIAM). It defines one of the styles present in a sample of more than 600 inhalation trays and tubes, as well as in spoons, little spoons, spatulas, mortars and bone containers necessary for the practice of snuffing. From this study, it is possible to claim that it is a style with features that separate it from the visual patterns of the Tiawanaku style and the Circumpeno style. This style is also quite common in the funerary contexts that have been excavated in the different ayllus or oases of the Atacama Salt Flat, and which -interestingly has not been documented outside this area. Therefore, I propose to call it the "San Pedro" style, and I tentatively situate its use in the Middle Period or Tiawanaku Horizon (ca. AD 400-1,000).