干旱区生态环境知识资源中心

This article provides a survey of ceramic pipes from archaeological sites near the salar de Atacama and describes their morphological attributes, paste elemental composition and combustion residue composition. Pipes exhibit a shape distinctive of the SA: pipe stems with everted lips and bowls with abstract zoo- or anthropomorphic motifs. The pastes present attributes of local origin and the residues lack of tryptamines and traces of nicotine and a variety of generic compounds of plant and animal origin. These results suggest that consumption of hallucinogens was not the primary use of the pipes; this allows hypothesizing that they may have been used as incense burners. An exploratory comparison of the results with those of pipes from Northwestern Argentina is presented.