Resumen

BERENGUER R., José; CABELLO B., Gloria  y  ARTIGAS S.C., Diego. IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE INCA THROUGH NEIGHBOURING PETROGLYPHS SITES ALONG THE QHAPAQÑAN IN ALTO LOA, NORTHERN CHILE. Chungará (Arica) [online]. 2007, vol.39, n.1, pp. 29-49. ISSN 0717-7356.  doi: 10.4067/S0717-73562007000100003.

Doubts about whether a truly Inca rock art ever existed have obsessed researchers for decades. This article reflects upon this problem with information gatheredfrom 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 Region of northern Chile. After analyzing the occupational history of the site, separating five clusters or sub-styles from within the schematic group, tracing several path changes in the image figuration, and evaluating different temporary scenarios for these groups, it is possible to confirm that the schematic camelid tradition precedes the Inca occupation in this area by several centuries. It is proposed that three of these sub-stylistic groups were contemporary with Tawantinsuyu (the Inca Empire), in particular when SBa-518 was incorporated into the Inca orbit as a satellite settlement

Palabras clave : South-Central Andes; Loa River; Inca roads; Qhapaqñan; rock art; stylistic sequence.