Unraveling the Mysteries of Human History: The Greatest Archaeological Finds Made in Chile

The oldest settlement in the Americas, evidence of megafauna hunters at the edge of the world, the oldest mummification on the planet, ancient villages and fortresses, the backbone of the Inca empire, and the most remote island in the Pacific are part of a series of archaeological discoveries that have been made in Chile throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

On the occasion of International Archaeology Day, we invite you to learn about some of the most relevant archaeological discoveries made in Chile, based on information from the National Cultural Heritage Service, the National Museum of Natural History and archaeologists from the University of Chile Mauricio Uribe and Claudio Cristino. 

Monte Verde, the oldest human settlement in the Americas

Near the city of Puerto Montt (Los Lagos region), Monte Verde includes two human occupations at different times at the end of the Pleistocene, with animal and human remains from between 18,500 and 14,500 years ago.

Its antiquity caused a revolution in the scientific world, where it was believed that the Clovis groups - initially recognized in the state of New Mexico - were the first culture settled in America, populating from there the entire continent some 13,000 years ago, after crossing a corridor in the middle of the glaciation that occupied almost all of North America. This finding challenges the Clovis settlement theory, since this human group would have crossed the continent from Asia several centuries earlier, perhaps by a coastal route.

Covered by vegetation and volcanic ash, the site remained hidden from the scientific world until 1976, when some farmers discovered it by chance while digging a fence and sent the remains to the Universidad Austral de Chile. The American archaeologist Tom Dillehay, a Chilean by grace, took charge of its study and worldwide diffusion.

Tagua-Tagua site of megafauna hunters in central Chile

Located in the commune of San Vicente de Tagua Tagua (O'Higgins region), where the ancient Tagua-Tagua Lagoon existed, it is the second oldest archaeological site in Chile, after Monte Verde, and is also one of the most important in the Americas.

Around the ancient Tagua-Tagua lagoon, different species of animals from the Ice Age fed for several millennia and were later hunted by the first human groups that settled in the area 12,000 years ago. This archaeological and paleontological site has been known since 1841, when bones of extinct mammals were recovered and are now kept in the Natural History Museum.

Pali Aike - Fell Cave Complex: megafauna hunters at the edge of the world

Located in the Magallanes region, these natural caves are archaeological sites that provide evidence of the existence of the first settlers of the Extreme South of America, groups of hunter-gatherers who entered Patagonia from the north by land approximately 11,000 years ago, when the ice of the last glaciation was retreating from the continent.

The most important sites are, first of all, the Fell Cave, which allows us to see different stages of these groups, particularly their technology; and the Pali Aike Cave, which, among other remains, recorded three cremated human skeletons, evidencing the performance of funeral ceremonies and providing key information on the physical characteristics of these populations.

The site was discovered and studied in the 1930s by the American archaeologist Junius Bird, who found human remains, cultural vestiges, and remains of Pleistocene fauna, now extinct, which are the reference to understand the way of life of these early settlers.

Chinchorro mummification and settlement: the oldest in the world

The Chinchorro Culture developed approximately 5,050 years B.C. by marine hunter-gatherers who settled and lived mainly on the coast of the Arica and Parinacota region, in the middle of the Atacama Desert, the driest in the world, taking advantage of the abundant marine resources provided by the Humboldt Current. This profusion of food allowed them to generate semi-permanent settlements at the mouths of rivers and streams in the area, with specialized maritime technology. This evidence has been preserved thanks to the exceptional climatic conditions of northern Chile.

In 2021, UNESCO included the settlements and artificial mummification of the Chinchorro Culture on the World Heritage List.

Tarapacá Giant - Pampa Iluga: the beginning of agriculture in the desert

In 2016, Chilean researchers led by archaeologist Mauricio Uribe of the University of Chile, discovered an agricultural and ceremonial center almost 3,000 years old, located in Pampa Iluga -comuna of Huara, Tarapacá region-, associated to the archaeological monument Giant of Tarapacá (also known as the Atacama Giant), the largest anthropomorphic geoglyph in the world. This center has 72 hectares and more than 120 tumuli, corresponding to accumulations of earth, vegetables and offerings that, many times, are erected over human burials. The site is evidence of the beginnings of agriculture in the middle of the Atacama Desert, and was occupied since 97 B.C.

This place was considered by the Incas as a place of worship, which is clear from the artifacts found, related to its high social hierarchy as polychrome imperial pottery, with colors and iconography characteristic of Cusco, at which time it would have been visited by a large number of people from different parts of the Andes.

Rapa Nui: the most studied island in Polynesia

Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, in itself, is the great archaeological find of Polynesia as a whole. It is the most prospected and studied island of Polynesia, with more than 20 thousand sites and structures registered, with a high level of conservation. Some of the most relevant are the ceremonial village of Orongo; Ahu Tongariki, the largest ceremonial center of all Polynesia, and icon of the island; Ahu Tahai, statues that look towards the caves, where the people lived; the famous stone quarries of Rano Raraku, where there are still 397 statues in the carving phase, one of the most spectacular monuments of the Pacific; and Ahu Nau Nau (in Anakena), the first human settlement of the island.

One of the most important archaeologists of Polynesia is the Chilean Claudio Cristino, who together with researcher Patricia Vargas, began his work on the island in 1976, when he was part of the restoration of the ceremonial village of Orongo, in charge of the American William Mulloy, one of the archaeologists who accompanied Thor Heyerdahl's 1955 expedition to the island. Cristino was director of the anthropological museum of Rapa Nui, and responsible, among other restorations, for the iconic Ahu Tongariki (1992).

Tulor Village: one of the oldest agricultural and pastoralist settlements in Chile

Aldea de Tulor is one of the oldest sedentary archaeological sites in northern Chile, located about 7.7 km southwest of San Pedro de Atacama, between the Cordillera de la Sal and the sand dunes (Antofagasta region). The first remains were found in 1956 by the Jesuit priest Gustavo Le Paige, then excavations continued in 1980 by archaeologists Agustín Llagostera and Ana María Barón. This site dates back to approximately 400 BC. The inhabitants of Tulor practiced agriculture, cattle raising and wild fruit gathering; they also made pottery, basketry, textiles and metallurgy. Accordingly, the houses were circular, had warehouses to store grains and courtyards where families performed their daily chores.

El Olivar, the most important archaeological area of Norte Chico cultures

Located near the city of La Serena (Coquimbo region), the El Olivar archaeological site represents a cornerstone in the knowledge of the prehistory of the Coquimbo region. Its 35 hectares hold the vestiges of seven centuries of continuous pre-Hispanic occupation: from early shells that indicate the presence of the first agro-pottery populations in the area, the El Molle culture (0-800 A.D.); to large living and burial areas associated with the Las Ánimas cultural complex (600-1000 A.D.) and, above all, its continuation: the Diaguita culture (900-1500 A.D.).

Its enormous extension, high occupational density, diversity of tombs, very sophisticated offerings and temporal depth, make this the most important archaeological site of the Norte Chico or Semi-Arid in recent times.

Pucará de Turi: the largest fortress-city of the Atacameño populations

Located 75 kms. east of the city of Calama, in the Antofagasta region, at 3,100 meters above sea level, the Pucará de Turi was the largest settlement and fortress of the Atacameño culture. The occupation of the settlement began around 900 A.D., declining with the Spanish conquest and concluding with the abandonment of the town around 1,600 A.D. Previously -in the 15th century- the area was intensely occupied by the Incas, turning it into a true regional urban center.

The settlement is composed of more than 620 enclosures of different dimensions and functions. Some of them have a simple structure and others are more complex, forming groups and neighborhoods intercommunicated by roads. The volcanic stone is the most used material in the construction of the buildings, although at the end of the XV century the Inca occupation also introduced and integrated the adobe technique.

Pucará del Cerro Grande de La Compañía: southernmost enclave of the Inca empire

Located in the O'Higgins region, the Pucará or fortress of Cerro Grande de La Compañía is one of the southernmost surviving settlements of the Inca empire in Chile and a vestige of the empire's maximum southern extension.

The construction would have been used by the natives of the area between the 14th and 15th centuries. From that period, material remains have been identified that would belong to a large circular house. One of the characteristics of the place is its strategic location and its wide visibility towards the surrounding valleys and the foothills of the Coastal Range and the Andes.

Due to its archaeological importance and relevance to deepen the knowledge of the indigenous world, the Pucará del Cerro La Compañía was declared a Historic Monument in 1992.

El Niño de El Plomo: first frozen body of a Tawantinsuyu member

Discovered in 1954, the body of the child from Cerro El Plomo (Metropolitan Region) is the first discovery of its kind in the Andes, and is one of the most valuable anthropological pieces in Chile's National Museum of Natural History. It was the first known frozen body of a member of the Inca nobility, offered more than 500 years ago in a high altitude shrine, over 5,400 meters above sea level.

The child of El Plomo is the naturally freeze-dried body of an Inca child, about 8 years old, offered in honor of the god Inti (Sun) in the ceremony of the Capacocha, a state ritual of the Tawantinsuyu, related to the conquest and frontier of its territory. It does not strictly correspond to a mummy, since the child was deposited alive in a ceremony in which a retinue of nobles and priests participated.

Qhapaq Ñan: the Tawantinsuyu's backbone

Declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014, Qhapaq Ñan represents the Andean road system that was the backbone of the political and economic power of the Tawantinsuyu or Inca Empire from the 15th and 16th centuries. It crosses six countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile, in a network of roads more than 30,000 km long. It connected different administrative and ceremonial production centers, and covered a wide geographical area, from central-western Argentina and Chile to southern Colombia.

Chile's section of the Qhapaq Ñan is located in the driest desert in the world, which gives it value in itself.