Satellite images show ancient hunting traps used by South American social groups

Summary

3D render of a chacu. Credit: A. Oyaneder Satellite images have revealed an ancient system of elaborate, funnel-shaped mega traps likely built by hunters and pastoralists to catch prey in the high altitudes of northern Chile. New research on the Andean landscape and the people who lived there has identified 76 stone "chacus," often stretching hundreds of meters in length, that would have been used to capture vicuña, a wild relative of the alpaca. Similar structures have been found in other arid regions of the world, including the Middle East, but this is the first time such a concentration has been discovered in the area, and it raises the possibility that they pre-date those known to have been used by the Inkas. The study has also found evidence of settlements and outposts in the area known as the Western Valleys, establishing a high probability that it was home to foragers many centuries after it was believed people had adopted more settled agricultural social systems. "There has long been a discrepancy between what archaeological and ethnohistorical records have told us about life in the Western Valleys of northern Chile during the colonial period," states Dr. Adrián Oyaneder from the University of Exeter. "On the one hand, archaeological research has pointed to a gradual decline in hunting and gathering from 2,000 B.C. onwards with the introduction of domesticated plants and animals. But, historical sources, such as Spanish tax records from the 16th to the 19th centuries, refer to 'Uru' or 'Uro,' which was a generic term for foraging populations who were of little economic interest to the colonizers." Illustration of a chacu hunting trap, indicating how they funneled wildlife into pits. Credit: A. Oyaneder Using publicly available satellite data, Dr. Oyaneder examined a 4,600 square-kilometer area of the Camarones River Basin, focusing on upland areas that had hitherto remained little studied. Over four months, he identified a huge number of new sites of archaeo...