Exploring rock paintings, engravings and geoglyphs of the Atacama desert through materiality, style and agency

We characterise and discuss how different forms of rock art in the Atacama Desert (engravings, paintings and geoglyphs) have been studied, exploring how the concepts of materiality, style, and agency have become powerful analytical and heuristic tools to improve the understanding of the social phenomena behind its production, use, and consumption. The aim of this chapter is to make explicit and analyze how these notions underlie the theoretical and methodological approaches to rock art in the region. We conclude that in the Atacama Desert rock art has received considerable archaeological attention that has emphasised its active social role; however, while style has been an explicit analytical tool, materiality and agency have been rather implicit.