At over 4,000 meters above sea level, in the heart of the Chilean Andes, 76 V-shaped stone structures have been identified in the Camarones River basin. Long ignored, these installations discovered thanks to satellite imagery reveal an elaborate collective hunting system, which may date back more than 6,000 years. These traps for vicuñas (a South American mammal close to the alpaca) called chacus call into question the idea that hunting was marginalized from the appearance of agriculture in this region.
The study, led by Adrián Oyaneder of the University of Exeter, in collaboration with the Universidad de Tarapacá and funded by FONDECYT and ANID–Becas Chile, was published in the journal Antiquity.
A massive, invisible trapping system from the ground
The analysis of high-resolution satellite images covering 4,600 km² of the Camarones River basin made it possible to identify 76 dry stone trapping structures, previously never recorded on this scale in the Andes. These devices, called chacus, consist of two long converging walls forming an inverted “V” guidance corridor. They lead to a terminal enclosure, often dug or raised, of approximately 95 m².
Some structures reach 150 meters in length, with walls 1.5 to 2 meters high. They are built on slopes at an altitude of more than 4,000 meters. They are sometimes integrated into natural gorges, accentuating their effectiveness. Their design is based on a detailed understanding of the behavior of vicuñas (Vicugna vicugna), very fast and gregarious wild camelids. The animals were brought down in groups by the hunters and then trapped in these enclosures.
© A. Oyaneder, 2025
Examples of each trap discovered in the Camarones basin.
The identification of these structures was mainly carried out using remote sensing tools such as Google Earth or Sentinel-2. They made it possible to detect linear anomalies in an arid and poorly contrasted landscape. The interest of these installations lies in their scale, but also their probable age. Some could date back to 6000 BC. BC, well before the emergence of the Inca Empire.
A mobile occupation organized around seasonal hunting
The chacus discovered in the region do not constitute isolated elements. In the immediate vicinity, Adrián Oyaneder has listed 790 human settlements. Mainly small stone habitats, sometimes grouped in circular or linear groups. These sites, located between 2,800 and 4,200 meters above sea level, show traces of seasonal occupation. This suggests a nomadic or semi-nomadic lifestyle closely linked to the availability of resources.
Cross-analysis of these archaeological data with vegetation indices from Sentinel-2 shows a direct correlation between human occupation and seasonal grazing periods. During the humid months of March to April, the Andean slopes become covered with vegetation. They then attract wild herds… and human groups. In the dry season, these populations return to the valleys, adapting their mobility to ecological cycles.
This model is referred to as a constrained mobility landscape. It is a constrained movement system, but optimized by natural resources. In particular the vicuña, water points and Andean herbaceous plants. This type of mobility is based on intimate knowledge of the terrain, transmitted over several generations.
The data collected calls into question a dominant paradigm in Andean archaeology. Namely: hunting practices would have declined sharply after 2000 BC. However, the evidence gathered here shows a continuity of hunting until the colonial era, in cohabitation with livestock breeding and agriculture. It was therefore not a question of a gradual abandonment of hunting, but of the integration of several modes of subsistence.
These groups demonstrated great adaptability, organizing their movements according to the seasons and the resources available at altitude. Their collective logistics were based on detailed knowledge of the terrain, revealing a mobile occupation but firmly anchored in the Andean ecosystem.
Between spirituality and technique, a ritualized collective hunt
Beyond the technical ingenuity of the traps, the chacus also represented a theater of collective activities with a strong symbolic dimension. Ethnohistorical sources, notably Spanish colonial chronicles from the 16th to 18th centuries, mention hunting rituals called chacu or choquela. In these ceremonies, several dozen people – sometimes entire communities – participated in cutting down the vicuñas using songs, ropes and offerings to the spirits of the mountains.
According to Oyaneder, in a statement, these practices are not only about efficiency, but also a complex relationship between humans, animals and natural forces. In Aymara cosmology, these hunts were seen as an exchange with the spiritual world. The term chocela, for example, designates both a hunt, a ritual dance, and a moment of communication with invisible powers linked to lightning or fertility.
Illustration of a hunting trap each, showing how they trapped wild animals in pits.
This approach has echoes in Andean anthropology, where the mountain (apu) is perceived as a living entity. She demanded offerings in exchange for her generosity. Hunting could not then take place without ritual agreement. The collective use of each can be interpreted as a form of shared resource management. All anchored in a moral and cosmological obligation.
A redefinition of Andean societies from the margins
Traditionally, archaeological accounts favor large sedentary, agrarian and hierarchical civilizations. However, Adrián Oyaneder's study offers a valuable counterpoint by highlighting mobile groups, not very hierarchical, living on the geographical and social margins. These hunting societies are often described as “residual” or “primitive” in colonial archives. However, they appear here as structured, efficient and deeply connected to their environment.
Documents from Spanish settlers classified these groups under the term “Uru” or “Uro”. This designated populations considered non-productive with regard to colonial requirements (no agriculture, little surplus, refusal of tax registration). However, the chacus, seasonal camps and territorial circulations show a coherent social organization, based on other economic and cultural logics.
This reversal of approach is fundamental. It calls into question the implicit hierarchy between agricultural sedentary lifestyle and hunting mobility, long valued in historical interpretations. By demonstrating that collective hunting practices continued until the colonial period, the study reveals the lasting coexistence of several parallel, sometimes complementary, ways of life in the same Andean space.
Furthermore, spatial data from remote sensing make it possible to consider non-linear organizational models. In particular networks of circulation, cooperation and management of resources without fixed political centers, but nevertheless effective.
The chacus then become markers of another way of creating society, not centered on agricultural production. We focus on mobility, territorial memory and the collective use of living things.
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