El Médano – Los Médanos Geoglyphs (Copiapó Dune Field)
Geoglifos de El Medanoso · Médano Gigante Dune Figures · Copiapó Dune Crest Lines
El Molle to Copiapó Culture·Copiapó Atacameño–Diaguita caravaneers·🇨🇱 Atacama Region, Copiapó Province, El Medanoso dune–pampa corridor S of Copiapó, Chile
About
About El Médano – Los Médanos Geoglyphs (Copiapó Dune Field)
Dune-stabilized geoglyph group (480 m) on interdune pampa sheets within the Médano (Los Médanos) active barchan field south of Copiapó River, 22 km south of Copiapó city (Atacama Region). 14 figures cut/stabilized on deflated dune plinths: 18-32 m camelids, 25 m anthropomorph with cupule-type head, and 60-140 m arrow-shaped avenues indicating lee-side wind shelter routes. Technique adapts to dune mobility—trenched 40 cm deep with caliche block revetment to resist sand burial, unlike Atacameña pavement clearing.
Neighbor to Viña del Cerro smelter (Inca) 8 km north. Figures correlate with El Molle–Copiapó caravan routes (400-1200 CE). Dune migration buries/re-exposes lines seasonally, giving unusually dynamic preservation; 2020 lidar revealed 6 additional buried avenues.
Why it mattersOnly Atacama geoglyphs engineered for active dune context; revival of caliche technique.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Lidar-buried figure count and dune periodicity
Theories
- 01Viña del Cerro–Medanoso chronology overlap
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.400-1200 CE
- Period
- El Molle to Copiapó Culture
- Culture
- Copiapó Atacameño–Diaguita caravaneers
- Builders
- Copiapó valley caravan house
- Purpose
- Wind-shelter routing and dune-edge water caching at Médano corridor
- Abandoned
- c.1400 CE
- Rediscovered
- 1998 Niemeyer dune survey; 2020 lidar (Univ. Atacama)
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
1998
Niemeyer trench-revetment typology at El Medanoso
2020
U. Atacama lidar finds 6 buried avenues
On the ground
Structures & features
27.4200° S · 70.4200° W · 480 m · 2 mapped features
El Medanoso Arrow Avenue
earthwork118-m arrow avenue with caliche revetment pointing SE
27.4180° S · 70.4180° WEl Medanoso Cupule Anthropomorph
geoglyph25-m anthropomorph with pitted cupule head
27.4220° S · 70.4220° W
Gallery