El color y el fuego: excavaciones en la plaza de la cumbre de Rincón Chico (Provincia de Catamarca)

Abstract

The village of Rincón Chico in Yocavil was one of the most complex settlements of the region during the last centuries before the Spanish conquest. With almost four hundred structures, the residents of this village deployed their social relationships also throughout architecture. According to research carried out, the sector with decorated walls found on the eastern slope has been interpreted as a public ceremonial space, defined by a plaza at the foot of the slope as well as by other elements. At the same time, at the peak of the town a large structure -called the Bicolour Plaza- emerges, combining grey and pink colours throughout all its architectural components in an extraordinary way. The excavations carried out there provide elements to discuss this place?s temporality and the social role it played, while referring as well to the diversity of both the ceremonial practices carried out in the town?s different plazas and the social sectors involved in such practices. With this article we intend to contribute to the study on plazas, built in the late Yocavil?s settlements, as scenarios for ceremonial deployment, in short, for the expression of the communities? social foundations.