Experts Criticize Codelco’s ‘Cultural Attack’ on Talabre Geoglyphs Restoration: ‘Incomprehensible’

Original article: Expertos denuncian «atentado patrimonial» de Codelco en restauración de Geoglifos de Talabre: «Incomprensible»

The geoglyphs of northern Chile are once again in the spotlight due to a lack of protection and poor management. This time, the focus is on the Talabre Geoglyphs, located in the Antofagasta Region, near Calama.

A group of experts has recently published a study in the journal Rock Art Research, delving into a troubling process: the unsuccessful restoration of the figures in this area as part of a project by the state-owned mining company Codelco.

The document was authored by Gonzalo Pimentel, Mariana Ugarte, Juan Gli, Javier Arévalo, and Claudia Montero Poblete, members of the Atacama Desert Foundation, who have specialized in researching, promoting, and managing the geoglyphs and the heritage of the region for over a decade.

This team of specialists investigated the case because, as explained by Gonzalo Pimentel – current president of the Foundation – «the Talabre Geoglyphs hold an ancient memory of the millennia-old Andean past, but especially the devastating present of extractivism, which includes the ‘restoration’ conducted by Codelco in 2019, which we prefer to refer to as a false modern makeover of the deep past.»

During this process, they uncovered what could be dubbed the «Ecce Homo of Borja of the geoglyphs»: a poorly implemented restoration of the Talabre Geoglyphs, but rather than being left in the hands of a well-meaning grandmother from a small Spanish town, it was promoted and funded by the giant state-owned mining company Codelco.

The Geoglyph and Its Antiquity

The Talabre Geoglyph features a central human figure measuring 17 meters, believed to have been created during the Formative Period, between 3,000 and 1,600 years ago. As a narrative device, the inhabitants of the territory included two smaller anthropomorphic images, drawn approximately a thousand years later.

As noted in the article, «if you traveled back a thousand or five hundred years to Talabre, you would clearly see these images from the llama caravan trails as true guides left by the ancestors.»

This means that the conquering forces of Pedro Valdivia may have encountered this cultural testament, something that is not guaranteed for future generations, or at least not in its true form. As specialists say, the fate of the natural environment surrounding this geoglyph changed as a consequence of industrial-scale mineral extraction as we know it today.

«The hundreds of millions of tons of toxic waste produced by copper extraction began to pour into the natural basin of the Talabre salt flat. Thus, overnight, from a lagoon and salt flat, it transformed into a giant Tailings Dam, currently managed by the state-owned copper miner, Codelco,» the article states.

Despite this, the geoglyph managed to survive this process, albeit with some scars: marks from truck and vehicle tires on the depicted figures. As a way to remedy these effects, the state-owned company announced in 2019 that they had completed the enhancement of the archaeological heritage of the Talabre Geoglyph, which included its restoration.

The outcome was studied by this team, equipped with previous images (from 2014). After this restoration, in the case of the main figure, «what was a lower hook on its clothing became part of the dress’s skirt. Its two arms that were originally downwards were raised. The staff it held in its right hand became integrated as part of its arm, while the left was elongated upwards,» the experts noted.

Meanwhile, the human figure located to the right of the main one also underwent changes: «Its head, which was square, became rectangular with a new accumulation inside, and the vertical appendage that extended from its right shoulder was mostly erased,» the publication points out.

Finally, the other figure, to the left, «had its circular head completely erased, among other multiple transformations undergone during the restoration process.»

The specialists concluded that, «it is quite incomprehensible how this giant mining company, with all the resources and advanced technologies that allow them to scan every inch of the ground, ended up producing this cultural assault that they leave for posterity.»

El Ciudadano