Toro Muerto Extended Geoglyph Field (La Caldera)
Toro Muerto Sur Geoglyphs · Majes Desert Lines Extension
Middle Horizon to Late Intermediate·Wari / Chuquibamba·🇵🇪 Arequipa Region, Castilla, La Caldera pampa south of Toro Muerto, Peru
About
About Toro Muerto Extended Geoglyph Field (La Caldera)
A southern 8-km extension of the Toro Muerto complex onto La Caldera pampa, comprising 18 cleared geoglyphs distinct from the famous 2,600 boulders: 20–30 m geometric rhomboids, 40-m zoomorphic outlines (camelid, fox) and 300-m straight avenues with low rock alignments. Discovered by comparing 1944 SAN aerial photos with 2019 Sentinel-2, the extension shows Wari–Chuquibamba ceramics and Chuquibamba (Pitave) style linking it to 800–1200 CE. Unlike the boulder petroglyphs below, the pampa geoglyphs exploit a higher pavement where wind deflation preserves cleared floors, documented by UNSA's 2021 magnetometry detecting no subsurface architecture.
Why it mattersShows dual technique landscape: petroglyph boulders below, cleared geoglyphs above — same culture, two media.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Technique bifurcation within one culture
Theories
- 01Seasonal herd migration markers
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.800 – 1200 CE
- Period
- Middle Horizon to Late Intermediate
- Culture
- Wari / Chuquibamba
- Builders
- Majes basin pastoralists
- Purpose
- Pampa ritual marking and herd-route signalling
- Abandoned
- c.1350 CE
- Rediscovered
- 1944 SAN photos re-analyzed 2019; 2021 UNSA ground truth
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
800 CE
Earliest rhomboid with Wari sherds
2021
UNSA magnetometry confirms geoglyph lack of architecture
On the ground
Structures & features
16.2200° S · 72.4800° W · 950 m · 2 mapped features
Rhomboid Geoglyph R-7
geoglyph28-m diamond with central cairn
16.2180° S · 72.4820° WSouthern Avenue
earthwork300-m straight avenue with paired cobble lines
16.2230° S · 72.4780° W