Remote sensing archaeology in recent years has emphasized the use of high-precision and high-accuracy tools to achieve the detailed documentation of archaeological elements (drones, LIDAR, etc.). Satellite remote sensing has also benefited from an increase in the spatial and spectral resolution of the sensors, which is enabling the discovery and documentation of new archaeological features and sites worldwide. While there can be no doubt that a great deal is being gained via such “site detection” approaches, there still remains the possibility of further exploring remote sensing methods to analyse archaeological problems. In this paper, this issue is discussed by focusing on one common archaeological topic: the mapping of environmental resources used in the past and, in particular, the procurement of lithic raw material by hunter-gatherer groups. This is illustrated by showing how the combined use of Landsat 8 images and “ground-truthing” via focused field studies has allowed the identification of a number of potential chert sources, the major lithic resource used by coastal groups between 11,500–1,500 cal. BP, in a vast area of the Atacama Desert covering 22,500 km². Besides discussing the case study, the strength of remote sensing techniques in addressing archaeological questions comprising large spatial scales is highlighted, stressing the key role they can play in the detection and study of specific environmental resources within challenging physical settings.

Early inhabitants along the hyperarid coastal Atacama Desert in northern Chile developed resilience strategies over 12,000 years, allowing these communities to effectively adapt to this extreme environment, including the impact of giant earthquakes and tsunamis. Here, we provide geoarchaeological evidence revealing a major tsunamigenic earthquake that severely affected prehistoric hunter-gatherer-fisher communities ~3800 years ago, causing an exceptional social disruption reflected in contemporary changes in archaeological sites and triggering resilient strategies along these coasts. Together with tsunami modeling results, we suggest that this event resulted from a ~1000-km-long megathrust rupture along the subduction contact of the Nazca and South American plates, highlighting the possibility of M _w ~9.5 tsunamigenic earthquakes in northern Chile, one of the major seismic gaps of the planet. This emphasizes the necessity to account for long temporal scales to better understand the variability, social effects, and human responses favoring resilience to socionatural disasters.

This article explores the particular characteristics of the musical practices deployed by the musicians of the brass band Alcones del Folklore, with special emphasis on their repertoire. To this end, a review was made of the historical evolution of brass bands in the Norte Grande de Chile and field work was done with that band. In addition, archaeological, ethnohistorical and ethnographic dealing with the association between music and ritual in religious ceremonies of the Central-South Andes from pre-Hispanic times to the present were considered. It is argued that through their musical practices, the Andean brass bands participate in the continuity and change of a framework of musical, devotional and spatio-temporal relationships, of identities and collective memories, which persist from pre-Inca times and have tenaciously incorporated recent sounds and devotions. These practices interweave versatility, tradition and modernity in correspondence relationships, as we will review for the case of Alcones del Folklore, during the festivity of Espíritu Santo, in the town of Jaiña (Tarapacá, Norte Grande de Chile), the years 2014 and 2015.