Tulor is an

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology a ...

located in the

Norte Grande The Norte Grande (''Big North'', ''Far North'', ''Great North'') is one of the five natural regions into which CORFO divided continental Chile in 1950. It borders Peru to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the west, the Altiplano, Bolivia and A ...

natural region of the

Antofagasta Region The Antofagasta Region ( es, Región de Antofagasta, ) is one of Chile's sixteen first-order administrative divisions. The second-largest region of Chile in area, it comprises three provinces, Antofagasta, El Loa and Tocopilla. It is bordered t ...

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in the western part of South America. It is the southernmost country in the world, and the closest to Antarctica, occupying a long and narrow strip of land between the Andes to the east a ...

near

San Pedro de Atacama San Pedro de Atacama is a Chilean town and commune in El Loa Province, Antofagasta Region. It is located east of Antofagasta, some 106 km (60 mi) southeast of Calama and the Chuquicamata copper mine, overlooking the Licancabur volcano. ...

. The site is a former village complex with an area of and 22 outlying edifices. The settlement's remains are distributed in an east-west fashion along .

Radiocarbon Carbon-14, C-14, or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon with an atomic nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Its presence in organic materials is the basis of the radiocarbon dating method pioneered by Willard Libby and c ...

and

thermoluminescence dating Thermoluminescence dating (TL) is the determination, by means of measuring the accumulated radiation dose, of the time elapsed since material containing crystalline minerals was either heated (lava, ceramics) or exposed to sunlight (sediment ...

date the origin of the settlement sometime between 380 BCE and 200 CE, but most structures are from the period 800 CE - 1200 CE. Architectural characteristics of Tulor are circular walls are made of mud and vaults. In 1998, the

World Monuments Fund World Monuments Fund (WMF) is a private, international, non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of historic architecture and cultural heritage sites around the world through fieldwork, advocacy, grantmaking, education, and trainin ...

, an international non-profit organization, listed Tulor in the 1998 World Monuments Watch List of 100 Most Endangered Sites. After little was done to protect it, the site was re-listed in 2006. Tulor discoveries consist of many items from boreholes to human remains.

Borehole A borehole is a narrow shaft bored in the ground, either vertically or horizontally. A borehole may be constructed for many different purposes, including the extraction of water ( drilled water well and tube well), other liquids (such as petrol ...

s are the circular walls made out of clay, dug into the earth to find water. In June 1974 archaeologists put the boreholes in order of stratigraphy so they can find out more about how the population disappeared that was once there. The stratigraphy helped in finding out why the population disappeared, which was not due by climatic changes but to an increase in drought. On site they found lithic, human bones, animal bones, ceramic, carbon, and seashells buried in the ground. All these artifacts are considered to be from the mesolithic era.(Spanish) Serracino, George https://www.jstor.org/stable/25674539?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

References

Geography of Antofagasta Region Archaeological sites in Chile Buildings and structures in Antofagasta Region National Monuments of Chile Pre-Columbian architecture in Chile {{chile-stub