The “Hero of the Chiles”: Symbolism of a Petroglyphic Representation

Professor Roberto Rengifo in his book Noticias y comentarios arqueológicos (“Archaeological News and Commentaries”) –published in 1919 and corresponding to the first part of El Secreto de la América Aborigen (“The Secret of Aboriginal America”)– wrote the following lines about a singular anthropomorphic figure belonging to a petroglyphic group in the Chalinga area in the Region of Coquimbo, in northern Chile, which records the struggle of the Chiles against the northern military power represented in the form of a quarter divided into four sections, which could correspond to the four Suyos of the neighboring empire of Titicaca¹:

The stone tablet 4 apparently represents the opposite: This is, the independence of the Chiles from the Empire of the Four Quarters; a fact naturally subsequent to the submission (Figure K [the “Hero of the Chiles”])².

Below, Professor Rengifo extends on this idea:

The epigraph would then read: As time went by, after the beginning of the Second Era (the interruption in the middle corresponds to a breaking of the stone), in the country where the whip sling or the wooden stick to throw pierced stones was used as a weapon, the following happened: A military power, represented on the left by the head with a crest, disappeared, since it is represented cut off, without a body; this power corresponded to the shield or slate with a handle and small whips, which is divided into four quarters, which may correspond to the four Suyos of the neighboring empire of Titicaca, since its drawings are of that architecture. The helmets with crests are often seen in Chimu pottery, and possibly it is from the empire in which this city flourished, prior to the Inca Quichuas; however, it is already seen in the division into four that the Quichuas would later restore, again. The victor of this military power is on the right, full-length, brandishing his sling which launches a stone, which hits the forehead of the first quarter (analogous to David and Goliath). This hero has double-lined arms, to signify his strength; the tail may be that of a puma’s skin, which he may have used as a war suit; on his head is a plume, perhaps the other one escaped when the drawing was traced on the stone; his features are replaced by a cross, on a tooth-shaped rock, like the adobe bricks of the Nazca tombs; if this cross were the Swastika, it would mean the ardor of the champion or of the nation he represents; but I am not sure of this, however, remembering that in Egypt the first man is brought to life out of clay, with a cross with a handle †. The slate or shield at his side is that of a nation divided into two zones; the narrow border that runs around the top, covering two and a half sides, has no other explanation than the similarity with the narrow strip of the territory of Chile. The upper half with the Toquí in the center would be northern Chile, including the mountain region of both bands [of the Andes]; the lower half would represent the narrow Chiloé and the Patagonian Pampas, with a Chilihueque [a Chilean auchenid] next to Chiloé and an incomplete ostrich towards the Pampas side, half intertwined (Ubérrimas patriotas)³.

Later, in Los chiles (“The Chiles”) –published in 1920, being the third part of El Secreto de la América Aborigen–, Professor Rengifo confirmed that “this hero has double-lined arms to signify his strength”. This is completed with the new annotation that between the two lines there are ten points that represent the nation of Chiles and that consequently, the figure is a personification and not a person.⁴