THE LOMADAS DE LA AGUADA PATH AND ITS MILENARY USE IN THE QUEBRADA DE EL TALA, CENTRAL VALLEY OF CATAMARCA

Abstract

We understand the space that links the Lomadas de La Aguada Trail in the Quebrada de El Tala, from the critical geography as a material expression of a landscape built over time with uses that account for the long history of resignification of this landscape and its importance in the memory of the generations that have passed through it, where a set of forms produced by social actions generated transformations of both the subjects and the environment. Therefore, in this article we will give an account of the various forms of uses that the landscape of the Quebrada de El Tala had and has; taking the Lomadas de la Aguada trail as a space that gave rise to specific forms of organization of space and time in the valley of Catamarca.  This trail was an obligatory access route between human occupations connecting the valley of Catamarca, the Quebrada de El Talaand the upper margins of the Ambato mountain range for almost two millennia; it is associated with numerous pre-Hispanic sites from the Formative Period until the conquest. The Spaniards used it since 1595 as an access road to the Ambato mountain range. At the end of the 19th century it was improved to supply materials for construction in the city, by the middle of the 20th century it fell into disuse as a means of communication and finally its reuse in the 21st century, it gained importance again as a living space, created spaces, transited spaces and above all cultural spaces where its significance in its historical and cultural value becomes important.