Timeline of the socio-environmental dynamics of the Northern Chile region. a) Reconstructed palaeodemography trends from summed probability densities (SPD) of archeological dates. Vertical dashed lines separate population events detected during the past 3500 cal yrs BP. At the top major wet (light blue) and dry (orange) hydroclimate phases are provided. MCA: Medieval Climate Anomaly, LIA: Little Ice Age. b) Chronology for major human settlements with architecture located along the coast (blue bars), the hyperarid Pampa del Tamarugal basin (dark bars) and Andean highlands (grey bars) between 20°S and 24°S. Dashed lines connect two separated occupation events for a given complex. M: La Morula, Ma: Marilyn Mason, I: Incahuasi Aldea, PdP: Pabellón de Pica. c) Qualitative scheme for the regional agricultural intensification over time, showing main milestones for cultural and environmental transformations. d) 50-yr enrichment factors for copper from the Illimani ice-core (Eichler et al., 2017). e) Crustal-normalized copper/lanthanum ratios in the Karukinka peat-bog record from Patagonia (De Vleeschouwer et al., 2014). f) Anthropogenic copper (µg/g, blue dots) in the Laguna Pirhuacocha (11°S) (Cooke et al., 2007) and lead concentrations (yellow dots) from Laguna Lobato (20°S) (Cooke et al., 2011). g) Silver concentrations (grey dots) and mercury fluxes (green dots) from Lobato (Cooke et al., 2011) and Chungara (Guedron et al., 2019) lacustrine records. Reconstructed background levels for each metal are indicated by horizontal grey-shaded lines. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/elementa.353.f2