Rider and mount iconography is common in the rock art of northern Chile but
it is little investigated and poorly understood. This paper takes a new ap
proach which focuses on the meaning and context of these equestrian images.
It surveys the contexts in which equestrian imagery, particularly that ass
ociated with Apostle Santiago, is used and the meanings it invokes in colon
ial period illustrations and contemporary indigenous Andean cultures. These
insights form the basis of a new interpretation of the equestrian rock art
imagery of the Aiquina area of northern Chile. It is argued that the incor
poration of equestrian iconography into rock art was not a simple process o
f importing exotic items and ideas, but a complex process involving the app
ropriation of imagery and ideas and the renegotiation of their meanings in
new cultural contexts.