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The hyperarid core of the Atacama Desert possesses important reserves of “fossil” or ancient groundwater, yet the extent and timing of past hydrologic change during the late Quaternary is largely unknown. In situ and/or short-distance transported leaf-litter deposits abound along relict fluvial terraces inserted within four dry and unvegetated valleys that drain into the endorheic basin of Pampa del Tamarugal (PDT, 21°S, 900–1000 m), one of the largest and economically important aquifers in northern Chile. Our exceptional archive offers the opportunity to evaluate the response of low-elevation desert ecological and hydrological systems to late Quaternary climate variability. Three repeated expansions of riparian/wetland ecosystems, and perennial rivers occurred along the southernmost PDT basin between 17.6–14.2 ka, 12.1–11.4 ka and from 1.01–0.71 ka. Both early and late archaic archaeological artefact are …