Patrón de Asentamiento
Given their highly mobile way of life, the hunter gatherers of Central Chile did not establish villages, but for centuries in their seasonal nomadic circuits they used the same sites over and over, establishing small encampments. In the mountains, they took shelter in rock overhangs and caves, some of which they used as sleeping places, others as work places. One the coast they left piles of shell waste, known as middens. In the final part of the Archaic period, new occupations began to appear at previously uninhabited sites, pointing to a possible increase in population, which could be due to the successful adaptation of the hunter gatherer way of life.