History
Heirs to the Archaic hunter-gatherer way of life, the early ceramicists of Choapa began to practice dry farming of crops to supplement their diet. Their pottery has certain stylistic features in common with the Argentine Valleserrana cultures of Agreló and Calingasta (based in Mendoza and San Juan, respectively), which suggests that these groups had some kind of interaction, though the nature of that interaction is not yet well understood. By around 1,000 CE, the middle reaches of the mountain valleys and ravines were no longer occupied by the Choapa culture but by Diaguita communities that had a more sedentary way of life based on agriculture. However, they did continue to occupy the upper reaches of the Choapa (Chalinga) river basin until very late, though that environment was not suited to the development of intensive agriculture.