History
The El Molle people were heirs to the hunter-gatherer tradition of the Archaic period, but they developed a new way of life based on horticulture and village life. They may have intermixed with new populations, perhaps through the close relations they established with peoples on the Eastern side of the Andes (such as the Ciénaga, La Candelaria and Condorhuasi people), with the people of the Atacama Desert, or with the Bato and Llolleo people of Central Chile. Around the 7th Century of our era, a major cultural shift took place in the semi-arid north that would lead to the emergence of the Las Ánimas culture.