Around 900 A.D., the El Molle people, who were the traditional inhabitants of the semi-arid North, would feel the need to shift from a horticulturalist to an agricultural way of life centered on the large-scale cultivation of corn. Along with this change, these groups’ longstanding relations with societies of northwest Argentina would bring new cultural influences to their land that would eventually cause the emergence of the Diaguita and Copiapó cultures. These changeswould also impact societies living further south, notably the Aconcagua and El Vergel. Over time, their agricultural focus would cause the Diaguita and Copiapóto adopt a completely sedentary way of life, with most groups living in villages located near their farm fields.
One such Diaguita settlement has been unearthed in downtown La Serena, while a Copiapó site has been discovered at Punta Brava, upstream from Tierra Amarilla. Nevertheless, unlike their counterparts living further north, these groups did not raise camelid herds; that activity would only begin in this territory under the Inca expansion. Unfortunately, studies of these groups havefocused on their extensive cemeteries—including the Diaguita one at Altovalsol, at the mouth of the Elqui River, and the Copiapó burial ground located at Huasco Bajo—rather than on their settlements, so there is much still to learn about their way of life.