At the end of the Pleistocene, the hunter-gatherers of the arid north hada way of life based on their regular movement from the lowlands to the edge of the pampa, already completely arid, passing through foothill ravines to reach the Altiplano or Puna. These groups specialized in extracting the resources of the Andean upland meadows, especially when environmental conditions were most arid. The lack of resources in this land led them to adopt ahighly mobile way of life, and kept their population density low, though their close relationship with camelidsprompted themto begin domesticating these animals around 1000 B.C. This development has been demonstrated clearly in ancient sites such as the settlement of Tulan 52, on the southern edge of the Atacama Salt Flat.
From very early on, the rich bounty of the Pacific Ocean attracted someinhabitants of the Arid North, and over time these people developed a marine hunter-gatherer culture focused on coastal resources. Their way of life was quite simple, technologically speaking, but it was very well adapted to their needs. These groups gathered shellfish, hunted sea lions and trapped fish from the shore. But their simplicity applied primarily to the tools they used for survival; in the ritual sphere they developed the most complex funerary techniques imaginable, the most elaborate expression of which is found in the mummies of the Chinchorro tradition.
This complex treatment of the dead would have been in the hands of skilled experts and was practiced on virtually all members of the society. They buried their dead in cemeteries such as those found at the foot of Morro de Arica, some of which containentire families, which seems to indicate that these hunter-gatherers were less nomadic than other groups of their time, perhaps owing to the abundant resources available to them from the Pacific Ocean. Around 3000 B.C., these coastal groups were living in small settlements such as Caleta Huelén 42, at the mouth of the Loa River.