In the highlands of the Arid North, in places such as the Tulan ravine and the Atacama salt flat, the pronged contact that human groups had with native fauna species, and the intimate knowledge they developed as a result, led to a process that would become a hallmark of groups living in this area—domestication of wild animals. The first animals to be domesticated were guanacos and vicuñas, followed by llamas and alpacas, giving rise to a way of life in which herding these animals was a central feature. Around the same time, these groups adopted new technologies as a result of their interaction with groups from the Altiplano and Northwestern Argentina. These innovations—notably quinoa and corn horticulture and ceramic making—laid the foundation for the emergence of sedentary societies such as the Tilocalar and the Azapa.
As the populations of these groups steadily increased, we see the first indications of social hierarchy. Their clustered settlements appear in all of the oases and many of the ravines of the Arid North, with notable examples from later periods including Tulor, in San Pedro de Atacama, and Guatacondo, east of Iquique. Both of these villages were situated close to oases with abundant algarrobo trees, the pods of which the locals collected to make flour and chicha(a fermented beverage).