The people forming the Chinchorro culture were sedentary fishermen inhabiting the Pacific coastal region of current northern Chile and southern Peru.

Presence of fresh water in the arid region on the coast facilitated human settlement in this area.

The area of the Chinchorro culture started to receive influences from the Andean Plateau around 4,000 BP, which led to the adoption of agriculture.

[2] The culture was spread across the arid coastal regions of the Atacama Desert from Ilo, southern Peru, to Antofagasta in northern Chile.

But the cultural core of the Chinchorro seems to be the Chilean Arica-Camarones region, which stretches between the coastal towns of Arica and Caleta Camarones to the south.

[4] The Chinchorro type site is located in Arica, Chile; it was discovered by German archaeologist Max Uhle in the early 20th century.

Some scholars argue that Chinchorro culture developed from these earlier settlements although the details are still being investigated.

[2] Dr. Bernardo Arriaza is a Chilean physical anthropologist who contributed much to our current knowledge about the Chinchorro.

Later, in 1994, Arriaza published a classification of the Chinchorro mummies, the typology that today is widely used by the scientific and general community.

His book "Beyond Death: The Chinchorro Mummies of Ancient Chile[9]" was published by the Smithsonian Institution Press in Washington, D.C.

The mummies are found to be mostly independent of the age and social status of the deceased, although higher-ranking former members of the Chinchorros underwent more elaborate and complex mortuary treatment.

Around 4,000 BP, the people of the Azapa Valley saw some cultural changes brought by immigrants from the Altiplano.