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Las Mercedes culture (Cultura Las Mercedes)

400 BC – 700
CultureSouth America

An early agropottery culture of the Chaco-Santiagueño plain, settled along the banks of the Dulce and Salado rivers in what is now Santiago del Estero province, Argentina. A hunter-gatherer society that adopted incipient floodplain agriculture, fishing, and algarrobo/chañar gathering, and introduced feline-cult iconography to the lowland region.

Declined by around 700 AD and was directly succeeded in the same river valleys by the Sunchituyoc culture, to which it passed on its ceramic and ideological traditions; late-period sites show contact with the Aguada culture of the adjoining highlands.

Borders in 400 BC · drawn from 1 sourced border frame
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Further reading

Sources