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Sanagasta culture (Angualasto)

1000 – 1480
CultureSouth America

A Late Intermediate / protohistoric culture centered on the Famatina, Sanagasta, Yacampis, Guandacol and Jáchal valleys of what is now La Rioja Province, Argentina, extending into San Juan. Sedentary farmers who kept llamas, hunted guanaco and rhea, worked copper into pectorals and earrings, and produced distinctive black-on-red geometric ('Sanagasta' or 'Angualasto' style) ceramic urns. Grouped by Spanish Wikipedia alongside the (already-canonical) Santa María and Belén cultures as one of the protohistoric Kakán-speaking Diaguita-sphere cultures of the Argentine Northwest (NOA).

The associated Capayán/Diaguita peoples of this zone were absorbed into the Inca Empire around 1480 (with mitmaqkuna resettled into the valley from elsewhere in Tawantinsuyu); Spanish colonization from 1607 dispersed the population, which had lost its distinct identity by the late 18th century.

Borders in 1000 · drawn from 1 sourced border frame
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Further reading

Sources