Limari

The Limarí valley crosses the semi-arid country of northern Chile, its river flowing westward towards the Pacific. Its ancient inhabitants left rock paintings and engravings in places such as the Valle del Encanto, where designs include human figures, animals and geometric forms. Diaguita communities cultivated the valleys with irrigation and made distinctive pottery painted in white, red and black.

In the late fifteenth century the Inca incorporated the Diaguita lands into their empire. Pottery from the Limarí valley shows the meeting of Diaguita and Inca designs, alongside motifs associated with communities across the Andes. The settlement at what became Ovalle was a major inhabited and productive centre of this period, and its burial grounds preserve evidence of the people who lived there.