The Ansilta culture, of Los Morrillos de Ansilta, in San Juan department, is one of the great mysteries or riddles of Argentina archeology.  Very little is known about these people who inhabited Argentina for more than 2000 years (from 1,800 BC to possibly 800 AD), one of the most extensive periods which are known in the history of pre-Columbian peoples.

The area they settled is the Cordillera de Ansilta, in the current Argentinean province of San Juan, from the high Andean peaks to the valleys east of them.  Strangely, while other cultures west of the Andes were building major cities, the Ansilta never even built villages.   They appeared to live in caves!

In a region with difficult climatic conditions, the Ansilta based their livelihoods mostly on hunting and gathering, coupled with a weak agriculture that grew year around by the year 500 AD.

Ansilta was a culture whose earliest traits are linked to southern Peru and the northern coast of Chile.   There was no real plateau in Ansilta cultural traits, with unlike its contemporaries of the cultures of Chiripa and Tiawanaco (Bolivia).

Yet, as evidenced by recent finds, they understood metallurgy.

Belen Culture Bronze disc
28 cm

Belen Bronze Design

Belen Bronze Disc

Belen Bronze Design Motifs

Disc with four anthropomorphic faces. Bronze. Catamarca.

Bronze Axe

Gold Laminate Piece

Aguada Bronze Plaques & Discs:
a) Placa de Beni; b) Placa Hirsch I; c) Placa del Musée de l'Homme; d) Placa de Denver; e) Placa Lafone Quevedo; f) sin datos, en Scott 1998

Aguada Bronze Plaque
Designated "N2"

Aguada Bronze Ornament from Jujuy

Bronze Disc/Plaque

Cultures and Archaeological regions of Northeastern Argentina

Jujuy is a province of Argentina, located in the extreme northwest of the country, at the borders with Chile and Bolivia. The only neighboring Argentine province is Salta to the east and south.

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