The recent development of a macrophysical paleoclimatic modeling methodology allows the reconstruction of site-specific models of Holocene precipitation and temperatures with a temporal resolution of 200 years intervals back to 14,000 B.P. Where suitable modern analogue data are available, rain intensity and evapotranspiration may also be modeled. Models of this type suggest that the hyperarid conditions found today in the Arica region of Chile have likely persisted over the last 10,000 years. Early agriculturalists must have been dependent on runoff from higher elevation precipitation and snow-melt rather than on local rainfall, as is the case today. Models of paleoclimatic change at a site near the headwaters of the Azapa Valley are considered with respect to their probable impact on water availability near the coast. Insights regarding Formative Period material culture resulting from a recent reanalysis of the burial collections from inland site AZ-71 are then considered in light of the paleoenvironmental reconstruction