the southern Diaguita lands – that is Petorca, La Ligua, Combarbalá and Choapa – may be rooted in pre-Hispanic times at least several centuries before the Spanish arrival. Mapuche toponymy is also found throughout the area. Around Elqui Valley almost all indigenous toponimy belongs either to Quechua or Mapuche. There is no Diaguita (Kakan) toponimy known in the valley. While there was an immigration of Mapuches to the southern Diaguita lands in colonial times, Mapuche culture there is judged to be older than this. Indeed, in 1954 Grete Mostny postulated the idea of a link between Mapuches and the archaeological culture of El Molle. It has been claimed that the Inca Empire expanded into Diaguita lands because of its mineral wealth. This hypothesis is currently under dispute. Another possibility is that the Incas invaded the relatively well-populated Eastern Diaguita valleys to obtain labor to send to Chilean mining districts. It is generally accepted that Diaguita incorporation into the Inca Empire was through warfare that caused a severe depopulation in the Transverse Valleys of Norte Chico. According to scholar Ana María Lorandi the Diaguitas, and specially the Calchaquí Diaguitas, would not have been conquered easily by the Inca Empire. Once conquered, the eastern Diaguitas did not unanimously accept Inca rule. The Incas appointed kurakas and established mitmas in the Chilean Diaguita lands. The Diaguitas took influences from the Incas, adopting pottery designs from Cuzco, and Inca techniques in agriculture and metalworking. The Chilean Diaguitas were conquered by Spaniards coming from Peru. The eastern Diaguitas lands were explored by Spaniards coming from Chile, the Paraná River and Peru. In what came to be called the Calchaquí Wars, the Spanish initially failed to conquer the fertile valleys inhabited by the Eastern Diaguitas, and could only control the eastern valley ends. By founding the cities of Santiago del Estero (1550s), Tucumán (1565), Salta (1582), La Rioja (1591) and Jujuy (1593) the Spanish established an effective fence around the rebellious Eastern Diaguita valleys. To further dominate the Diaguitas, the city of Londres was founded in 1607 in the middle of the Eastern Diaguita territory. During the government of García Hurtado de Mendoza in Chile (1557–1561) Chilean Diaguitas that had rebelled were decimated by the Spanish. The Calchaquí Diaguitas of the eastern side of the Andes rose against Spanish rule in 1630 and the last rebels fought until 1642–1643. In this rebellion, the Spanish city of