A population established on the Altiplano would have had limited but not zero contact with neighboring groups at lower elevations, maintaining some degree of genetic and cultural exchange while developing its own specific characteristics over time.

For the Checua lineage, this geographic context is potentially important.

If the plateau’s relatively enclosed geography contributed to the development of a distinct genetic character over thousands of years of occupation, then the dramatic genetic shift documented between the Preceramic and Herrera periods implies that whatever movement brought the Central American-related ancestry to the Altiplano was substantial enough to overcome this geographic isolation.

The routes by which people could have moved from the Central American isthmus to the Bogotá Altiplano are not direct or easy.