Between 500 BC and 500 AD, the Alto Piura basin hosted the flourishing of the Vicús culture, settled around the hill of the same name in today province of Morropón. It excelled in gold, silver and copper metallurgy using lost-wax casting, hammering and tumbaga alloys, and in its diagnostic ceramics of the Vicús Negative and White-on-Red styles and the Vicús-Moche phase. Its deep vertical-shaft tombs with lateral chamber (boot-shaped) reveal a rigorous social stratification.

During the 15th century, the kingdom of the Gran Chimor extended tribute networks over the Tallán curacazgos. Later, the expansion of the Tawantinsuyu led by Túpac Inca Yupanqui and consolidated by Huayna Cápac incorporated the region into the Chinchaysuyu: it traced a stretch of the Qhapaq Ñan through Huancabamba and Ayabaca, erected the fortress of Poechos and established mitmaqkuna colonies. The dynastic crisis between Huáscar and Atahualpa fractured the empire and predisposed several caciques to make pacts with the Spaniards.

The Tallán chiefdoms knew curacazgos ruled by women, the capullanas, recorded with astonishment by chroniclers such as Pedro Cieza de León and Francisco de Jerez. They governed entire valleys with full legal, civil and military jurisdiction, traveled in litters carried by vassals, presided over deliberative assemblies and arranged marital alliances at their discretion. The model allowed cacical succession through the matrilineal line, a singularity that marked the first contacts with the Europeans in 1532.

Between 700 and 1500 AD, the Chira and Piura valleys were under the hegemony of the Tallán nation, a conglomerate of autonomous chiefdoms and curacazgos: Poechos, Marcavelica, Tangarará and Amotape in the Chira; Catacaos, Sechura and Colán in the Piura. They built irrigation channels, derivation canals and dams such as Coscomba to overcome aridity, irrigating cotton, maize, beans and squash. Their ceremonial centers such as Narihualá, Huaca Sojo and Huangalá hosted the worship of deities such as Walac and Watan.