UPPER COLCA ARCHAEOLOGICAL
RESEARCH PROJECT
Arequipa, Peru
2003 PROJECT METHODS AND LOGISTICS
This project will involve extensive route-finding and attentive surveying, data recording, and conducting several test excavations in relatively remote locations. In addition to familiarity with identifying and analyzing archaeological evidence such as debitage, ceramics and prehispanic architecture, project personnel will be trained in the use a variety of digital recording devices in the course of this project.
i. Project Overview ii. Theoretical Issues iii. Methodology Description iv. NSF Proposal Summary
Methodology and recording conventions will be posted on this webpage for reference purposes by project personnel during the course of the project.
Summary of archaeological methodology
The project is primarily a surface survey that will cover 70km2 in the Colca Valley. Approximately 40km2 of terrain will be systematically surveyed using a 10-15m surveyor spacing, covering much of the land adjacent to the Colca River above the town of Tuti. The remaining 30km2 is made up of a targeted survey of selected terrain in the vicinity of the high altitude obsidian source, a geological reconnaissance of a region deemed likely to contain more obsidian exposures, and finally a 4000m x 500m tract bisecting the main river valley using a truly 100% survey coverage in order to evaluate the assumptions used in circumscribing the other survey areas.
A brief description of site recording will follow. Sites are operationally defined as consisting of two or more artifacts within 10 m2 of one another (although it is recognized that the "site" concept is problematic, particularly in areas close to a raw material source). Site recording will involve delimiting the boundary of the artifact cluster, recording and photographing the evidence, and looking the over site for diagnostic projectile points and ceramics. Sites with diagnostic
artifacts will be further mapped and evaluated such that an assessment can be made of the degree of reduction of obsidian debitage at the site and of the presence of cores. The test excavations will probably take the form of a pair of 1m wide parallel trenches with an emphasis on identifying stratigraphy, diagnostic artifacts, and the reduction level of debitage. In the analysis stage diagnostic ceramics and lithics will be cleaned and cataloged.
Data Recording
As spatial patterns at a variety of scales are important to archaeological research, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) technology promises to direct the way in which archaeological data is acquired and analyzed in the future. This project has been designed using the ArcGIS 8 platform, and survey orienteering and data acquisition will take place on small handheld computers running Arcpad 6 for Windows CE along with a GPS.
Archaeological sites identified on survey will be mapped and recorded into a customized Arcpad 6 digital form. In preliminary field visits in 2001 and 2002 features of interested were mapped using a Trimble Geoexplorer II GPS which has yielded ~1 m accuracy with post-processing thanks to the presence of the only IGS station in Peru only 100km away in Arequipa. Using a combination of GPS and brunton and tape mapping techniques, the digital archaeological data will be associated with polygons in the project GIS.
Logistics
Beginning in June 2003, we will spend 6 months in the Colca Valley; subsequently we will spend 3 months in the city of Arequipa doing analysis.
The city of Chivay is under 4 hours by bus from the city of Arequipa, and Chivay has a large market that will furnish most of the supplies for the project. A house will be rented in the town of Callalli, approximately 30km upstream of Chivay, and during much of the survey and testing program we will be returning to that house at night. Approximately one month of the research program it will be required that we camp up by the obsidian source in the Ancachita caldera 1000 vertical meters above the town of Chivay. With backpacks and camping equipment we will spend 4 nights up there at a stretch. If a mule accompanies us to bring up our food we will probably be able to pack ourselves out at the end of each week.
Weekends will be spent in the Colca or in the city of Arequipa.
Projection Description Pages
i. Project Overview ii. Theoretical Issues iii. Methodology Description iv. NSF Proposal Summary
References in Text
Brooks, S. O.
1997 Source of volcanic glass for ancient Andean tools. Nature 376:449-450.Burger, R. L., F. Asaro, G. Salas and F. Stross
1998 The Chivay obsidian source and the geological origin of Titicaca Basin type obsidian artifacts. Andean Past 5:203-223.
