UPPER COLCA ARCHAEOLOGICAL
RESEARCH PROJECT
Arequipa, Peru
THEORETICAL ISSUES
The Colca Valley in southern Peru was a primary source of obsidian for people in the south-central Andes for over 8,000 years (Brooks, et al. 1997; Burger, et al. 1998; Burger, et al. 2000). Obsidian of this type was used by early foraging groups and continued to be procured and exchanged by people in significant quantities through the Formative Period and into the Middle Horizon.
Over a century of archaeological research in the Lake Titicaca Basin, 200km to the east of the Colca, has shown that obsidian from the Chivay area was exchanged and was used in both utilitarian and ceremonial contexts. Despite the presence of high quality cherts and other materials in the immediate vicinity of these sites a considerable effort was expended to bring Chivay obsidian to the Titicaca Basin. Over 90% of all the prehistoric obsidian that has been sourced in the Titicaca Basin is from the Colca Valley (Aldenderfer 2002, Burger, et al. 2000). As many of the goods utilized in the Titicaca Basin were perishable and are not presently available to archaeologists, obsidian serves as a durable measure of changes in the ability of prehistoric people to move resources in the south-central Andes.
This project will document shifts in the acquisition and initial processing of the obsidian at the source itself. Both system-based and actor-based models have been proposed for the rise of complex societies, both will be considered here.
i. Project Overview ii. Theoretical Issues iii. Methodology Description iv. NSF Proposal Summary
Are changes in the production, exchange and use of this obsidian best explained by conceiving of the process as system-based, as that of a more efficient structure resulting in distinct class of managers, those who were ultimately the ruling elite during the Late Formative and Middle Horizon? Or is the extraction, production, exchange and display of this obsidian better understood as the result of decisions by individuals in an actor-based view where possession of this visible, non-local stone material may have represented distant social ties, access to resources and power, and was part of a individual's strategy for gaining social influence? Inclusive theories have also been proposed that position individual behavior within a systemic context.
The focus of this project is prehistoric stone processing behavior in the vicinity of the obsidian quarry. Variability in production behavior, degree of reduction in the vicinity of the stone material quarry, and the degree of reduction of debitage in the settlement region will contribute to better understanding of changes in the obsidian production system prehistorically.
This project will evaluate the hypothesis that with the development of social ranking in the south-central Andes the procurement and exchange of obsidian was increasingly channeled through local procurement and then distributed through exchange, resulting in a less variable obsidian production system. When stratified societies appeared in the Titicaca Basin during the Late Formative Period and the Middle Horizon, direct control of the obsidian resource by
the distant polity may have occurred; this is a question that is best explored through further research in the vicinity of the source. The development of trade networks involving llama caravans as burden-bearers would have facilitated long-distance movement and control of raw materials by the Late Formative Period and onwards (Browman 1990, Nuñez 1979).
Temporal assignment is a major challenge in archaeological research at quarries. Even if we can detect changes in processing strategies, how do we know when these changes occurred? A time-sensitive projectile point chronology for the region (Klink and Aldenderfer, 2005) will permit the assignment of time periods to sites identified on survey containing projectile points. Test excavations are planned three sites, these test units may discover datable stratigraphy that help to put changes in reduction strategies in debitage into a cultural or temporal context. Finally, the region is volcanically active and regular depositions of ash will facilitate identifying stratigraphy and establishing contemporaneity.
The connection between the changes in the acquisition, processing and distribution of obsidian and social-cultural changes taking place regionally are summarized below.
The role of exchange in the progression towards a social stratification in the prehispanic Andean highlands will be investigated in this project. Exchange in known to play a central role in nearly all societies from mobile foragers (Wiessner 2002) to complex states (Adams 1974), this project will contribute to a better understanding of the dynamic relationship between exchange and social complexity in prehistory.
Projection Description Pages
i. Project Overview ii. Theoretical Issues iii. Methodology Description iv. NSF Proposal Summary
