This study benefits from the work of the many archaeologists who have documented obsidian in archaeological contexts throughout the south-central Andes and who have conducted chemical characterization studies of Andean obsidian. The basis for research at the Chivay obsidian source returns largely to obsidian sourcing efforts by Richard Burger and by Karen Mohr-Chavez in the 1970s because it was these early studies that established the regional significance of this obsidian type. These studies further served to demonstrate the utility of obsidian for examining regional relationships in the Andes and for catalyzing greater interest in the context and form of obsidian artifacts among archaeologists working in the region. The first chemical analysis of obsidian from the region was Mohr-Chavez and Gordus in 1971 at the University of Michigan (Burger, et al. 2000:271;Chávez 1977). In the 1974-1975 study at Lawrence Berkeley Labs the analysis conducted by Burger and Asaro (1977) analyzed 800 artifacts from 141 archaeological sites in Peru and Bolivia (Burger, et al. 2000:273). They isolated eight major chemical groups from this study, however twelve artifacts did not belong to any of these twelve groups and they were designated "rare" types.

A number of important chemical characterization studies have taken place in the region, though none as sweeping as Burger and Asaro's early work. The most significant work with respect to this study was the sampling conducted by Sarah O. Brooks in the Colca valley during the mid-1990s. Additional samples were collected by Steven Wernke during his 1999 Colca survey work. In the course of the present research, samples were collected throughout the study region. New developments in sourcing technology, in particular the portable XRF machine, promise to expand greatly on the insights provided by the chemical characterization studies of the twentieth century.