The specific cultural and temporal associations of these distributions are explored in a series of publications by Richard Burger, particularly in Burger et al. (2000). There appear to have been two overarching geographical associations that cut across the various distributions of obsidian in space and time.
Chivay was largely conveyed into the Lake Titicaca area by Titicaca Basin communities and polities that were organized around the lake and the adjacent broad altiplano. For sites in the Lake Titicaca Basin, the database shows that 453 obsidian artifacts have been sampled from all time periods, and 408 (90%) of the samples were of the Chivay obsidian type. Another interesting aspect to this pattern is that the proportion of Chivay obsidian holds true for the north Titicaca Basin as well as the south when the two areas are considered separately. Using Bandy's (2005: 92) division of the Titicaca Basin where the site of Camata and northward are considered the North Basin, and with the South Basin extending as far south as Khonkho Wankane and south-west to Qillqatani, all obsidian samples in the region were aggregated from the entire prehispanic period. The LIP site of Cutimbo, though slightly south of Camata, was joined with the North Basin sites while Incatunahuiri and the Ilave valley sites were counted with the South Basin.
|
Samples |
Sites |
Chivay Type |
Alca Type |
Other Types |
||||
|
NorthTiticaca Basin |
284 |
16 |
261 |
91.9% |
20 |
7.0% |
3 |
1.1% |
|
SouthTiticaca Basin |
231 |
13 |
205 |
88.7% |
5 |
2.2% |
21 |
9.1% |
|
Total |
515 |
29 |
466 |
90.5% |
25 |
4.9% |
24 |
4.7% |
Table 3-3. Obsidian in the north and south Titicaca Basin by counts and percents.
These patterns reveal that Chivay obsidian accounts for approximately 90% of obsidian from the Titicaca Basin, with a greater presence of Alca obsidian in the North Basin. It seems that the presence of obsidian from alternative sources, whether it was the Tumuku source (still unlocated) or other obsidian sources further to the south, counter balances the access to Alca type in the North Basin. This pattern, with heavy use of Chivay obsidian in the South Basin, reflects overall integration in the Titicaca Basin through prehistory as well as the lack of high quality obsidian sources with large nodules south of the Chivay source, until one arrives at the Zapaleri source close to the frontier of Bolivia, Argentina and Chile, located 700 km to the south of Lake Titicaca (Yacobaccio, et al. 2004: Fig. 1). It has been noted that, in cultural terms, the Chivay distributions are especially linked to areas integrated by the Tiwanaku state, the Pukara polity, and with their predecessors: the Middle Formative communities linked by Yaya-Mama stylistic features (Burger, et al. 2000). However, what is particularly compelling about the evidence from obsidian is that these social and economic links in obsidian exchange appear to predate the cultural-stylistic links and become defined in the Terminal Archaic roughly 1000 years earlier than regional evidence of the Yaya-Mama stylistic attributes that first appear at Chiripa in the southern Lake Titicaca Basin.
The distribution of Alca material is confined by the availability of Quispisisa on one side and Chivay on the other, but nevertheless Alca obsidian was transported the furthest with material during the Middle Horizon being conveyed as far as the Wari sites of Huamachuco and Marca Huamachuco near Cajamarca (Burger, et al. 2000: 336). Alca material was also transported the furthest distance at an early date, as it was conveyed 769 km to Chavín de Huantar during the Early Horizon where it was found in both elite and commoner contexts (Burger, et al. 2000: 313-314). Quispisisa predominates in Wari assemblages but it also circulated widely before the Middle Horizon, such as the 589 km to Chavín de Huantar during the Early Horizon.
The altitudes of obsidian consumption sites (XFigure 3-6X) also reflect the terrain adjacent to each of the sources. The Quispisisa source is in an area with deep river valleys and a number of the sites sampled are from lower elevation or coastal contexts. The Alca source is similarly close to deep river valleys, but it also borders the altiplano and the much of the Alca samples came from the highlands of the Department of Cusco. The Chivay source is on the periphery of the broad altiplano and with no major altitude loss it was possible to transport material to a variety of sites that include Pikicallepata to the northeast and Qillqatani to the southeast. Further detail on these obsidian distributions are described below, and are published elsewhere (Burger, et al. 2000; cited in Craig 2005: 908-916;Frye, et al. 1998;Giesso 2000).