Obsidian consumption at Tiwanaku

Research by Martín Giesso (2000;2003) on the Tiwanaku lithic industry has revealed patterns in the differential use of lithic material in the region. First, it should be noted that obsidian is not abundant in the Tiwanaku core area in terms of the capital of the expansive state. Giesso (2003: 365-366) notes that obsidian artifacts make up only 0.8% of the lithics by count (n=86), of the collections at Tiwanaku. Yet the Tiwanaku core lies 315 km from the Chivay source in Euclidean distance, or 70 hours by the hiking function and therefore while obsidian is relatively scarce, it has been conveyed a considerable distance. The spatial distribution and the artifact form of obsidian at Tiwanaku are more analytically relevant than the total count or weight of obsidian which was quite small. Intrasite data on the contrasts in temporal and spatial use of obsidian at Tiwanaku are critical because, among other things, these data would provide a gauge of the relative persistence of access to the Chivay source as Tiwanaku's regional influence expanded.

Giesso's comprehensive source sampling showed that ten different types of obsidian were in use in the Tiwanaku heartland, although of these ten samples only four samples derive from known source locations. He notes that of the ten obsidian types, only Chivay (Cotallaulli) type is transparent and rest are described as "opaque". Giesso's spatial assessment of the distribution of lithic production activities in the core region showed that obsidian microdebitage was concentrated at certain mounds and in residential sectors as compared with chert, quartzite, and other locally available products. Giesso also organized a sourcing study of basalt artifacts in the Tiwanaku area, and he examined the contexts of production at the Querimita quarry located on the southwestern shores of Lake Poopó in Bolivia (Giesso 2003: 369) just over 300 km south of Tiwanaku. The evidence from Querimita on the production and consumption of basalt provides an interesting regional contrast to the spatial patterning of Chivay obsidian. There are both Wankarani (Formative) and Tiwanaku sites in the vicinity of the Querimita basalt source in the direction of the shores of Lake Poopó, but diagnostic Tiwanaku materials at the quarry itself are not reported (M. Giesso 2006, pers. comm.).

At Tiwanaku, quantities of obsidian and quartz have been found in the construction fill at the ceremonial Mollo Kontu mound, a structure that has served as a local fertility shrine. Nicole Couture argues that "quartz and obsidian fragments also served as mountain icons, in the way that exotic crystals, minerals, and rock candies are used today by Aymara yatiris, or ritual specialists, to represent mountains and thunder in rites to promote agricultural and social fertility" (Couture 2003: 225). Obsidian from Mollo Kontu has been traced to six different sources: Quispisisa, Chivay, Sora Sora, Cerro Zapaleri, and two unlocated sources (Giesso 2000). "The high density of quartz and obsidian artifacts, often five to ten pieces per excavation level, indicates that they were not accidentally included as part of redeposited rubbish, but rather were deliberately added to the clay fill" (Couture 2003: 215). The diversity in the Tiwanaku urban core was such that Chivay material represented a relatively low percentage (76%) of the material, although the ratio of Chivay material in Giesso and Glascock's study on the whole was 90% Chivay, which is typical for the Titicaca Basin. Interestingly, Giesso found that the 19 obsidian samples from the Akapana and Putuni were all transparent samples from the Chivay source, a pattern supported by the ceramics assemblage from those sites that was entirely local. This pattern suggests to Giesso (2003: 368) that a cultural strategy of "ideological purity" was taking place at that location at Tiwanaku due to exclusive use of those particular materials that are perceived as "local" to the Titicaca Basin. Giesso notes that obsidian is found in the form of standardized projectile points, type 4E according to Klink and Aldenderfer (2005), and that evidence of production is found in commoner residential contexts, whereas finished points are often associated with elite ritual contexts. This suggests to Giesso that labor contributions for some segment of the Tiwanaku heartland commoner population may have taken the form of projectile point manufacture.

A comparison of the circulation and use of Chivay obsidian with Querimita basalt strongly suggests to Giesso that the source areas, production, and transport of both exotic materials were controlled by the Tiwanaku state. If so, research at the Chivay source should reveal some evidence of Tiwanaku materials as it did at Querimita, and perhaps research will reveal state mandated standardization of production activities. However, if no evidence of Tiwanaku presence is found at the Chivay source, then this suggests that the relationship between raw material procurement, long distance transport, and state sponsored activities involved a more nuanced relationship between the state and the peripheral economy.

Burger et al. (2000) also analyzed obsidian from Tiwanaku and in their study, from a collection of 18 samples, all from surface contexts, the results were all of the Chivay type. The original Burger and Asaro (1977) study of Bolivian obsidian revealed that three samples purportly from the site of "Sora Sora" were from the Titicaca Basin source, now known as the Chivay source. At 554 km from the Colca Valley this is the furthest reported transport of Chivay type obsidian to date. However, some doubts have arisen as to the spatial origin of these three samples supposedly from the site of Sora Sora (Burger, Dec 2006, pers. comm.), and given the anomalously high transport distance, these three samples are suspect unless additional supporting data become available. The second furthest reported conveyance of Chivay obsidian is 325 km to the Late Formative contexts of Kallamarka and to Khonkho Wankane in Bolivia, as mentioned above.

Obsidian consumption at Wari

At the imperial capital of Wari, obsidian flakes were likewise found in domestic contexts and have been interpreted as "kitchen waste" as no specialized obsidian production sites were found at the site of Wari (Isbell, et al. 1991: 48; contra ;Stone 1983). In the funerary area of Wari known as the Cheqo Wasi sector the obsidian artifacts include a broken knife, 79 flakes (both utilized and unutilized), and two triangular fragments of obsidian with flat surfaces that may have been polished mirrors (Benavides 1991: 64).

At the Wari site of Pikillacta, in the valley of Cusco, evidence from obsidian flakes found in household compounds suggests that obsidian production took place at the household level. In the Haycuchina and Waska Waskan residential clusters, evidence of craft production consists of "waste flakes" of turquoise-colored stone, obsidian, and broken marine shell all collected from the surface (McEwan 1991: 99). Obsidian flakes were found in middens at Pikillacta along with both utilitarian and elite ceramics.

The Colca area during the Tiwanaku Period

Relatively little is known about the Colca valley in time periods prior to the Late Intermediate period. The political context of the Colca during this time is intriguing and somewhat ambiguous because the Colca valley lay on the frontier between Wari and Tiwanaku. External cultural influences in the Colca valley proper during the Tiwanaku times appear to have been entirely from Wari, yet Chivay obsidian is not found in Wari sites except in sites with a Tiwanaku component in Moquegua. Given the predominance of Chivay obsidian at Tiwanaku one might expect to encounter diagnostic Tiwanaku material somewhere close to the Chivay source. A number of scholars have commented on the surprising lack of Tiwanaku material in the Colca area given the obsidian distributions in the Tiwanaku heartland (Brooks 1998: 311-313, 454-459;Brooks, et al. 1997;Burger, et al. 1998: 211-212;Burger, et al. 2000: 340-342;).

The geographically closest Tiwanaku sites to the Colca in the department of Arequipa are found on the south-west edge of the city of Arequipa (85 km due south), with the best evidence coming from the site of Sonqonata (Cardona Rosas 2002: 78-87). The Arequipa highlands are largely unstudied, and the closest known Tiwanaku site to the Chivay source on the altiplano appears to be 147 km to the east in the department of Puno at the site of Maravillas just north of Juliaca (Stanish 2003: 189). Tiwanaku sites in this region are generally associated with lakeside agriculture or are found at cross-roads along major travel corridors (C. Stanish March 2006, pers. comm.), and to date no Tiwanaku sites are known in the largely pastoral periphery of the northwestern Lake Titicaca Basin in the direction of the Chivay source. Tiwanaku pottery has been found in Cuzco at Batan 'Urqo (Glowacki 1996: 245) and a Tiwanaku snuff tablet was found at La Real in the lower Majes valley of coastal Arequipa (García Márquez and Bustamante Montoro 1990: 28), but these appear to have been examples of trade goods along the Tiwanaku-Wari frontier.

In the main Colca valley close to the Chivay source, Wari-related ceramics have been excavated from a site just 4 km downstream from the town of Chivay and approximately 10 km from the Chivay obsidian source. A trench excavation exposed red-slipped wares from a domestic context with Tiwanaku Horizon dates in archaeological work associated with the William Denevan's Río Colca Abandoned Terrace Project at the site of Chijra (Malpass 1987: 61;Malpass and De la Vera Cruz 1986: 209, 216;Malpass and De la Vera Cruz 1990: 44-46, 57). Radiocarbon dates associated with these red-slipped wares came from a hearth in a house terrace and produced dates of 1140 ±80 (WIS-1713; AD680-1030) and 1290±90 (QL-4015; AD600-900) (Malpass 1987: 61). This ceramic style has recently been investigated in detail by Wernke as part of his elaboration of the Colca valley ceramic sequence (Wernke 2003: 466-477). Other Wari-influenced sites in the Colca Valley include a large, recently located site in on the north side of the Colca river named Charasuta close to the town of Lari (Doutriaux 2004: 212-223) and the site of Achachiwa near Cabanaconde (de la Vera Cruz 1987;de la Vera Cruz 1988;Doutriaux 2004: 202-207). Curiously, Chivay obsidian is not known to have circulated in the Wari sphere at all despite the proximity of these sites to the Chivay source.

In the main Colca Valley, indications of Wari ideological and stylistic influence are the strongest evidence for external links during the Tiwanaku Horizon. In addition to Wari influences at Chijra and Charasuta, the site of Achachiwa provides intriguing evidence of exotic obsidian intruding into the Colca valley. Achachiwa is a large site adjacent to the modern town of Cabanaconde that has a large Middle Horizon component that appears to be Wari influenced, as well as components belonging to a the local LIP occupation and an Inka occupation (de la Vera Cruz 1987;de la Vera Cruz 1988;Doutriaux 2004: 202-207). Brooks reports that she collected seven obsidian flakes for analysis from Achachiwa that were visually distinct from obsidian she had encountered elsewhere in the Colca (Brooks 1998: 447). Of these seven flakes, none were of Chivay type obsidian although the site is only 46 km downstream of the source. Her analysis showed that six of the flakes were from the Alca source (96 linear km away) and one was from the Quispisisa source (300 km away), a strongly asymmetrical pattern that is non-the-less consistent with Middle Horizon obsidian distributions in southern Peru.

Discussion

Chivay obsidian distributions during the Tiwanaku period are somewhat of an enigma. As Tiwanaku persisted for longer than Wari one might expect Tiwanaku evidence at the Chivay source either preceding or simultaneous with Wari presence in the Colca valley. However, the nature of procurement and distribution of Chivay obsidian during the Tiwanaku period was such that diagnostic materials from the consumption zone do not appear at the Chivay source. There appears to have been considerable nuance in the relationships between state leaders, corporate integration, and ethnic local kin-based groups during the period of Tiwanaku hegemony. Groups living in the Tiwanaku peripheral areas were perhaps consistent with Dillehay's characterization as"…a patchwork of overlapping, geographically disparate, and apparently politically semi-autonomous core valleys, oases, and plateaus or foci of cultural development, each of which primarily exploited its own immediate peer area"(Dillehay 1993: 247). Along these lines,Stanish (2002: 188) notes that early states appear to have "selectively incorporated certain areas around the basin" rather than attempt comprehensive control. John Janusek summarizes a variety of evidence demonstrating that "Tiwanaku was an incorporativemore than it was a transformativestate, simultaneously employing multiple strategies of regional control and influence" (Janusek 2004: 162), along the lines of corporate political strategies described by Blanton et al.(1996). Accordingly, a direct correlation between the predominance of Chivay obsidian in the Tiwanaku economy and clear, material evidence of incorporation in the archaeological remains of communities in the Chivay source area should not be expected. The political affiliation of Colca valley communities was probably made more complex due to the presence of the Wari frontier during the Middle Horizon.

The asymmetrical, export-only exploitation is consistent with a pattern that has been observed at a number of prehispanic obsidian sources in the Andes. Obsidian sources generally have few diagnostic artifacts or architecture in association with quarrying. It was mentioned earlier that Formative distributions of Alca obsidian were strikingly asymmetric with export to long distance consumption sites but no corresponding diagnostics from those consumers back at the Alca source (Burger, et al. 2000: 314, 323). Similarly, the Quispisisa source has little diagnostic evidence the immediate vicinity linking the source to Wari or any other known group, despite the long history of use of that obsidian type in Wari sites (Burger and Glascock 2000;Burger and Glascock 2002). The asymmetrical nature of Chivay obsidian use during the time of Tiwanaku and Wari is, therefore, consistent with a pattern apparent at raw material sources elsewhere in the Andes where obsidian procurement does not involve reciprocation or discard of diagnostic artifacts from the consumption zone.

Chivay obsidian during the LIP

In a review that considers the LIP and Late Horizon together in one discussion, Burger et al.(2000)note the declining presence of obsidian in most LIP and LH contexts in the region. Many of the chemically provenienced obsidian samples from the Titicaca Basin come from surface contexts with either LH or LIP associations, and the pattern revealed in the Titicaca Basin from these samples is one of almost exclusive use of Chivay type material. One of the reasons for the strong presence of Chivay obsidian over Alca obsidian may have resulted from cultural affinities between Aymara groups(Browman 1994). The Colla in the North Titicaca Basin and the Collagua in the upper Colca area share many traits including the construction of pukaras(Wernke 2003: 262-263), mortuary features including chulpaburial structures and fiber-wrapped mummy encasings(de la Vega, et al. 2005;Wernke 2003: 225-234), and other commonalities.

In the northern Lake Titicaca Basin, Arkush(2005: 247)notes that two-thirds of the occupied pukaras throughout her survey area contained obsidian on the surface, and that chert flakes and blades are common. In one instance, at Calvario de Asillo (AS1) prepared obsidian cores and a concentration of flakes was encountered. Obsidian projectile points were small, triangular base-notched points (series 5), consistent with the Klink and Aldenderfer point typology for the Terminal Archaic and onwards(Arkush 2005: 709-711). Metal objects are common as well, with copper and copper-alloy pendants and tupus(long pins) frequently found at pukaras.

Six obsidian samples from the mesa-top pukaraand chulpaburial tower complex of Cutimbo were analyzed by Frye et al.(1998)and the samples were 100% from the Chivay source. Burger et al.(2000: 343-344)indicate that one obsidian sample from the renowned chulpacomplex of Sillustani was also from the Chivay source. Burger et al. observe that while a single Alca flake was excavated at Taraco from an LIP context, and another was found on the surface at the LIP or LH site of Kolkeparke near Ayaviri(Burger, et al. 2000: 343), the Titicaca Basin is otherwise entirely supplied from the Chivay source during the LIP.

At the rock shelter of Qillqatani (SectionX3.4.2X) a large percentage (15.4%) of the tools from LIP levels were made from obsidian, although the count is very low (n = 2) and the tools were extremely small. The single obsidian sample that was analyzed proved to be from the Chivay source.

In the south-western Lake Titicaca area, Hyslop(1976: 118-119)found that the Lupaqa sites he encountered in the course of his road system survey contained primarily basalt and quartzite flaked stone. More recent survey work in the Ilave and Huenque drainages(Klink and Aldenderfer 1996)found that high-quality cherts are abundant in the region, which suggests that the prominent use of basalt at the sites Hyslop encountered was by choice, not by necessity, and was perhaps a reflection of lakeshore agricultural activities.