Long distance transport of goods by way of camelid caravans was well established in the prehispanic Andes. The strongest evidence for the importance of caravan transport comes in the form of ethnohistoric and ethnoarchaeological studies described earlier in this chapter, however archaeological evidence of caravan traffic is usually very light and it often requires inference from indirect evidence. The "Independent Caravans Model" described here consists of caravans organized on the household level, although ethnographic studies show that, in practice, the members of several households will often band together for company and for safety while participating in long distance caravans. It is worth pointing out that independent long distance transport does not necessarily involve cargo animals. It is possible that small quantities of obsidian were carried bytraveling peddlers. As a variant to this model, one should consider that peddlers carrying small portable items, mostly cultural goods like herbs, shell, feathers, but potentially small obsidian tools or cores, could have circulated objects widely without the assistance of llamas.
According to this model, a household with a sufficient number of cargo animals, usually castrated male llamas, will initiate a trade caravan by transporting goods that they expect will be in demand, to regions that they anticipate will have complementary goods to offer them. According to some descriptions, caravans are pursuing a directed acquisition of specific goods and then they return directly home, while other models describe entire circuits where herders acquire goods, travel, barter for other goods, travel some more, perhaps re-trade their new goods and so on; finally returning to their place of origin several months later.
The mere presence of products distributed over larger distances is not proof of caravan transport, either household organized or administered, because other modes such as direct acquisition and down-the-line models actually result in widely dispersed goods as well. Furthermore, many of the distinctive objects that archaeologists recognize as non-local are often small enough to have been transported without cargo animals. Establishing the beginnings of caravan transport is not a simple task because there is no one signature for long distance caravan organization that is distinctive from other modes of transport. Furthermore, many of the goods are believed to have been perishable, complicating efforts to interpret prehispanic trade caravan patterns. Finally, studies of contemporary caravans emphasize that diversified strategies characterize caravan driving, whether in making daily decisions while on the trail, or in the larger context of economy and exchange. It is thus difficult to define a consistent indicator for caravan activity.
Portable diagnostic artifacts, whether decorated ceramics or other exotic goods, are often relatively small and therefore the artifact weight and total quantity frequently cannot be used to differentiate between caravan transport, traveling peddlers, and down-the-line exchange. The temporal regularity of exchange, however, is a consistent measure that archaeologists can recover from stratified deposits. When regular caravan transport routes developed then the scheduling of such transport may have been linked to the timing of annual events such as harvests and annual ceremonies, and if so these cyclical patterns would result a steady accumulation of non-local goods through time. In contrast, down-the-line exchange depends upon the articulation of many individual exchanges and it is not linked to the acquisition of scheduled harvest products in the same manner as caravan transport and therefore the presence non-local goods would have been irregular.
In terms of the network configurations discussed earlier (Figure 2-3), the configuration that describes the diffusion of obsidian in the region is distinct from the configuration of the regular articulation between herders and farmers that involved the barter of pastoral products for agricultural products. However the regular conveyance of some agricultural goods adjacent to a raw material source creates a context for conveying larger quantities of obsidian regionally. Ethnographic studies indicate that caravans will opportunistically embed exchange into other activities. For example, Nielsen (2000: 488) explains that caravans primarily organized around salt transport would carry a variety of other trade items, and they would occasionally stop to procure raw materials, such as lithics, when the caravan route travels past a known source. Similarly, there is caravans that visited the Colca valley in prehistory from the Titicaca Basin were passing with 3 km of the Chivay source if they used one of the popular routes into the Colca from the south-east direction. Thus, procurement of obsidian was likely to have been associated with long distance exchange opportunities.
Caravan procurement would have consisted of pastoralists traveling to the Chivay source, acquiring obsidian that they believed to have exchange value, perhaps processing the nodules to some extent, and then transporting the material to consumers or to other traders in areas far from Colca. As temporality is a significant part of caravan organization, regular and dense procurement activities are expected when a caravan undertakes a detour from the principal travel route. Some preparation or maintenance of the trail from the principal travel route to the obsidian source is expected if the animals are heavily laden. The amount of processing and initial reduction in the source area probably reflected the number of days that a caravan would have been willing stop, and conversely the transport of whole nodules is conceivable with the assistance of cargo animals such that some extra grams of weight were less of a limiting factor. As mentioned, cortex is often very thin on Chivay obsidian, therefore it would not be surprising if some percentage of the material transported away from the source area included unreduced, whole nodules.
Ethnoarchaeological studies report that caravan drivers look for camps that include high quality pasture, water, and corrals if possible. When these features occur close to an extraction site, a relatively dense obsidian processing area may be found nearby because herders can nourish their livestock while simultaneously working stone. Because of the temporality of caravan activity, procurement was probably intensive, though episodic, through time. When caravans or animals were present, processing would occur and then the material would be conveyed away and the quarry area would see little use until the next episode of intense production. Evidence of production may be variable, however, because caravans could also transport whole nodules without very much difficulty.
Many of the artifact types that were produced from obsidian transported by caravans can deduced based on archaeological evidence acquired from consumption contexts dating to the Terminal Archaic and later. The principal artifact form made from obsidian during the time that camelid caravans conceivably operated (subsequent to the Late Archaic), is the small triangular projectile point diagnostic to the Terminal Archaic and later. This is not to say that other tool forms were not being made, as other non-diagnostic biface forms could also date to the Terminal Archaic or later, however the vast majority of bifacially-flaked obsidian artifacts are projectile points. Furthermore, cores were likely transported away from the obsidian source because simple flakes serve as valuable cutting tools. Therefore, the majority of obsidian production would have prioritized the production of cores and flakes that serve as blanks for triangular point production. If advanced reduction occurred in the quarry area it is likely that small, triangular point forms were the objective.
Reduction strategies that target the production of small triangular points were probably relatively flexible because these point forms are not especially long or delicate, and therefore it would have been possible to produce the appropriate blanks from a variety of core forms. None-the-less, the overall variability in formal tools forms produced from obsidian is exceptionally low because series 5 points look quite similar. Therefore in terms of intensified production from the Terminal Archaic and onward, relatively consistent reduction strategies in the procurement workshop zone may be encountered.
Because these caravans were independent, one might expect slightly greater variability than in the other models of obsidian distribution because various individual households were participating in this procurement, and methodological variation by region might be reflected in the reduction methods. Finally, independent caravans may behave in other, relatively variable ways such as in architecture, in divergent ceramic styles, and in the types of obsidian pieces that were being exported.