Projectile Points

The human use of the Maymeja area dates to Middle Archaic (7000 - 5000 cal BCE) as is demonstrated by the presence of three transparent (one banded) obsidian projectile points of type 3b and one andesite point of type 3e depicted in Figure 6-6. The presence of 21 type 3b points in Block 2 (eight of them type 3b) indicates that the Middle Archaic occupation was predominantly a puna occupation. One of the type 3b points collected in the course of survey work was at "Molinos2" in the Quebrada de los Molinos at an elevation of only 4216 masl, suggesting that Molinos was used to travel between the lower elevation Colca Valley and the high altitude obsidian source and puna during the Middle Archaic.

Strong evidence of Early Archaic use of Chivay obsidian exists in the form of obsidian Early Archaic projectile points discussed among the data from the Block 2 and Block 3 areas of the survey, and in the early part of the Early Archaic at the site of Asana almost 200 km to the south-east. However, no Early Archaic projectile points were found in the Maymeja area of the Chivay source.

Figure 6-8. Middle Archaic obsidian projectile point from Maymeja area [A03-184].

The type 3B Middle Archaic obsidian point [A03-184] found on a moraine between two bofedales is the strongest evidence of early use of the Chivay source from the Maymeja area itself (Figure 6-8). A foliate point was identified that has one spine, pressure flaking, and it was found on a moraine at 4824 masl on the northern side of Maymeja that was perhaps glaciated during the Early Archaic. This projectile point represents the earliest date, judging from stylistic attributes, in Chivay source area. A¹⁰Be date was acquired from a quartzite sample collected from moraines at 4650 masl (Figure 4-15) that suggests that the entire Maymeja area was glaciated until circa 9000 cal BCE (Sandweiss, 2005 pers. comm.).

Period	Point Type	Obsidian	Volcanics	Chert
Archaic	3d	124, 231.17	231.16, 780.3
M Arch	2c	110, 112	780.2
	3b	111, 184, 292, 586		780
	3e		539.25
L Arch	3f	231.12, 537.2
	4d	260
L2 - T Arch	4f	118, 266

Table 6-18. Diagnostic Projectile points Series 1-4 from Blocks 1, 4 and high altitude areas of Block 5, identifed by ArchID number.

Evidence from diagnostic projectile points suggest that during the Late Archaic, the use of Block 1 actually decreased because artifact counts drop from nine Middle Archaic projectile points to three Late Archaic points. Evidence from the entire survey area shows that the use of obsidian for projectile point production drops, beginning in the Late Archaic, from 65% to 52% of diagnostic projectile points. An alternative explanation for the reduced presence of diagnostic projectile points at the obsidian source is that the manufacture shifted to less advanced stages of reduction at the source such that diagnostic point styles were not recognizable in the source area.

		Obsidian	Volcanics	Chert	Column Total
E., M., and L. Archaic (Series 1-4)	No.	13 (27.7%)	4 (100%)	1 (100%)	18 (34.6%)
	mWt (g)	11.0 (n=6)	11.4 (n=1)	5.0 (n=1)	10.3 (n=8)
	sWt (g)	6.2	-	-	5.6
	by Sum Wt	76	100	100	79.8
T. Archaic onwards (Series 5)	No.	34 (72.3%)	-	-	34 (65.4%)
	mWt (g)	1.74 (n=12)	-	-	-
	sWt (g)	1.1	-	-	-
	by Sum Wt	24	-	-	20.2

Table 6-19. All Diagnostic Projectile Points from Blocks 1, 4, and Block 5 upper puna. Weights included for unbroken points only.

Comparing projectile points between the Archaic Foragers period and points belonging to the later periods demonstrates that, while counts are low for Series 1-4 points, the mean weight of projectile points (11g) is 6.3x larger than the mean weight of Series 5 projectile points. It should be noted that variability in Series 1-4 points is also much higher, with a standard deviation of more than one-half of the mean weight. This is consistent with size differences in the point types as described by Klink and Aldenderfer (2005) but it underscores the different quantities of material invested in point production at the obsidian source.