Block 3 Archaic Period discussion

The evidence reviewed here has shown that the pre-pastoral Archaic occupation of the Block 3 survey area was light and appears to have consisted of many relatively shortterm occupations. The Archaic Forager period in this region perhaps involved passing through through the river valley while traveling between the puna and the lower elevation Colca valley.

Based on this appraisal of modern resource distributions, the Block 3 section of the landscape presents relatively few opportunities for foragers that are not available in greater abundance elsewhere in the region. Hunting opportunities were likely to have been good in the smaller stream channels and atop the transversal lava flows and the tuff outcrops, but the Block 3 area falls between two rich areas that probably had greater natural abundance: the rich, rain-fed grasses of the puna above, and the lower elevation vegetative productivity of the main Colca valley where berries and herbs probably became available. Gathering opportunities may have been more abundant in the lower elevation parts of the Colca valley downstream, while the economic focus in the puna would have been on hunting.