Pastoral site classifications

The evidence of extensive pastoral production along the margins of the pampa in Block 2 consist primarily of the structure bases from pastoral features along the margins of grazing area, primarily corrals, and associated artifact scatters. These pastoral facilities can be subdivided in terms of the size of the corral features and the apparent length of occupation based on artifact densities. Environmental characteristics do not help with isolating pastoral site groups, perhaps because the priority placed upon access to pasture dominates the site placement criteria. The mean slope of pastoral sites of various groupings in Block 2 is between 7-8°, and the most well-represented aspect for sites was the eastern aspect, accounting for 40 Block 2 sites.

A02-39 "Pausa 1"

The site of Pausa 1 was initially visited in 2002 following consultation with Dr. José Antonio Chávez (2001, Pers. Comm.) who explained that this entire area had been visited, and partially collected, by his student groups in the 1980s. Despite the earlier collection programs by Arequipa students, the 2003 survey team was able to locate large quantities of projectile points and some ceramics of both local and non-local stylistic groups. As described above, the raised corral structures are found along the edge of a large pampa paralleling the base of a lava flow from Huarancante. The broadest of these corral structures, and the group with the most interesting wall-base constructions, were the oval structures of Pausa. With a permit from the INC to place up to four 1x1m test units in this site the 2003 field team spent a number of weeks testing this site as reported in [Section 7.5] These test units revealed an occupation spanning the Late Formative Period, but ceramics and mortuary structures from later periods were also encountered here.

Figure 6-58. Pausa [A02-39] showing raised oval structures, lithic concentrations, large rock forming wall bases, and test unit locations. Site mapped with Topcon total station and dGPS.

ArchID	Description	Number of large rocks	Dimension (m)	Size (m²)
A03-557	Raised surface on slope to southwest of main Pausa site encircled by large rocks. Fill on downslope edge leveled the internal area.	26	15 x 20m, circular	271.8
A03-558	Area in center of Pausa site encircled by large rocks.	28	20 x 25m, circular	441.7
A03-559	Oval area raised ~1m off of the pampa and encircled with large rocks including a distinctive wall construction on east side with three niches in wall.	27	30 x 50m, oval	1175

Table 6-50. Dimension of structural features at Pausa [A02-39].

The structures at the Early Agropastoralist base of Pausa include two large, raised corral areas that are most evident because large rocks form a circle that appear to be wall bases from old corral walls. The largest of these rings is oval [A03-559] and it contains a smaller, circular structure [A03-558]. The larger rocks that encircle these features and form the wall bases are between 50cm and 100cm across, and the rocks are partially buried. Interestingly, the ovals all have approximately the same number of these large rocks (between 26 and 28), such that encircling the larger ovals the spacing between the rocks is larger than it is around the smaller ovals. As is evident in Figure 6-58, the rock spacing around A03-559 is approximately 5-7m, the spacing in A03-558 is highly irregular, and the spacing between rocks in the A03-557 oval is approximately 2-3m between rocks. The rocks could have represented the foundation rocks for corrals, but these would have been very substantial corrals and far larger than any contemporary corrals that were encountered in the region.

Figure 6-59. Circular structure A03-557 extends from 1m behind the tape to just below the largest rocks at the back of the photo.

Figure 6-60. Testing u3 and u4 on north edge of structures A03-558 and A03-559. This photo is taken from above, from the base of the lava flow.

Lithics

The site of Pausa was somewhat atypical of Block 2 raised corral features due to the size and diversity of materials found there. The material types in use indicate that, while a variety of material types were available, obsidian was more intensively processed in this area than other material types.

	Ob1	Ob2	Volcanics	Chert	Total
Cores	1	1			2
Flakes	52	7	5	10	74
Points & Tools	8	1		1	10
Total	61	9	5	11	86

Table 6-51. Counts of lithics from surface collection at Pausa [A02-39].

Table 6-51 can be compared with the surface collection at Taukamayo in Block 3 (Table 6-54) where surface materials point to a greater availability of chert and quartzite in Block 3. While Pausa is somewhat deflated and eroded in places, it did not have a landslide like the site of Taukamayo exposing quantities of obsidian.

Discussion of Pausa

Pausa appears to have been one of the larger and more varied sites in the Block 3 settlement area, yet, based on surface artifacts, the activities at Pausa were fairly typical for these raised corral features. These include a variety of lithic reduction but, above all, a dominant presence of Ob1 obsidian. This relatively consistent access to Ob1 obsidian suggests that the Early Agropastoralists of Block 2 were affiliated with, or directly responsible for, some of the quarrying and production activities that were observed in the Block 1 Maymeja area.

The size of these structures, the regular spacing of large rocks, and the presence of regular rock "wall niches" on the eastern edge of A03-559 suggest that these platforms served as more than mere corrals and there this was also a locus for ritual activity. Obsidian was widely used in the Block 2 area on the whole, but the quantities at Pausa appear to have been far greater than at neighboring sites. It is possible that this site served as some kind of aggregation spot in the Block 2 puna, although it is difficult to speculate without further examination of this site. Test excavations revealed primarily a small hearth in a very small circular structure (Section 7.5.2), and evidently further excavation work is needed at Pausa.

Discussion of Block 2 Early Agropastoralists

Depending on the degree of re-occupancy in prehistory, the principal pastoral base sites with their associated corrals that were recorded are larger than one would expect given modern pastoralist behavior in the area. The herd sizes that noted in the Block 2 area during fieldwork between August and December 2003 were not carefully studied, but the herds seemed sufficiently large to use a corral 50m long corral as was noted at Pausa. However, herds would not require many corrals like Pausa in one area unless the herd sizes were significantly larger, perhaps growing and shrinking with the seasons. There are corrals of comparable size in the region, but the uncertainty lies in judging how many of these corrals were in use simultaneously.

It is possible that these corrals were used by passing caravans. As a perimeter settlement represented largely by groups linked to Colca Valley communities (as indicated by ceramics styles), it is possible that these larger facilities were designed to host passing caravans.

Pastoral Camps and rock shelters

The two smaller collections of Early Agropastoral sites in the Block 2 are grouped as "Pastoral Camps" and "Rock shelters". These sites consist of small enclosures and limited surface expression of ceramics from the Formative Period. The rock shelters often have geometrical, abstract parietal art on natural walls drawn in ochre. Often these sites will also have colonial rock art, typically Christian themes (such as the cross, or a Virgin Mary) in ochre as well, but these were excluded here from this review of prehispanic sites. The smaller sites could have been day-use areas as part of a strategy to distribute the impact of grazing. The rock shelters were generally small and may have been day shelters from weather as well as night shelters for very small groups.

Pastoral Bases

These are the largest sites in Block 2. They consist of pastoral facilities, associated residential structures and adjacent middens, and an artifact scatter extending along the margins of the grazing area. These sites are commonly found on a sloping area or a raised area along the margins of the pampa where the drainage is adequate. Animal control structures were frequent on these sites, with the majority of them taking the form of maintained or abandoned corrals of varying sizes. At the sites designated as "Pastoral Bases", corral structures were mapped and they range in area from 62 m²to 4,306 m²with a mean corral size of 671m². Due to high rates of erosion, it was difficult to confirm from the soil consistency if it was largely dung soil inside of structures that appeared to be long-abandoned corrals. However, the raised area of these corrals are effectively low mounds that may be the result of accumulation of dung over long time periods, combined with some building up and filling in of the raised area to lift the corral areas off of the level of the pampa to improve drainage and avoid inundation during the wet season.

Structures

These structures on the puna edge appear to be pastoral facilities containing the bases of walls formed by rocks between 30 cm and 100cm in size that create a circular or elliptical enclosure. The area will often contain smaller enclosures that probably served more specifically as corrals, subdividing the protected area. These corrals might be occupied simultaneously or sequentially, and could contain individual herder's animals, or they may segregate the herd into sex and age categories as a part of pastoral management strategies (Flannery, et al. 1989;Flores Ochoa 1968). The presence of such large rocks at the base of these walls is perhaps explained by the need to keep small animals, such as young camelids, inside and the need to keep small predators out. Modern herder-built walls are often solidly constructed along the base and only along the top of the wall do smaller rocks get used.

These wall bases could be the remnants of corrals used by seasonal residents of this rich pasture region, or if they were used by passing caravans, the corrals could have been important facilities as part of a multi-day rest stop for caravans (Lecoq 1988: 185-186;Nielsen 2000: 461-462, 500-504;West 1981: 70).

Artifact scatters

The perimeters of pastoral bases often have dense artifact scatters, including pottery fragments from a variety of time periods, however there was a relatively low frequency of high density lithic loci inside of pastoral bases. When all of the high density loci are considered, only 30 (23%) of the high density lithic loci were located in sites classified as "pastoral bases".

High density lithic loci in this region primarily consist of obsidian flakes and it appears that, despite being located off of the pastoral base sites, these high lithic concentrations still seem to be associated with early pastoral occupations. This inference is based on two aspects of these high density loci: (1) most of the pre-Series 5 projectile points are not obsidian, while most of the Series 5 points are obsidian, and therefore if point production was occurring they were probably making Series 5 points; (2) if merely flakes were being produced, such production was probably linked to pastoral butchering, and therefore the obsidian is again linked to the pastoral occupation of the area. Why, then, were the high concentrations located outside of the pastoral base areas as noted above? One possibility is that one may be seeing a site maintenance pattern where some lithic production is occurring offsite during pastoral herding so that the residential base is not littered with sharp flakes.