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.