Pastoral activities
Grazing activities appear to have persisted during the Late Prehispanic in Block 1 as they did during the Early Agropastoralist period. Low densities of non-diagnostic sherds from utilitarian wares are found in association with colonial and modern sherds near the estancia in Maymeja A03-570. Pottery is otherwise relatively scarce in the Maymeja area. It is notable that no diagnostic MH, LIP, or LH sherds were found in association with the estancia at A03-570, or at other pastoral occupations in Maymeja, except for the A03-126 workshop area. One can also expect the later occupants of Maymeja to have continued to make use of the "Camino Hornillo" [A03-268] route leading to the quarry pit from the Escalera thoroughfare. However, if Late Prehispanic peoples did make use of this route, they left virtually no ceramics associated with it that would indicate that the quarry pit road was a regularly used feature.
A03-275 "Maymeja 5"
Just southwest of the area of the obsidian workshop, on the south perimeter of Maymeja, an extensive construction area (1 Ha) was encountered on the rocky slope along the edge of the bofedal that was generally terraced although heavily eroded. This area is shown in more detail on the map in Figure 6-54.
Figure 6-68. Three levels of terracing in [A03-275] below glacier polished rhyolite flow. Yellow tape shows 1m.
The construction along the margins of the bofedal was curiously devoid of ceramics, as were the other terraces immediately adjacent to the A03-126 Maymeja workshop. A light scatter of obsidian flakes is found throughout the terraced area, however, and obsidian flakes are concentrated along the base of the slope although these concentrations probably reflect downslope movement of artifacts. In this sector, on the south-west edge of the bofedal, several Late Horizon "Collagua-Inka" plates were encountered, and it is possible that this entire sector was constructed at a later time. The corner of a structure with a possible niche that appears to be built using the Inka-influenced cut-stone masonry technique was found 70m southwest of the obsidian workshop [A03-126] inside the larger terraced site area [A03-275]. Unfortunately, the remaining sides of this structure are too eroded to permit an estimate of the structure size, or to discern if it was a residential or mortuary construction. A pattern discussed by Wernke (2003) in the Colca valley was for circular residential structures to be dominant among pastoral settlements above 3900m. Given this architectural pattern, the structure at A03-339 is perhaps a square chulparather than a residential structure.
(a)
(b)
Figure 6-69. (a) Cutstone masonry [A03-339] from site A03-275 close to the workshop area at the Chivay obsidian source. Yellow tape shows 50cm. (b) Rim sherds from an 18cm diameter Inka-Collagua plate were found adjacent to this corner.
The presence of diagnostic Late Horizon materials in the obsidian source area was somewhat unexpected because during the Late Horizon the regional distribution of Chivay obsidian was relatively restricted in comparison with any time period since the Terminal Archaic. It is possible that the Late Horizon occupation in this area, particularly the painted plates, result from ritual functions associated with the abundant spring that irrigates the bofedal in the southern of Maymeja area, and that spring emerges very close to this location. However, if the structure [A03-339] is a looted Late Horizon chulpa, then the plate could have been one of the grave goods.
A03-240 "Molinos 1"
The only local Middle Horizon evidence from Block 1 close to the Chivay source comes from a pastoral area part of the way up the Quebrada de los Molinos climbing up from Chivay, 350 vertical meters above the town. This site is found adjacent to several large breccia boulders near a bofedal where the trail climbing from Chivay levels out after a steep pitch. A partially eroded rim sherd [A03-242.1] was found here that is diagnostic to the local Middle Horizon style. The sherd is made of burnished brown paste and with traces of paint on the rim, but the rim was too small to take a measure of the vessel diameter.