Block 6

Block 6 is located along the Challacone drainage just upstream from the town of Tuti, on the western edge of the study area. A map showing this survey block appeared in Figure 6-42. In addition to an interesting Archaic component, this area contained local MH, LIP, and local LH ceramics. Furthermore, the bases for five chulpaswere encountered along the ridgetop just east of Quebrada Challacone.

Discussion

The evidence from the Late Prehispanic occupation of Block 3 suggests that a significant population increase occurred during this time in the upper Colca valley. The evidence from the Tiwanaku period and the Middle Horizon appear to show small settlements with an economy focused primarily on pastoralism. Despite the wide circulation of Chivay obsidian during this period, there is no evidence in Block 3 of outside contact during the Middle Horizon except for the Wari influence in the local Middle Horizon ceramic technology, as described by Malpass and de la Vera Cruz (1986) and by Wernke (2003). During the Late Intermediate Period, dramatic changes are notable in a variety of forms of archaeological evidence in a pattern that is consistent with that observed by Wernke in the main Colca valley. Some limited agricultural cultivation appears to have been practiced given the association of LIP ceramics with cultivated areas. Pukara construction and some types of chulpaburial monuments are further evidence of LIP period occupation.

Late Horizon

In the Block 3 area the Late Horizon appears to involve the settlement of larger communities along the wide terrace margins of the Río Llapa. Sites associated with cultivated areas that had a slight Middle Horizon component and a stronger LIP component, appear to be the most extensively occupied under Inka dominance in the Late Horizon. The LH pattern of large settlements adjacent to agricultural lands is consistent with the pattern observed elsewhere in the highlands of southern Peru. In the Lake Titicaca Basin, Stanish notes that the settlement hierarchy for sites under 2.5 Ha remained mostly unchanged with the onset of the LH, but under Inka rule new large administrative sites were founded (Stanish 2003: 253-258). In the main Colca valley, Wernke (2003: 217-224,439-441) concludes that Inka administrative strategy involved ruling through local elites using the pre-existing ayllustructure of community organization. The effect on the settlement system was to promote a single administrative center, Yanque, to the top of the settlement hierarchy and other LIP sites became second-tier centers.

In the Callalli area, Late Horizon diagnostic ceramics were appear to have been concentrated along the south margin of the confluence area, known as Callalli Antiguo, and a small concentration of Late Horizon materials were found on the south-western edge of modern Callalli. The town of Sibayo, on the north side of the river confluence, was outside of the 2003 survey boundary, but it is possible that a Late Horizon settlement exists in that area as it complements Callalli Antiguo on the south. It is worth nothing that a principal prehispanic road along the Upper Colca valley lay on the south bank of the river where the route passes through to Canocota en route to Chivay. This road appears to have passed by the confluence area in the vicinity of Callalli Antiguo and as a major thoroughfare it is an appropriate place to position an administrative center.

Figure 6-80. Block 3 Late Horizon diagnostic materials

To the west of Callalli the 2003 survey encountered a settlement that is known locally as "Callalli Antiguo" (F. Windischhofer 2003, pers. comm.). The site sprawls over the natural terraces just south of the confluence of the Colca with the Llapa, across from Sibayo. An extensive part of the site is located adjacent to the main road, while a cluster of collapsed structures, including houses and chulpas, are located just on the southern side of a ridge that divides the site in half. One might expect to find an Inka administrative site in this area. If this were an administrative site, however, it would also be fitting to encounter a number of well-constructed structures with Inka features, such as trapezoidal doors and cut-stone masonry as observed by Wernke (2003) at a number of sites in the main Colca Valley

Figure 6-81. Callalli Antiguo [A03-662] and surroundings.

Figure 6-82. A03-662 north sector of Callalli Antiguo agricultural sector, with two individuals walking together in the center of the photo providing scale and the Río Llapa and the town of Callalli in the background.

Vestiges of terraces are apparent in this larger, 4.2 hectare cultivated area of A03-662, and the sector appears to have been in agricultural production at one time where it is may have been involved in dry land production of high altitude seed-plants Chenopodium. Old natural terraces of the Río Llapa, slight terraces visible in the site overview photo below (Figure 6-82), were plowed and planted using field boundaries that follow terrace edges accentuated by the rocks that were thrown along the margins during field clearing. Some suggestion of eroded canal features were evident as well, implying that some form of irrigation was achieved, although such irrigation would likely have required diverting water from Quebrada Taukamayo to the east (adjacent to A02-26, see Figure 6-62)

Middle Horizon and Late Intermediate Period

As has been discussed above, the role of regional states in the Colca valley during the Middle Horizon is somewhat enigmatic. Wari influences are apparent in architecture and ceramic attributes, but direct evidence of Wari control has not been encountered. No evidence of Tiwanaku, a principal consumer of Chivay obsidian, has been encountered in the region. The local Middle Horizon ceramic type defined by Wernke (2003) was encountered in low densities in Block 3, although generally in spatial association with LIP sherds suggesting a continuity of economic and settlement patterns.

During the Late Intermediate Period there appears to have been a significant increase in population in the Block 3 region. The founding myth of the Collagua people, as recorded by a Spanish ethnohistoric source, has them conquering the Colca valley upon their descent from the Mount Collaguata near Velille in Espinar (Cusco) 120 km north of this region (Ulloa Mogollón 1965 [1586]; cited in Wernke 2003: 80). Data is not available from this surface survey to test the alleged population replacement, but some continuity in land use pattern is apparent from the occupation of areas with both local Middle Horizon ceramics and LIP ceramics.

One site that shows ceramics from throughout the sequence that includes the possible Formative Period (Chiquero), the Middle Horizon, LIP, and Late Horizon, is the site of Taukamayo [A02-26] discussed in more detail in Early Agropastoral section (seeFigure 6-60). This site has been partially destroyed by a creeping landslide that has resulted in shuffling of stratigraphy within the displaced slump deposit and the exposure of a variety of artifacts from the prehistoric sequence. In the creep debris there are concentrations of stone associated with LIP and LH ceramics that suggest that chulpas, perhaps similar to the one observed at a site immediately to the north [A03-673], were built along the terrace that has since collapsed in the creep.
Figure6-78. Block 3 Middle Horizon and Late Intermediate Period features.

Distinctive features from the LIP include a number of shared features from the Titicaca Basin mentioned previously. These consist of pukaras, chulpasand distinctive types of cave burials. Pukaras are fortified hilltops settlements usually occupied only for short-term, defensive purposes (Arkush 2005;Stanish 2003: 209-218;Wernke 2003: 251-265).