Evidence of use of obsidian

The artifact types predominantly manufactured from obsidian include projectile points and tools for cutting and shearing tasks. While simple flakes are wide-spread and were probably used abundantly for butchering, scraping, and shearing purposes, the utility of obsidian flakes is frequently discounted when flakes are relegated to the "debitage" or "debris" class. In Andean studies bifacially-flaked instruments are the most commonly analyzed obsidian artifact class in archaeological reports from sites in the Andes.

Obsidian artifacts are sometimes found in association with iconographic representations of dark colored artifacts that are similar in appearance to the very obsidian artifacts found in that context (Burger and Asaro 1977: 15). Such is the case with black-tipped darts and knives depicted on Ocucaje 8 through Nasca 6 ceramics and textiles, and obsidian artifacts found in tombs from those contexts. Building on the discussion in Burger and Asaro (1977: 13-18), examples of obsidian artifacts from the south-central Andes follow.

Application	Form	Provenience	Description	Reference
Weapon (probable dart point), conflict	Point	Looted tomb at Hacienda Mosojcancha, Huancavelica.	A point made from obsidian was found embedded deeply in a human lumbar. (Figure C-10).	(Ravines 1967)
Weapon, with spear throwers	Point	Grave 16 at Asia, (central coast of Peru). Preceramic context.	Found in association with spear throwers	(Engel 1963: 56;Uhle 1909)
Weapon, hafted	Point	Tombs at Hacienda Ocucaje, Epoch 10. Early Horizon context.	Points hafted with gum and, in one case, cotton thread to wooden foreshafts.	(Burger and Asaro 1977: 14)
Weapon	Point	Carhua (south coast , Peru)	Point penetrating through arm muscle near humerus (Figure C-1).	(Engel 1966: 212)
Weapon, dart	Point	Paracas Necropolis	Well-preserved harpoon (Figure C-9).	(Engel 1966: 180c)
Weapon, dart	Hafted projectile depiction	Nasca Phase B1 and B2 diagnostic attribute	Phase B has "Atlatl darts (arrows) in series as ornaments" (Figure C-6).	(Carmichael, et al. 1998: 151)
Weapon, poison	Point	Eastern Lake Titicaca	Obsidian is among point types dipped in strong poison from herbs, perhaps curare.	(Cobo 1990 [1653]: 216-217)
Weapon, bow and arrow	Point depiction	Tiwanaku pottery	Archers with bow and black tipped arrows depicted on a Tiwanaku q'ero(Figure C-4).	(Bennett 1934: 426-459;Posnansky 1957: plate XXa)
Weapon, hunting	Point depiction	Nasca B vessel	Depiction of darts sailing towards a group of camelids .	(Burger and Asaro 1977: 16)
Tool, Ritual	Knife depiction	Nasca B pottery	Black knives associated with taking of trophy heads.	(Burger and Asaro 1977: 15)
Tool, Ritual	Knife depiction	Nasca textiles, Epoch 1 of EIP	Black knives associated with taking of trophy heads.	(D'Harcourt 1962: 110, 112)
Tool, Ritual	Knife, hafted	Early Nasca	Bifacial knife hafted to painted dolphin palate (Figure C-5).	(Disselhoff 1972: 277)
Decorative, Ritual	Mirror fragment	Huancayo, Middle Horizon 2 context	Fragment of obsidian mirror ground and polished to .4 cm thickness.	(Browman 1970: 86)
Decorative, Ritual	Mirror	Huarmey, Wari	Mirror mounded in carved wooden hand (Figure C-8).	(Lavalle and Perú 1990: 185)
Medical	Obsidian knives with blood-stains.	Cerro Colorado, Paracas	Part of medical kit that also contained a chachalote (sperm whale) tooth knife, bandages, balls of cotton, and thread.	(Tello 1929: 55)
Medical	Chillisaa kala, Aymara for "black flint"	Titicaca Basin	Speculation about tools used for trephination.	(Bandelier 1904;Marino and Gonzales-Portillo 2000)

Table 3-10. Examples of obsidian use in the south-centralAndes (part 1).

Application	Form	Provenience	Description	Reference
Medical, Ritual	Material used in folk cures	Canchis, Cuzco; and elsewhere	Modern use in folk cures, the stone was believed to have curative powers.	(Burger and Asaro 1977: 17;Cobo 1990 [1653])
Medical, Ritual	"knives of crystalline stone"	Titicaca Basin ( ?)	Abdominal surgery by "sorcerers"	(Cobo 1990 [1653])
Animal castration	Flakes, unmodified or retouched	Colca	"We use sharp pieces of obsidian or glass to castrate herd animals it doesn't cause infection like rusted metal knives."	T. Valdevia 2003, Pers. Comm. (my translation).
Shearing	Flakes, unmodified or retouched	Andes	"Aboriginal shearing required special implements, perhaps obsidian knives." Some modern pastoralists use broken glass and tin lids for shearing.	(Dransart 2002: 108-109;Gilmore 1950: 446)

Table 3-11. Examples of obsidian use in the south-centralAndes (part 2).

Many of these examples are shown in Appendix C. of this volume. While the diversity of artifact forms was relatively low, it is evident that the visual and fracture properties of obsidian were relevant to the tools that were used from this material. Further north in the Andes, in Ecuador, a greater percentage of obsidian artifacts seems to have filled a primarily decorative role, including abead, an ear spool, and three polished mirrors(Burger, et al. 1994: 246).

The evidence of use lithics may also take the form of cutting and scraping marks on faunal remains, but the lithic material type can rarely be established by these means. The continued use of glass and obsidian in modern contexts for shearing, butchery, and castration suggests that the prehispanic metals such as copper and bronze did not displace obsidian and other lithic materials for utilitarian tasks. Prehispanic metals were used largely for display, although metals were used in some weaponry, such as mace-heads (Lechtman 1984).

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