Energy was evidently expended in digging to extract obsidian at the quarry pit in Maymeja and the motivation behind this effort an important question. Looking at the general patterns over the entire study area is instructive because it reveals some general patterns that were counter to expectations of this research project. If the original nodules from the Block 1 area were of a larger size it may account for the quarrying activity observed in Maymeja.

Table 6-6. Lengths of complete obsidian artifacts with > 30% cortex by survey block surface collections, showing means and standard deviations.

In Table 6-6 the length of cortical obsidian artifacts from surface collections from throughout the study region with a minimum threshold of 30% cortex are shown. It should be noted that tools and flakes must have 30% covering of dorsalcortex to qualify for this table, whereas cores need only have 30% cortex anywhere on the exterior surface to be included here.

The first indicator of differential activity in Block 1 is the sheer number of cortical cores in these surface collection data. Table 6-6 reveals that the mean size of cortical artifacts in all three technical classes is notably longer in Block 1, and that the second largest mean lengths are from Block 4, adjacent to the Maymeja area. The artifacts from Block 2 are surprisingly small considering that the Chivay source is only one day's travel from this location. The fact these cortical artifacts are small suggests that they did not have access to large starting nodules. Table 6-6 also shows that the cortical artifacts from Block 3 were slightly larger than one would expect considering that Blocks 5 and 2 are equidistant, if not closer, to the Maymeja area of the obsidian source than is Block 3.