The above obsidian procurement and circulation models are not mutually exclusive, and the implications can be considered synthetically in light of previously discussed exchange models in the Andes. The evidence just presented suggests that while obsidian procurement and initial production at the Chivay source was predominantly direct procurement, and transport via direct and down-the-line models of circulation, there was an important period of intensified procurement of obsidian that occurred during the Terminal Archaic through the Early and Middle Formative Periods. Obsidian is available on the surface surrounding Cerro Hornillo and the many small scatters on the ridges and in shelters in this area suggest that informal production occurred at various times in prehistory. These scattered reduction sites were complemented by evidence of intensive production that occurred in the southern portion of Maymeja where it appears that the principal goal was acquiring larger nodules of obsidian.

Models that attribute the origins of long-distance trade caravans to administered trade based on elite strategies (Stanish 2003: 69) have similarities to the models that limit the inducement to long-distance exchange to elite competition (Berdan 1989: 99;Brumfiel and Earle 1987). Following this perspective, in a context of down-the-line exchange it was elite demands and finance for procuring non-local goods that prompted the development of regular, long-distance caravan exchange, and then trade expanded to accommodate the needs of the wider population. As discussed by Smith (1999: 113), these perspectives place multifaceted processes like exchange into dichotomous terms. Differentiating elite from commoner demands, and defining prestige and utilitarian goods across the wide prehistoric variability in time and space is especially difficult. In the Andes, if "virtually all trade in the Andes conforms to what Polyani referred to as 'administered trade'" (Stanish 2003: 69) then how does one explain the consistently high percentages of non-local lithics due to long distance trade, as documented in primarily Formative levels at Qillqatani? It is argued here that these percentages are in excess, in both quantity and regularity, of the sporadic incidence of obsidian one might expect from down-the-line exchange over 200 km of largely homogeneous puna. If this regular consumption of non-local goods is indeed the product of independent caravans that began in the Terminal Archaic then it demonstrates an upswing in long-distance interaction that was founded on camelid domestication but it predates evidence of social ranking.