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Systematic Surface Collection
Dr. Matthew Bandy
Early interpretations of the site of Chiripa (Bennett 1936; Kidder 1956; Browman
1977) have characterized the mound as accumulation related to a small village
of 14-16 houses, arranged in a circular fashion about a central sunken court.
Bennett and Kidder see no evidence of occupation beyond the mound itself, while
Browman mentions the presence of a small TIW III village in the area occupied
by the modern hacienda house and soccer field. This shift in the locus of settlement
was presumably attendant upon a transformation of the function of the mound
from a residential to a ceremonial space, with the construction of the uppermost
sunken temple in the sequence. This is the temple that was excavated by Browman's
project and which can be seen by visitors to the site today. Chavez (1988),
on the other hand, interprets the Late Chiripa mound occupation (the so-called
Upper House Level) as a civic-ceremonial complex, albeit of modest size, dedicated
to storage of elite goods and surplus foodstuffs and presumably to ritual activity
as well.
Our 1992 excavations in the Santiago and Llusco areas demonstrated unequivocally
that occupation was present in all periods outside the area of the mound itself
(Hastorf et. al. 1992; Alconini y Rivera 1993). What remained unclear was the
extent and nature of this previously unrecognized occupation.
Consequently, our first action in the field in the 1996 season was to carry
out a systematic surface collection of the site of Chiripa, in order to determine
the size of the site and, hopefully, to detect patterns of intrasite artifact
distribution. As the majority of the surface of the site is utilized for modern
cultivation, and all of the site has certainly been cultivated intermittently
over the past 500 years, no surface architectural indications are preserved.
All of our conclusions are drawn from artifacts collected from the surface,
primarily from plowed or fallow fields.
Methodology
Our methodology for the collection was determined by a number of factors.
First, we had no clear idea of the boundaries of the site, and it was therefore
impossible to stratify it as required by certain sampling methods. Our collection
was, more than anything, exploratory. In addition, we needed to sample a quite
substantial area in a relatively short period of time. These factors indicated
to us that the most appropriate technique was systematic sampling using the
site grid that had been established in 1992.
Accordingly, the concrete datum point (BM I) that we had established on the
NW corner of the mound was assigned the arbitrary coordinates of 1000N/1000E.
Beginning from this point, collection units were laid out in a 50x50m grid pattern
until the limits of the artifact distribution had been reached and well established.
In this manner we were able to define the boundaries of the site.
Each of the 50x50m grid points served as the central point of a surface collection
unit. Initially, the unit was to be a circle with a radius of 3.99m (50m2).
If this area failed to yield at least 50 sherds, then the collection was expanded
to a circle with a radius of 5.64m (100m2). In order to standardize the surface
visibility of the collected areas as much as possible, the team collecting the
unit was permitted to move the center of the circle up to 20m in any direction
from the 50x50m grid point. In cases in which it was impossible to place the
entire unit within a plowed or fallow field, areas with different surface types
were collected as separate loci, thus stratifying the sample according to types
of ground cover. In areas of dense grass cover, grass was scraped with a shovel
and passed through a 1/4" screen. This difference in collection strategy
was necessary in order to offset very poor visibility in grassy units.
The total area sampled with this technique included 114 50x50m grid points.
This represents, of course, an area of 28.5 ha, since each unit sampled a 50x50m
(.25 ha) area. Four of these were not collected due to the presence of a modern
house (in one case) or of thick alluvium and grass (as in the case of three
points located in the quebrada to the west of the site). Finally, then, 110
grid points were collected. . Of the 110 loci which yielded artifactual material,
89 (81%) were collected from plowed or fallow fields, 9 (8%) from light grass
cover and 12 (11%) from dense grass cover. The surface characteristics of most
of the sample are therefore comparable, and artifact densities should largely
reflect archaeological reality rather than the exigencies of surface visibility.
More detailed comparisons between areas of different surface visibility will
be undertaken in the future, but for now we assume that collected artifact densities
may be compared across the entire site.
Results
The systematic surface collection has indeed demonstrated that prehistoric occupation at Chiripa far exceeded the limits of the mound itself, and even of Browman's TIW III village. Our results indicate that Chiripa was a major local center on the Taraco Peninsula at least from the Late Formative period through the TIW V period.
Formative
Period:
Due to the fact that virtually all of our collections derive from plowed field
contexts, sherds were generally quite broken up, and mean sherd size was small.
This made it virtually impossible for us to distinguish Early, Middle and Late
Chiripa occupation areas across the site at this time. Chiripa ceramics extend
over an area of 7.5 hectares (image A). Of this area, the mound accounts for
approximately .36 ha, or 5% of the total site. With an occupation of this size,
Chiripa must be counted as one of the largest Formative Period sites in all
of the Titicaca Basin, far exceeding any of the Formative Period sites encountered
in the systematic survey of the Tiwanaku Valley (Albarracin-Jordan and Matthews
1990). It is apparent, then, that Formative Period Chiripa was much larger than
a small village of 14-16 houses. This information supports Chávez's (1988)
suggestion that the mound, in Chiripa times, was a ceremonial rather than a
domestic zone. Our information firmly establishes the existence of large-scale,
nucleated habitation at least by the Late Chiripa phase. The extent of the Early
and Middle Chiripa occupations must, for the moment, remain a matter for speculation.
Tiwanaku
I-III Period:
As we were unable to distinguish the various Chiripa phases in the surface collection,
we were likewise unable to distinguish between TIW I and TIW III occupations.
Ceramics of this period extended over an area of 4.0 ha. While substantially
smaller than the Late Chiripa settlement, this is still a very substantial site
for this time. It is also considerably larger than Browman's postulated TIW
III 'village' associated with the mound. We must interpret this information
as indicating that Chiripa, far from being abandoned after the burning of the
Upper House level in the mound, continued to be an important center, with both
residential and ceremonial functions. It is also important to note that the
nucleated settlement established in the Formative Period continued in the TIW
I-III period.
Tiwanaku
IV-V Period:
This nucleated settlement not only continues into the TIW IV-V period, but is
greatly expanded. While Chiripa is not normally considered a major Tiwanaku
center, the Tiwanaku IV-V occupation extends over at least 13.0 ha (Image C).
This means that in this period Chiripa was as large as or larger than any site
in the Middle or Lower Tiwanaku Valley with the sole exception of Tiwanaku itself
(Albarracin-Jordan and Matthews 1990). In the greater region of the southern
Titicaca Basin, only Pajchiri, Lukurmata and Khonko Wankani seem to be larger
in this time period. In the future Chiripa must be considered not only as a
Formative Period center, but as a major regional Tiwanaku IV-V center as well.
Pacajes
Period (Late Intermediate Period/Late Horizon): The Late Intermediate Pacajes
Period witnessed a major shift in settlement at the site. Whereas we have seen
that the site was characterized by large-scale nucleated habitation at least
from the Late Formative, and possibly much earlier, in the LIP this pattern
breaks down. Artifacts are distributed in small (>1.0 ha), discontinuous
concentrations, probably indicating dispersed domestic clusters (Image D). Since
this same pattern is characteristic of historic and modern ceramics, we infer
that the LIP settlement pattern was similar to the modern one. That is, settlement
was characterized by discontinuous, isolated household units.
The
evidence from the systematic surface collection of the site indicates, then,
that previous interpretations of the site as a small village restricted to the
area of the mound are entirely incorrect. Chiripa was a major regional center
in the Late Formative Period, and probably earlier as well, and the mound was
certainly the ceremonial focus of the community, and possibly of the region.
Through the various phases of the Tiwanaku sequence, Chiripa continued to be
an important population center, and was clearly the major TIW IV-V center on
the peninsula. In the Pacajes phase, and subsequent Pacajes-Inka phase, Chiripa
ceased to be a locus of nucleated settlement. The pattern of small, discontinuous
habitations which appeared at this time was to characterize occupation at the
site until the present day (Image E).
Revised
September 20, 2002 12:41
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