The Systematic Surface Collection MATTHEW S. BANDY E ARLY INTERPRETATIONS OF the site of Chiripa Llusco areas demonstrated unequivocally that (Bennett 1936; Kidder 1956; Browman occupation was present in all periods outside the 1977) have characterized the mound as accumula- area of the mound itself (Hastorf et al. 1992; tion related to a small village of 14-16 houses, Alconini y Rivera 1993). What remained unclear arranged in a circular fashion about a central was the extent and nature of this previously sunken court. Bennett and Kidder see no evidence unrecognized occupation. of occupation beyond the mound itself, while Consequently, our first action in the field in Browman mentions the presence of a small the 1996 season was to carry out a systematic Tiwaniaku III village in the area occupied by the surface collection of the site of Chiripa in order to modem hacienda house and soccer field to the east determine the size of the site and, hopefully, to of the mound. This shift in the locus of settlement detect patterns of intrasite artifact distribution. As was presumably based on a shift of the functional the majority of the surface of the site is utilized for interpretation of the mound from a residential to a modem cultivation, and all of the site has certainly ceremonial space, with the construction of the been cultivated intermittently over the past 500 uppennost sunken temple in the sequence. This years, no surface architectural indications are theory is based on the Tiwanaku III temple that preserved. All of our conclusions are drawn from was excavated by Browman's project and which artifacts collected from the surface, primarily from can be seen by visitors to the site today. Chaivez plowed or fallow fields. (1988), on the other hand, interprets the Late Chiripa mound occupation (the so-called Upper METHODOLOGY House Level) as a civic-ceremonial complex, Our methodology for the collection was albeit of modest size, dedicated to storage of elite determined by a number of factors. First, we had goods and surplus foodstuffs and presumably to no clear idea of the boundaries of the site, and it ritual activity as well. was therefore impossible to stratify the study area -XOur 1992 excavations in the Santiago and as required by certain sampling methods. Our 24 Early Settlement at Chiripa, Bolivia collection was, more than anything, exploratory. largely reflect archaeological reality rather than In addition, we needed to sample a quite substan- the exigencies of surface visibility. More detailed tial area in a relatively short period of time. These comparisons between areas of different surface factors indicated to us that the most appropriate visibility will be undertaken in the future, but for technique was systematic sampling using the site now we assume that collected artifact densities grid that had been established in 1992. may be compared across the entire site. Accordingly, the concrete datum point (BM I) that we had established on the NW corner of the RESULTS mound was assigned the arbitrary coordinates of The systematic surface collection has indeed lOOON/IOOOE. Beginning from this point, collec- demonstrated that prehistoric occupation at tion units were laid out in a 50 x 50 m grid pattern Chiripa far exceeded the limits of the mound itself, until the limits of the artifact distribution had been and even of Browman's Tiwanaku III village. Our reached and well established. In this manner we results indicate that Chiripa was a major local were able to define the boundaries of the site. center on the Taraco Peninsula at least from the Each of the 50 x 50 m grid points served as Middle Formative period through the Middle the central point of a surface collection unit. Horizon. Initially, the unit was to be a circle with a radius of Considering the surface ceramic distribu- 3.99 m (50m2). If this area failed to yield at least tions over the more than 2000-year occupation of 50 sherds, then the collection was expanded to a the site, two general macro-patterns emerge. The circle with a radius of 5.64 m (lOOm2). In order to first pattern is a relatively continuous distribution, standardize the surface visibility of the collected and characterizes the Formative period and Middle areas as much as possible, the team collecting the Horizon occupations (figures 7a-7c and below). unit was pernitted to move the center of the circle Pattern 2 is characterized by discrete, isolated up to 20 m in any direction from the 50 x 50 m concentrations (figures 7d-7e and below). While grid point. In cases in which it was impossible to we recognize that a variety of site formation place the entire unit within a plowed or fallow processes could potentially contribute to the field, areas with different surface types were formation of these two patterns, we nevertheless collected as separate loci, thus stratifying the feel that the clear distinction between them sample according to types of ground cover. In indicates two general modes of occupation in the areas of dense grass cover, grass was scraped with site's history. Pattern 2 corresponds to the modern a shovel and passed through a 1/4" screen. This settlement patter, characterized by individual, difference in collection strategy was necessary in isolated fannsteads, separated by actively culti- order to offset very poor visibility in grassy units. vated agricultural fields. We interpret the fist Identification and phasing of the ceramics recov- pattern, by contrast, as reflecting what we term ered from the surface collection was undertaken 'nucleated habitation'. This term is meant to by Dr. Lee Steadman. indicate a higher density of occupation, with no The total area sampled with this technique appreciable cultivated tracts interposed between included 114 50 x 50 m grid points. This repre- habitation structures. sents an area of 28.5 ha, since each unit sampled a 50 x 50 m (.25 ha) area. Four of these were not EARLY AND MIDDLE FORMATIVE PERIODS: collected due to the presence of a modern house THE CHIRIPA PHASES (in one case) or of thick alluvium and grass (as in the case of three points located in the quebrada to Due to the fact that virtually all of our the west of the site). In the end, 110 grid points collections derive from plowed field contexts, were collected. Of the 110 loci which yielded sherds were generally quite broken up, and mean artifactual material, 89 (81%o) were collected from sherd size was small. This made it virtually plowed or fallow fields, 9 (8%) from light grass impossible to distinguish Early, Middle, and Late cover, and 12 (1 1%) from dense grass cover. The Chiripa ceramics specifically, and thus the occupa- surface characteristics of most of the sample are tion areas dating to these phases individually therefore comparable, and artifact densities should across the site. The Chiripa phase was therefore Surface Collection 25 A~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ k 120DJOG -41 12DO,00 -~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~0 00 800.00 9c.00 90000 1000.00 11WJD0 lZ00.W t300X 700.00- N;Yf(/o 500.00 1000.00 1100.00 120z0D X300 C6 C 00000 F/ 7l 00 oo0o oo o00koo I F o 000.002 W0000 , FI ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~00 -. 0oL 01 .00 0000 W00 1100.00 120000 00 000000700000 80000 e0o000 100 100000 1200.00 1300.00 :FIGURE 7 Surface ceramic distributions, a: Formative period surface ceramic distribution, b: Tiwanaku I/ Ill surface ceramic distribution, c: Tiwanaku IV/V surface ceramic distribution, d: LIP/Inka surface :ceramic distribution, e: Historic period surface ceramic distribution. The shaded contour is .1 ceramic -count per square meter. 26 Early Settlement at Chiripa, Bolivia considered as one time unit. Chiripa ceramics expanded. While Chiripa is not normally consid- extend over an area of 7.5 hectares (figure 7a). Of ered a major Tiwanaku center, the Tiwanaku IV-V this area, the mound accounts for approximately occupation extends over at least 13.0 ha (figure .36 ha, or 5% of the total site. With an occupation 7c). This means that in this period Chiripa was as of this size, Chiripa must be counted as one of the large as or larger than any site in the Middle or largest Middle Formative period sites in all of the Lower Tiwanaku Valley with the sole exception of Titicaca Basin, far exceeding any of the Formative Tiwanaku itself (Albarracin-Jordan and Matthews period sites encountered in the systematic survey 1990). In the greater region of the southern of the Tiwanaku Valley (Albarracin-Jordan and Titicaca Basin, only Pajchiri, Lukurmata, and Matthews 1990), and comparable to the contempo- Khonko Wankani seem to be larger in this time rary Middle Formative center of Palermo near period. In the future Chiripa must be considered Juli, Peru (Stanish et al. 1997). It is apparent, not only as a Formative period center, but as a then, that Middle Formative Chiripa was much major regional Tiwanaku IV-V center as well. larger than a small village of 14-16 houses. This information supports Chaivez's (1988) suggestion LATE INTERMEDIATE PERIOD/LATE HORIZON: that the mound, in Chiripa times, was a ceremonial THE PACAJES PHASES rather than a domestic zone. Our information firmly establishes the existence of large-scale, The Late Intermediate Pacajes Period nucleated habitation at least by the Late Chiripa witnessed a major shift in settlement at the site phase. The extent of the Early and Middle Chiripa (figure 9d). Whereas we have seen that the site occupations must, for the moment, remain a matter was characterized by large-scale nucleated habita- for speculation. tion at least from the Late Formative, and possibly much earlier, in the Late Intermediate Period this LATE FORMATIVE PERIOD: TIWANAKU HIT-I pattern breaks down. Artifacts are distributed in As we were unable to distinguish the various small (< 1.0 ha), discontinuous concentrations, Chiripa phases in the surface collection, we were probably indicating dispersed domestic clusters. likewise unable to distinguish between Tiwanaku I Since this same pattern is characteristic of historic and Tiwanaku III occupations, particularly as the and modern ceramics (figure 7e), we infer that the collection consisted mostly of plainwares. The Late Intermediate Period settlement pattern was Tiwanaku I/III phases are therefore treated as a similar to the modern one. That is, settlement was single time unit in this analysis, the Late Forma- characterized by discontinuous, isolated household tive. Ceramics of this period extended over an units. area of 4.0 ha (figure 7b). While substantially The evidence from the systematic surface smaller than the Late Chiripa settlement, this is collection of the site indicates, then, that previous still a very substantial site for this time. It is also interpretations of the site as a small village re- considerably larger than Browman's postulated stricted to the area of the mound are entirely Tiwanaku III 'village' associated with the mound. incorrect. Chiripa was a major regional center in We must interpret this information as indicating the Late Formative period, and probably earlier as that Chiripa, far from being abandoned after the well, with the mound being the ceremonial focus burning of the Upper House level on the mound, of the community, and possibly of the region. continued to be an important center, with both Through the various phases of the Tiwanaku residential and ceremonial functions. It is also sequence, Chiripa continued to be an important important to note that the nucleated habitation population center, and was clearly the major established at least by the Middle Formative Middle Horizon center on the peninsula. In the period continued in the Tiwanaku I-IIl period. Pacajes phase, and subsequent Pacajes-Inka phase, Chiripa ceased to be a locus of nucleated settle- MIDDLE HORIZON: TIWANAKU TV-V ment. The pattern of small, discontinuous habita- This nucleated settlement not only continues tions that appeared at this time characterizes into the Tiwanaku IV-V period but is greatly occupation at the site up to the present day. EXCAVATIONS