Christine Hastorf

Our research goals are several. While trying to understand the Formative phase in the south-central Andes, we are especially interested in the early evidence for increasing political scale and agricultural systems. We are trying to uncover evidence of the domestic areas and activities, but this is proving difficult. We have excavated in two areas, above and below the mound, looking for domestic houses and middens. In both areas, Llusco and Santiago, we have instead found large (approx. 13 by 13 m) semi-subterranean stone-walled enclosures. At this stage in our research we believe these to be ceremonial (gathering) areas rather than habitation. Llusco, excavated by first Claudia Rivera and then Jose Luis Paz dates to the Late Formative, about 8-600 B.C. It has patches of white plaster on the floor and a draining canal in the lower, northwest corner. Santiago, excavated by Emily Dean and David Kojan in 1996, directly overlooks the lake shore. This area of the site is a complex of use and rebuilding layers throughout the Formative times. While there are surfaces, they seem to be fairly clean and in some cases plastered with yellow or white, with burials throughout. More excavation must be done there to explain this sector..

To the west of these surfaces and cuts, at the end of the 1996 season, we discovered a 14 by 13 m stone wall enclosure that we think is another of these semi-subterranean ritual areas. This one could date to as early as 1500 B.C. Because we only outlined this structure in the last few days of excavation, we do not know the details of its construction, but we do know on its east wall there is a small stone niche that had nothing visible in it. This could be what we see in later Tiwanaku and even Inkaic enclosures, niches that held important sacred objects. We also noted that part of the inner stone-wall was plastered.

The Llusco and Santiago enclosures are the earliest in this region. Previously investigated structures such as these have dates in the 4-200 B.C. range. This evidence suggests that Chiripa has the earliest ceremonial sectors in the region, confirming its central place in the early days of sedentism for the Titicaca Basin. It's importance is further seen in the systematic surface collections that were completed this year. The Formative site now seems to be about 7 ha. in size. Given that these ceremonial areas, Llusco, the mound and Santiago only make up less than 1 ha. in size, there seems to have been substantial residence surrounding this central precinct, much larger than for other Formative sites found in the nearby regional surveys.

The final part of our 1996 project was to better understand the Formative portions of the mound. Matt Bandy undertook several cleaning operations on the mound. His main work was on the east side of the mound, which had been cut back by the community in the 1960's to build a football field. There he uncovered clear evidence of the "Upper House" Formative level. The previous work on the mound suggested that there were 14-16 structures surrounding a sunken plaza. This had been sub-stantiated, but sadly we also have learned that no structures are left untouched and complete. Ten structures however are probably in good condition. All the evidence suggests that these were not lived in but were more likely ceremonial structures. Each structure in the group perhaps was used by ayllu, an extended family associated with a territory. Below these adobe and stone walled plastered structures, Kidder found what he called the "Lower House" level. This turns out to be a series of at least four super-imposed structures. Four floors were seen in the eastern profile and there we learned that each adobe and stone walled structure has a series of yellow plaster floors. Between each re-flooring of these houses, there is evidence of ritual sealing, as sterile soil and sand were laid down, often accompanied by a fire. Further evidence of such floor treatment also was seen in the cleaning of historical fill along the south face of the mound. Most floors looked clean, although the top "Lower House" floor had lots of fish remains and pottery. One hearth was also encountered.

Melissa Goodman of Cambridge University joined the project briefly to collect micro-stratigraphic samples of all areas. We eagerly await the results, especially of these mound floors and firings. We hope to learn what types and intensities of activities were undertaken in these mound structures. We also hope to run a series of detailed AMS dates, in conjunction with the Lawrence Livermore Labs, overseen by Bill Whitehead, as ARF's intern this year at LLNL, for each of these floors, to understand timing and scope of the re-flooring events in the mound. On sites, Bill oversaw the flotation system as well as the sorting of the heavy fractions that were completed during the excavation.

Lee Steadman oversaw the ceramic analysis as well as ran the laboratory. Not only do the ceramics hold the key to the dating and seriation of the site within the region, but they are critical for identifying the activities on the site, such as cooking, storage, ceremonial and burial practices. Given that a detailed ceramic sequence has not been formed for this region, Lee is completing primary and essential work of the Formative in the southern Titicaca Basin, meshing it with her central Titicaca Basin seriation.