2003
CLAS Summer Research Report
Doris
Maldonado
Anthropology
"Understanding
the Ceramic Assemblage: Perspectives From The
2003 Field Season, Coa Collu, Bolivia" |
This
brief report is a summary of the activities of Doris
Maldonado, partially funded by
the Center for Latin
American studies in the summer of 2003. The first month
I spent in the tropical region of Lake Yojoa, Honduras,
as part of an archaeological field school under the direction
of Professors Rosemary Joyce (Berkeley) and John Henderson
(Cornell) at the site of Los Naranjos. After this brief
field experience, I switched continents and prepared
for my next journey to South America. After arriving
in San Francisco with only one day to spare, unpacking
clothing for the warm Honduran project, I had to switch
gears and prepare for the high elevations of the Bolivian
altiplano and a significant drop in temperature. My purpose
for traveling to Bolivia was
to join an on-going research project in the Lake Titicaca
Basin by the Taraco Archaeological Project, which has
been conducting archaeological work in this region since
1992. The field season excavations were undertaken at
the site of Coa Collu, west of the well known site of
Chiripa on the Taraco Peninsula (that CLAS has been providing
travel grants to various students at Berkley for the
last six years). Work at Coa Collu is part of a multi-year
project at multiple communities on the Taraco Peninsula
to assess polity formation on the Peninsula and is a
link between previous work by TAP and other researchers
around the Titicaca Basin.
The
primary goals of the Taraco Archaeological Project,
directed by Dr. Christine Hastorf and Dr.
Matt Bandy,
are to discern the ways in which decentralized societies
have negotiated social and economic change, how people
concede/participate/adapt to higher-levels of authority
and power structures, and how the region developed into
a regional polity (Hastorf and Bandy 2002). Excavations
at the site of Chiripa for the past four field seasons
have yielded information about the political complexity
of this Formative Period (1500-100 B.C.) society. Our
research along the Taraco Peninsula will help address
the questions and goals of the Formative to Tiwanaku
transition and will continue work on the environment
and ceramic style changes that link this area to the
Tiwanaku valley and sites to the north and west. The
focus of this field season's excavation was in the town
of Coa Collu, an Aymara community due west of Chiripa
and approximately 3 hours from the Bolivian capital,
La Paz. Future work will include two other sites (also
including the site of Chiripa) along the Taraco Peninsula
to address the questions of polity formation as it pertains
to the Tiwanaku state, considered to be the longest-lived
state center in the Andean highlands (Hastorf and Bandy
2002). This research looks at both inter and intra-site
relationships as they relate to social, political and
economic motives that drive acephalous societies to organize
into multi-community polities and which in this region
coalesced with Tiwanaku state formation between 300-500
A.D.
While
my primary work for TAP was to assist the principle
ceramic analyst, Dr. Lee Steadman
with the ceramic analysis
of the Kala Uyuni site ceramics, a large portion of this
experience at Coa Collu pertains to TAP's relationship
with the community and the perspective of the community
on our work there. It is this aspect that made my work
at Coa Collu an amazing learning experience, both professionally
and personally. To address one without the other would
result in an incomplete narrative.
The Ceramics
Due to our recent return from the field,
analysis from this year's field season is on-going. The
ceramic analysis for Chiripa and that of Coa Collu, along
with future work in the Taraco Peninsula will allow us
to make conclusions about regional differences in ceramics
and their exchange, regionally. This work forms one
facet of several methods of investigation, which together
with botanical, zooarchaeological, lithic, and soil studies, will
inform us about the inter and intra site relations at
a regional level that will address the broader goals
of TAP, as outlined above. Although ceramic analysis
for this field season is still in process, work on the
ceramic assemblage of Chiripa by Dr. Steadman has contributed
to our understanding of the Formative period in the Taraco
Peninsula. By implementing the use of attribute analysis,
involving the observation and recording of individual
ceramic attributes such as paste, color, finish, and
shape (Steadman 1999), Steadman has defined three ceramic
Chiripa phases (Early, Middle, and Late Chiripa). This
analytical methodology provides a better way of studying
changes through time (Steadman 1999), by looking at the
differences in ceramic attributes, rather than focusing
on their similarities. An important factor of ceramic
analysis is the development of chronological sequences
that assist in placing the artifacts in both space and
time. This ability is particularly important, due to
the project's goals in so far as observing links between
sites and the changes that occurred in the Taraco Peninsula,
where individual communities become part of multi-community
polities. We can observe these changes by looking at
how ceramic composition and style change through time,
as well as through attribute similarities between sites. The
analysis can address levels of interaction in trade,
exchange and distribution of material objects and most
importantly, ideology, a common and socially persuasive
link, bringing together ideologies under a shared social
system.
A portion of this summer's ceramic analysis
also consisted of looking at some of the ceramics from
excavations at the site of Chiripa. Chiripa phase ceramics
are distinct in both composition and style from later
periods in sites along the Taraco Peninsula. Distinguishing
attributes can be observed in the composition or paste,
which is predominantly fiber tempered in Early, Middle
and Late Chiripa assemblages. Mica inclusions account
for the two most predominate pastes used in the Early
Chiripa phase. Surface decoration and finish, as well
as shape are other significant attributes in ceramic
analysis. A high percentage of the ceramics of the
Early Chiripa phase are un-slipped and in the following
colors: black, gray, or dark brown. A lower proportion
are slipped in red, red brown and brown. The most common
vessel shape is that of a short neck-olla, but many other
vessel types such as low sided serving vessels have been
found.
During
the Middle Chiripa phase, pastes are characterized
with translucent inclusions which
vary in size. Burnishing,
which is found in the Early Chiripa phase, is also present
in the assemblage of this period in the same percentage,
but with a higher degree of luster and at times on both
sides (interior and exterior) of the vessel. The use
of slips during this period increases to comprise three
quarters of the Chiripa ceramic assemblage for this period.
The most common vessel shape is that of the medium-necked
olla. Late Chiripa ceramics are characterized by a paste
consisting of large chunky quartz inclusions and burnishing. The
use of slips also increases during this phase, again
the most common vessel shape pertains to the medium-necked
olla. This brief summary of the Chiripa ceramic assemblage
contains only those most salient aspects that characterize
each phase. A more detailed discussion of the attributes
of the Chiripa assemblage can be found in Early Settlement
at Chiripa, Bolivia: The Ceramics (ed. Hastorf 1999).
Surface treatment and the beautiful intensity of the
slipped colors used in this period as well as designs,
set this period apart stylistically from later periods
in the region. Examples of these ceramics can be found
at Coa Collu, which along with Late Chiripa ceramics
also consisted of Tiwanaku 1 ceramics.
Expectations for this seasons excavations,
as they apply to the ceramic assemblage, based on the
surface survey and collection of ceramics (Bandy 2001)
correlate temporally with Late Chiripa and Tiwanaku 1
ceramics. However, excavations also revealed Middle Chiripa
ceramics which may provide evidence for earlier regional
interaction in the Taraco Peninsula. Various excavation
units at Kala Uyuni revealed ceramics from a ceremonial
context. A semi-subterranean sunken temple was revealed on
top of a local hill. The temple contained a 2 meter
tall monolith in association with ceremonial artifacts
dating to Middle and Late Chiripa ceramic contexts. Separate
excavation units at the base of the hill revealed ceramic
assemblages dating to the Tiwanaku 1 period. Although
analysis is ongoing, our understanding of the Taraco
Peninsula polity and its relation to Tiwanaku state formation
is taking shape based upon our findings this field season
and those seasons at Chiripa. Future work on sites along
the Taraco Peninsula will enhance our understanding of
the Chiripa phases from 1500 B.C. to 300-500 A.D., and
the transition to the Tiwanaku.
The Processing of Ceramics
This
brief description describes the practical procedures
of ceramic analysis by the
Taraco Archaeological
Project. After the completion of each work day excavation
teams provided laboratory workers with bags of artifacts
containing bones, lithics and ceramics with information
about their archaeological provenience. These materials
were then soaked overnight in water to prepare for the
following days washing. Washing of artifacts brought
back from the field entailed specific procedures that
lab workers and local Aymara women did together everyday
so that these artifacts could be both catalogued and
analyzed by lab workers and data recorded for analysis.
Every one of these aspects is extremely important from
washing to recording ceramic attributes. The washing
of ceramics was performed by local Aymara women. Each
sherd from a given bag and locus was washed and allowed
to dry and later catalogued and analyzed. The cataloguing
of ceramic bags was performed by Virgilio Choque and
this work provided us with a basic inventory of ceramics
for the site. Virgilio, counted, weighed and recorded
the number of body sherds, small ceramic fragments, tierra
tiznada and diagnostic sherds (a sherd which tells
us about vessel shape, for example a rim sherd or a decorated
sherd) and these ceramics were later analyzed using the
attribute analysis described above. Data pertaining to
the attribute analysis conducted in the field is currently
in progress.
The Community of Coa Collu
Working in the community of Coa Collu this
summer presented a number of challenges, but none that
could not be overcome due to the warmth and acceptance
of TAP. Members of this community worked closely with
us on this archaeological project, making this a shared
experience and a unique one for me. Thinking back to
my time at Coa Collu, there are a number of things that
I remember fondly, at the moment two stand out. The first
is a conversation with a local Aymara man who was an
excavation maestro in this project. The conversation
provides an insight on the perception of our work at
Coa Collu by community members. We were discussing the
relevance of this project to Bolivian archaeology and
how happy I was to be living and working in this community
and Facundo said that he was equally happy because this
project more than providing employment to local community
members, provided their children with knowledge about
their past that they could pass on to their children,
and this was above anything the most important aspect
of our presence there, at least for Facundo.
Finally,
on Aug. 5th and 6th this
summer, the community of Coa Collo along with other communities
along the Taraco Peninsula invited us to celebrate with
them the annual fiestas de Independencia. It was a wonderful
experience that I will never forget and hope to participate
in on my next visit to Bolivia.
Late
Chiripa Ceramics - Paste 21 - Common
Ware
Tiwanaku
I - Incised Polycrome - Extremely
Rare
Doņa Alejandra Condori - Maestra
de Ceramica
Acknowledgements
To the Center for Latin American Studies for the opportunity
to travel to Bolivia and
to TAP for the experience. Lastly, to the community of
Coa Collo for allowing us to live and work among them
and to learn from each other.
Thank
you to Alicia, Elsa, Facundo, Franz, Virgilio, Primitivo
and all the members of the community
of Coa
Collo and to Doņa Alejandra Condori. Thank you TAP.
Bibliography
Hastorf, Christine A.
1999 Early
Settlement at Chiripa, Bolivia:
Research of the Taraco Archaeological
Project.
ARF Contribution No. 57, Berkeley, 1999.
Hastorf, Christine A. and Matthew Bandy
2002 Decentralized
Societies and Multi-Community Polity Formation, grant
proposal to the National Science
Foundation.
Steadman, Lee
2002 Report
to the Center for Latin American Studies on the Faculty
Research Grant,
"Bolivian Ceramic Analysis",
awarded to Dr. Christine Hastorf, Department of Anthropology,
Spring
2002.
Abstract
The
Taraco Archaeological Project, under the direction
of Dr. Christine Hastorf and Dr. Matthew Bandy, has
been conducting archaeological work in the Lake Titicaca
Basin
region since 1992. This field season excavations were
undertaken at the site of Coa Collu, west of the well
known site of Chiripa on the Taraco Peninsula. Work
at Coa Collu is part of a multi-year project at multiple
communities on the Taraco Peninsula to assess polity
formation on the Peninsula and is a link between previous
work by TAP and other researchers around the Titicaca
Basin. The primary goals of the Taraco Archaeological
Project, are to discern the ways in which decentralized
societies have negotiated social and economic change,
how people concede/participate/adapt to higher-levels
of authority and power structures, and how the region
developed into a regional polity (Hastorf and Bandy 2002).
Excavations at the site of Chiripa for the past four
field seasons has yielded information about the political
complexity of this Formative Period (1500-100 B.C.) society. Our
research along the Taraco Peninsula will help address
the questions and goals of the Formative to Tiwanaku
transition and continue work on the environment and
ceramic style changes that link this area to the Tiwanaku
valley
and sites to the north and west.
