No direct evidence of Tiwanaku was encountered at the Chivay source or in the immediate vicinity during fieldwork in 2003. A single obsidian preform was encountered that appears to have been an early stage of a type 4E (Tiwanaku stemmed) projectile point in Block 2, but the identification is not definitive. Titicaca Basin materials were encountered deriving from particular time periods in the form of non-local decorated ceramics, such as sherds of possible Qaluyu and Pukara (Formative) styles, and Colla and Chucuito (LIP and Late Horizon) ceramic styles, but no Tiwanaku pottery was encountered any where in the Upper Colca research area. In Block 3, a calibrated radiocarbon date of A.D. 650 - A.D. 780 (Figure 7-3) from Taukamayo places the occupation in the Tiwanaku period, but no Tiwanaku or Wari evidence was found at the site. Rather, pottery akin to the local Chiquero material was encountered that is diagnostic to the Formative in the main Colca valley (Wernke, 2003). The asymmetrical relationship between Chivay obsidian consumption in the Tiwanaku economic sphere, and the lack of Tiwanaku diagnostic materials in the Chivay source area will be discussed in more detail below.

Local Middle Horizon patterns are of particular interest because regional distributions of these ceramics may shed light on the nature of the frontier relationship between Tiwanaku and Wari that appears to have been occurring in the upper Colca valley during the latter half of the first millennium AD. Ceramics in the local Middle Horizon style (Wernke 2003: 466-478) were encountered in Block 2, but these sherds were confined to the northern half of Block 2. Middle Horizon pottery was found scattered throughout Block 3. A single local Middle Horizon sherd was found mid-way between the Chivay source and the town of Chivay, and one sherd was found in Block 6 upstream of Tuti. In short, the Colca Middle Horizon type defined by Wernke was encountered throughout the Upper Colca study area although, as discussed in Chapter 6, there is a distinct zone in Block 2 south of which the local MH pottery is not found.