The Chivay obsidian source (71.5355° S, 15.6423° W, 4972 masl) is the geological origin of a chemical group of obsidian that is found throughout the south-central Andean highlands including southern Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

 and western Bolivia

Bolivia

Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...

. Chemical characterization studies using X-ray fluorescence

X-ray fluorescence

X-ray fluorescence is the emission of characteristic "secondary" X-rays from a material that has been excited by bombarding with high-energy X-rays or gamma rays...

 (XRF) and Neutron Activation Analysis

Neutron activation analysis

In chemistry, neutron activation analysis is a nuclear process used for determining the concentrations of elements in a vast amount of materials. NAA allows discrete sampling of elements as it disregards the chemical form of a sample, and focuses solely on its nucleus. The method is based on...

 (NAA) have shown that the Chivay obsidian source, also known as the Cotallalli type or the Titicaca Basin type, makes up over 90% of the obsidian artifacts analyzed from the Lake Titicaca

Lake Titicaca

Lake Titicaca is a lake located on the border of Peru and Bolivia. It sits 3,811 m above sea level, making it the highest commercially navigable lake in the world...

 Basin.

Obsidian

Obsidian

Obsidian is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed as an extrusive igneous rock.It is produced when felsic lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimum crystal growth...

 from the Chivay source is found in large and homogeneous nodules in a high altitude volcanic depression approximately ten km to the east of the town of Chivay

Chivay

Chivay is a town in the Colca valley, capital of the Caylloma province in the Arequipa region, Peru. Located at about 12,000 ft above sea level, it lies upstream of the renowned Colca Canyon. It has a central town square and an active market...

 in the Colca Valley

Colca Canyon

Colca Canyon is a canyon of the Colca River in southern Peru. Peru's third most-visited tourist destination with about 160,000 visitors annually, it's located about 100 miles northwest of Arequipa...

 (Caylloma, Arequipa, Peru). Obsidian production at the Chivay source and evidence from the adjacent puna grassland

Puna grassland

The Puna grassland ecoregion, of the montane grasslands and shrublands biome, is found in the central Andes Mountains of South America. It is considered one of the eight Natural Regions in Peru, but extends south as far as northern Argentina and Chile....

 and valley areas were the subject of a Ph.D. dissertation research project (http://mapaspects.org/tripcevich-papers-presentations/tripcevich-phd-dissertation).

Consumption sites

Obsidian from the Chivay source has been chemically identified among artifacts from over fifty sites in the south-central Andes. Chivay obsidian was the predominant type found at the Archaic and Formative site of Jiskairumoko

Jiskairumoko

Jiskairumoko is a pre-Columbian archaeological site south east of Puno, Peru. The site lies at 4,115 meters , in the Aymara community of Jachacachi, adjacent to the Ilave River drainage, of the Lake Titicaca Basin, Peru...

 on the western side of Lake Titicaca in the Ilave Valley of Puno, Peru.