Latin American Archaeology Database, University of Pittsburgh
URL: http://www.pitt.edu/~laad
Email: laad@pitt.edu
Prehispanic Chiefdoms in the Valle de la Plata:
Formative 3 Communities Dataset
Luis Gonzalo Jaramillo E. 
 
  Obsidian artifacts  --  OBSIDIAN.TXT

This file contains data from 238 lots where obsidian was found (see Chapter 4) from both surface collections (1992 season) and from excavations. The first 94 lines correspond to the materials recovered during the collections and the following 144 refer to the obsidian procured from excavations. Every lot is listed as one line in the file, and OBSIDIAN.TXT has 238 lines in all. Every line has 39 variables separated by commas. The 39 variables are, in the following order:

1
 Series or Corte Number (see pp. 17)
2
 Lot number (see pp. 17)
3
 Site number utilized by the Valle de la Plata project (see pp. 17)
4
 Lot number of the Valle de la Plata regional mapping (see pp. 17)
5
 Letter assigned to squares in major excavations (for small excavations and shovel probes, this variable is "0") (see pp. 17)
6
 Level (see pp. 17)
7
 Total number of obsidian pieces in the entire lot
8
 Total number of obsidian pieces of color 1 (see pp 125-127 for color definitions)
9
 Total number of obsidian pieces of color 2
10
 Total number of obsidian pieces of color 3
11
 Total number of obsidian pieces of color 4
12
 Total number of obsidian pieces of color 5
13
 Total number of obsidian pieces of color 6
14
 Total number of obsidian pieces of color 7
15
 Total number of obsidian pieces of color 8
16
 Number of color 1 debitage (see pp. 125 for morphological definitions)
17
 Number of color 1 flakes
18
 Number of color 1 utilized flakes
19
 Number of color 2 debitage
20
 Number of color 2 flakes
21
 Number of color 2 utilized flakes
22
 Number of color 3 debitage
23
 Number of color 3 flakes
24
 Number of color 3 utilized flakes
25
 Number of color 4 debitage
26
 Number of color 4 flakes
27
 Number of color 4 utilized flakes
28
 Number of color 5 debitage
29
 Number of color 5 flakes
30
 Number of color 5 utilized flakes
31
 Number of color 6 debitage
32
 Number of color 6 flakes
33
 Number of color 6 utilized flakes
34
 Number of color 7 debitage
35
 Number of color 7 flakes
36
 Number of color 7 utilized flakes
37
 Number of color 8 debitage
38
 Number of color 8 flakes
39
 Number of color 8 utilized flakes
 
 The first line of the file, for example, looks like this:

"J92",12,467,75,"0",0,2,0,1,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0

It contains obsidian information for Series 92 lot 12 in Valle de la Plata site number VP467 corresponding to lot LA/75 in the regional survey. The zero with quotations ("0") confirms that this has no square assignment and is therefore not an areal excavation. Field 7 indicates that this lot contains 2 obsidian fragments, Field 9 indicates that one fragment is color 2, and Field 10 indicates that the other is Color 3. Furthermore, Field 20 indicates that the Color 2 piece is a flake and Field 22 indicates that the Color 3 piece is debitage.

The last line (238th) of the file is:

"XIII",347,467,0,"L",4,2,0,1,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0

Lot 347 is in Corte XIII, an excavation conducted in Valle de la Plata site VP467. Specific provenience information indicates that the lithics came from square L, level 4. Field 7 indicates that there is a total of 2 obsidian fragments, Field 9 indicates that one fragment is Color 2, and Field 11 indicates that the other is Color 4. Furthermore, Field 20 indicates that the Color 2 piece is a flake and Field 26 indicates that the Color 4 piece is also a flake.

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