Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T19:42:21.111Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Tipon: Insight into Inka Hydraulic Engineering Practice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 December 2019

Charles R. Ortloff
Charles R. Ortloff*
Affiliation:
Research Associate in Anthropology, University of Chicago; CFD Consultants International Ltd., 18310 Southview Ave., Los Gatos, CA95033, USA (ortloff5@aol.com)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The site of Tipon, Peru, located about 30 km east of Cuzco, provides an example of Inka knowledge of hydraulic engineering and the civil engineering practices used in the design and operation of the complex water system. The inhabitants of Tipon used river- and spring-sourced surface and subterranean channels to convey, distribute, and drain water to and from multiple agricultural platforms, reservoirs, and urban ceremonial centers. Intricate intersecting surface and subterranean channel systems that combined and regulated water flows from different sources controlled the water to and drainage from 13 terraced agricultural platforms. This design served to maintain different ground moisture levels to sustain specialty crops. Within the site are fountains and multiple water display features requiring sophisticated hydraulic engineering necessary for aesthetic displays. To understand the technology used by the Inka to design the water systems at Tipon, I used computational fluid dynamics methodology and modern hydraulic engineering theory. I made computer models of key elements of the Principal Fountain and the Main Aqueduct to reproduce water flow patterns in these features as intended by Inka engineers’ designs and calculations. The Inka hydraulic technology used complex engineering principles similar to those in modern civil engineering practice centuries ahead of their formal discovery in Western hydraulic science.

El sitio arqueológico de Tipón, localizado en cercanías de la ciudad de Cuzco, Perú, es un ejemplo del vasto conocimiento Inka en ingeniería hidráulica. Esto se demuestra a través de la complejidad en los sistemas de abastecimiento y distribución de agua con los que cuenta el sitio, como canales superficiales y subterráneos que servían para distribuir agua a varias plataformas agrícolas, así como fuentes de aguas decorativas y muy elaboradas. Como en todos los proyectos hidráulicos, antiguos y modernos, la aplicación del conocimiento básico en ingeniería constituye el soporte para el diseño y funcionamiento de complejos sistemas de abastecimiento y distribución de agua; éste garantiza el éxito en el funcionamiento de dicho sistema. Con el fin de revelar los conocimientos con los que contaban los ingenieros hidráulicos Inkas para diseñar y operar los sistemas hídricos del sitio de Tipón, en este trabajo se utilizan conceptos modernos de análisis en ingeniería hidráulica enfocados en la fuente y en el acueducto principal. El uso de ingeniería a la inversa revela los aspectos básicos de ingeniería hidráulica disponibles para los ingenieros Inka; sin embargo, el uso de estos conceptos reside en un formato pre-científico que es aún desconocido. Los resultados obtenidos indican un conocimiento profundo de dichos principios, comparable, en muchos casos, con las prácticas modernas de diseño hidráulico.

Keywords

InkaTiponhydraulic theory analysisPrincipal FountainMain AqueductInkaTipóningeniería hidráulicafuente mayoracueducto principal
Type
Article
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 30 , Issue 4 , December 2019 , pp. 724 - 740
Copyright
Copyright © 2019 by the Society for American Archaeology

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References Cited

Bakhmeteff, Boris 1932 Hydraulics of Open Channels. McGraw-Hill, New York.Google Scholar
Bauer, Brian S. 1996 The Legitimization of the Inka State in Myth and Ritual. American Anthropologist 98:327–337.Google Scholar
Bauer, Brian S. 1998 Ancient Cuzco: Heartland of the Inka. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Bauer, Brian S., and Covey, Alan 2004 The Development of the Inka State (AD 1000–1400). In Ancient Cuzco: Heartland of the Inka, by Bauer, Brian, pp. 210–224. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Bray, Tamara L. 2013 Water, Ritual, and Power in the Inka Empire. Latin American Antiquity 24:164–190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brundage, Burr C. 1967 Lords of Cuzco. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Chow, Ven Te 1959 Open-Channel Hydraulics. McGraw-Hill, New York.Google Scholar
D'Altroy, Terrence 2002 The Inkas. Blackwell, Malden, Massachusetts.Google Scholar
Earle, Timothy, and D'Altroy, Terrence 1989 The Political Economy of the Inka Empire: The Archaeology of Power and Finance. In Archaeological Thought in America, edited by Lamberg-Karlovsky, Carl, pp. 183–204. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henderson, F. M. 1966 Open Channel Flow. Macmillan, New York.Google Scholar
Hyslop, John 1990 Inka Settlement Planning. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Kendall, Ann 1985 Aspects of Inka Architecture—Description, Function and Chronology. BAR International Series 242. British Archaeological Reports, Oxford.Google Scholar
LeVine, Terry Y. 1992 Inka Storage Systems. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
McEwan, Gordon 1991 Investigations of the Pikillacta Site: A Provincial Huari Administrative Structure in the Valley of Cuzco. In Huari Administrative Structure: Prehistoric Monumental Architecture and State Government, edited by Isbell, William and McEwan, Gordon, pp. 93–119. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Mithen, Steven 2012 Thirst: Water and Power in the Ancient World. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, Jerry 2005 Cultural Landscapes in the Ancient Andes. University Press of Florida, Gainesville.Google Scholar
Morris, Craig 1982 The Infrastructure of Inka Control in the Peruvian Central Highlands. In The Inka and Aztec States 1400–1800: Anthropology and History, edited by Collier, George A., Rosaldo, Renato I., and Wirth, John D., pp.153–170. Academic Press, New York.Google Scholar
Morris, Craig 1992 The Technology of Highland Inka Food Storage. In Inka Storage Systems, edited by LeVine, Terry, pp. 237–258. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman.Google Scholar
Morris, Henry M., and Wiggert, James M. 1972 Open Channel Hydraulics. Ronald Press, New York.Google Scholar
Moseley, Michael E. 2001 The Inkas and their Ancestors. Thames and Hudson, London.Google Scholar
Murra, John 1960 Rite and Crop in the Inka State. In Culture in History, edited by Diamond, Stanley, pp. 393–407. Columbia University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Murra, John 1980 The Economic Organization of the Inka State. JAI Press, Greenwich, Connecticut.Google Scholar
Ortloff, Charles R. 1996 Engineering Aspects of Tiwanaku Groundwater Controlled Agriculture. In Tiwanaku and Its Hinterland: Archaeology and Paleoecology of an Andean Civilization, Vol. 1, edited by Kolata, Alan, pp. 153–168. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Ortloff, Charles R. 2009 Water Engineering in the Ancient World: Archaeological and Climate Perspectives on Ancient Societies of South America, the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Ortloff, Charles R. 2014 Groundwater Management in the 300 BCE–1100 CE Pre-Columbian City of Tiwanaku (Bolivia). Hydrology: Current Research 5(2):168. DOI:10.4172/2157-7587.1000168.Google Scholar
Ortloff, Charles R., Moseley, Michael E., and Feldman, Robert 1983 Hydraulic Engineering Aspects of the Chimu Chicama-Moche Intervalley Canal. American Antiquity 47:572–595.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patterson, Thomas 1991 The Inka Empire: The Formation and Disintegration of Pre-Capitalist State. Berg, New York.Google Scholar
Quilter, Jeffery 2014 The Ancient Central Andes. Routledge, London.Google Scholar
Rouse, Hunter 1946 Elementary Mechanics of Fluids. Dover, New York.Google Scholar
Rowe, John H. 1946 Inka Culture at the Time of the Spanish Conquest. In Handbook of South American Indians, edited by Steward, Julian, pp. 183–330. Bureau of American Ethnography No. 143. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Rowe, John H. 1979 An Account of the Shrines of Ancient Cuzco. Ñawpa Pacha 17:2–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Squire, George E. 1877 Peru: Incidents of Travel and Exploration in the Land of the Inkas. Harper and Brothers, New York.Google Scholar
Urton, Gary 1999 Inka Myths. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar
Woodward, Sherman M., and Posey, Chesley J. 1941 Hydraulics of Steady Flow in Open Channels. John Wiley and Sons, New York.Google Scholar
Wright, Kenneth, McEwan, Gordon, and Wright, Ruth 2006 Tipon: Water Engineering Masterpiece of the Inca Empire. American Society of Civil Engineers, Reston, Virginia.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wright, Kenneth, Wright, Ruth, Zegarra, Alfredo V., and McEwan, Gordon 2011 Moray: Inka Engineering Mystery. American Society of Civil Engineers, Reston, Virginia.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zuidema, Thomas 1990 Inka Civilization at Cuzco. University of Texas Press, Austin.Google Scholar