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The Chicama-Moche Intervalley Canal: Social Explanations and Physical Paradigms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Charles R. Ortloff ,
Michael E. Moseley  and
Robert A. Feldman
Charles R. Ortloff
Affiliation:
FMC Corporation, Central Engineering Laboratories, Santa Clara, CA 95052
Michael E. Moseley
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL 60605
Robert A. Feldman
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL 60605
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Abstract

Antithetical premises of a static versus dynamic Andean landscape produce contradictory interpretations of the Chicama-Moche Intervalley Canal. On a static landscape, inoperable canal gradients must be explained by social parameters such as poor surveying or construction techniques. The paradigm of Plate Tectonics and evidence of ongoing crustal convergence support an alternative premise of continuous, gradual landscape alteration and ground slope change. This premise provides a physical explanation for why abandoned canals often exhibit uphill gradients and ancient monuments are frequently not level. However, this premise also requires that complex methods in the engineering analysis of slope-altered structures be made explicit. Assessment of landscape alteration utilizes basic principles of physical geology, but their application to a particular study area must take local conditions into consideration. Similarly, analysis of the hydraulic properties of an irrigation canal utilizes basic principles of fluid dynamics, but local conditions must be considered in deciding which formulas to use and how to apply them. Improper application of geological principles and hydraulic equations has led our critics to incorrect results.

Type
Comments
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 48 , Issue 2 , April 1983 , pp. 375 - 389
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 1983

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