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Surveying and Hydraulic Engineering of the Pre-Columbian Chimú State: ad 900–1450

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 December 2008

Charles R. Ortloff
Charles R. Ortloff
Affiliation:
FMC/Corporate Technology Center1205 Coleman Avenue, Box 580Santa Clara, CA 95052, USA
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Extract

The Chimú state of northern coastal Peru (ad 900–1480) developed massive irrigation-based agricultural systems supplied by intricate networks of canals drawing water from river sources in coastal valleys under their political control. Further intervalley canal systems, some up to 50 miles in length, were constructed to shunt water between river valleys to augment intravalley supplies. A high degree of civil engineering skill was necessary to construct and maintain such complex systems; knowledge of surveying and of open channel flow hydraulics was paramount. Some of the technology used by the Chimú has been investigated: surveying instruments and calculating tools have been unearthed and analyzed to provide some understanding of the technical base used for canal design. Details of the hydraulics knowledge-base have been extracted from computer simulation of the functioning of ancient Chimú canal designs. This article assembles known pieces of information related to Chimú civil engineering practice and attempts to provide a plausible methodology that could have been implemented by the Chimú to survey the precise canal bed slopes necessary for proper hydraulic functioning of large canal systems through rugged Andean foothill and mountain areas.

Type
Articles
Information
Cambridge Archaeological Journal , Volume 5 , Issue 1 , April 1995 , pp. 55 - 74
Copyright
Copyright © The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research 1995

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