While acknowledging the possible former role of floodwater in Chilca´s sunken fields, this paper expresses concern about the limited and inconclusive evidence that knapp presents in support of floodwater management. Too much reliance is placed upon inferences from integrated field layout while we still appear to lack either unequivocal and consistent stratigraphic evidence or firsthand experience of river flloding at Chilca. It is also doubtful whether one can legitimately assess the archaeological or hydraulic status of these fields without considering the wider context of local irrigated farming, the perenal source of underground water, and the near certainty that fishing rather than agriculture was the subsistance base in such localities without perennail streams.