Hydraulic engineering aspects of the chimu Chicama Moche intervalley canal.
Charles R. Ortloff
- Estados Unidos-US : Society for American Archaeology, 1982.
- 572-595 páginas: ilustraciones en blanco y negro.
- Trimestral
- vol.47; n.3 (Jul.1982)
- no.3 .
- Soociety for American Archaeology. .
Of the many canal systems of the Chimu empire the Chicama Moche intervalley Canal coonecting the Chicama and Moche valleys represents the highest level of technical archievement. This paper examines the engineering skills of the Chimu as revealed by computer analysis of the open channel flow design techniques they utilized. Analysis of agricultural strategies made possible by this canal and the surveying skills inherent to its use are examined in detail. The presence of many trial canal paths toward the distal end of the canañ indicate extreme dificulty in overcoming tectonically induced ground slope changes caused by fault lines near the intervalley divide. The canal was abandoned prior to completion of constructun and thus never served to supply the Moche valley with Chicama water.