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Thermal Analysis of Tiwanaku Raised Field Systems in the Lake Titicaca Basin of Bolivia

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Thermal Analysis of Tiwanaku Raised Field Systems in the Lake Titicaca Basin of Bolivia Journal of Archaeological Science 1989,16,233-263 Thermal Analysis of Tiwanaku Raised Field Systems in the Lake Titicaca Basin of Bolivia Alan L. Kolata’ and Charles Ortloff’ (Received 9 June 1988, revised manuscript accepted 12 October 1988) Raised field systems of agriculture in seasonally or perennially inundated landscapes have received increasing attention from scholars involved in the analysis of prehistoric agricultural intensification in the New World. This paper discussesthe morphology and function of raised fields associated with the Tiwanaku civilization on the southern rim of Lake Titicaca in Bolivia. The thermal properties, and specifically, the heat storage capacity of raised fields in this high altitude environment are analysed by means of an ANSYS finite element computer model. The analysis concludes that enhanced heat storage capacity was an essential design element of raised field agriculture in the Andean altiplano, and that this thermal effect served to mitigate the chronic hazard of frost damage to maturing crops in this rigorous environment. An experimental verification of this conclusion based on the performance of reconstructed raised fields subjected to severe sub-freezing conditions is briefly described. Keywords: AGRICULTURE, TECHNOLOGY, HYDROLOGY, RAISED FIELDS, SOUTH AMERICA, ANDES, BOLIVIA, COMPUTER MODELING. Introduction The ability of irrigation agriculture to support large populations and underwrite the agrarian economy of state level society has long been recognized. Most historical and interpretive studies of agricultural reclamation have been concerned with the technologi- cal, sociological, and political implications of hydraulic agriculture in arid lands (Wittfogel, 1938, 1957). The interplay between social institutions, political organization, and agrarian economy based on artificial water distribution has been the subject of a large body of literature (Steward, 1955; Boserup, 1965; Sanders & Price, 1968; Fernea, 1970; Price, 1971; Sanders, 1972; Mitchell, 1973; Downing & Gibson, 1974 and many others). However, the potential of intensive raised field agriculture to provide a similar econ- omic base and to sustain demographic growth is little known. In response to this lacuna, recent interest in the problem of agricultural reclamation in perennially or periodically inundated landscapes has expanded dramatically. The initial product of this emergent interest has been substantial new information on the morphology, functions and impli- cations of raised, drained field agric.ulture in various regions and culture areas of the New World (Denevan, 1980, 1982). A sampling of such studies reflects the geographical “Department of Anthropology, The Universityof Chicago,U.S.A. *Central EngineeringLaboratories, FMC Corporation, Santa Clara, California, U.S.A. 233 0305-4403/89/030233+31$03.00/0 0 1989Academic Press Limited 234 A. L. KOLATA AND C. ORTLOFF Figure 1. Location of the study area on the southeastern shore of Lake Titicaca in Bolivia. breadth in the distribution of these paleohydraulic systems, as well as the relatively recent character of scholarly inquiry into them (MAYA-Siemens & Puleston, 1972; Turner, 1974, 1978, 1983; Matheny, 1976, 1978; Harrison, 1977, 1978; Puleston, 1977; Siemens, 1978, 1982, 1983a; Adams, 1980; Scarborough, 1983; VERACRUZ-Siemens, 19836; Wilkerson, 1983; VALLEY OF MEXICO-Armillas, 1971; Calnek, 1972; Parsons, 1976; Parsons et al., 1982; VENEZUELA-Zucchi, 1972; COLUMBIA-West, 1959; Parsons & Bowen, 1966; Broadbent, 1966, 1968; Eidt, 1984; ECUADOR-Parsons, 1969; Batchelor, 1980; Knapp, 1981; Denevan & Mathewson, 1983; Knapp & Ryder, 1983; PERU-Parsons & Denevan, 1967; Smith et al., 1968; Lennon, 1983; Erickson, 1985; BOLIVIA-Pflaker, 1963; Denevan, 1964,1966; Kolata, 1986). In 1986 a binational, interdisciplinary research project directed by one of the authors (A.L.K.) initiated an intensive examination of raised field systems in the near hinterland of the pre-Hispanic city of Tiwanaku (Tiahuanaco) on the southern rim of Lake Titicaca in northwestern Bolivia (Figure 1). This research was centered on a 70 km2 zone referred to TIWANAKU RAISED FIELD SYSTEMS 235 locally as the Pampa Koani (Figure 2). During the 1986 season, excavations in two hydrologically discrete raised field segments were undertaken to examine in greater detail the temporal context, as well as the methods of construction, modification and use of raised field systems within the Tiwanaku hinterland. These excavations, along with corre- lative investigations of local topography and groundwater, were also intended to form the empirical base line for a computer generated model of raised field function in the Andean altiplano. This paper reports the results of one aspect of that model: the thermal properties of raised field systems in the context of the specific hydrological and climatological conditions characteristic of the littoral and near-shore environment of Lake Titicaca. Setting Lake Titicaca is located at 16” S, 69” W at 3810 m above sea level in the Andean altiplano. The bedrock of the Titicaca basin is mostly igneous (basalts and andesites) with some sedimentary rocks, mostly shales, sandstones, and isolated pockets of limestone (Newell, 1949). The altiplano and the lake were formed in the Miocene with the rise of the Andes (James, 1971), and attained present form in the Plio-Pleistocene (Lavenu, 1981). Annual rainfall near Lake Titicaca averages 687 f 138 mm (Boulange & Aquize-Jaen, 1981: tables V 8z VI) which falls principally in a wet season between December-March. Annual mean air temperature at lake elevation is c. 9°C with an amplitude of c. 12°C (Boulange & Aquize-Jaen, 198 1). As is characteristic of tropical systems, diurnal tempera- ture variation is greater than seasonal variation. Mean temperature of surfZa1 waters is 1 l-15°C. Average incident radiation is high at 520 cal cmm2 day-‘, and has a subdued seasonality. Evaporative losses account for virtually all of the precipitation in the basin and only a small amount of water leaves Lake Titicaca through its single, sluggish outlet at the Rio Desaguadero, or by deep seepage (Winter, 1981). Over the past 100,000 years the lake has been as much as 100 m above its current level (Servant & Fontes, 1978). Some sedimentological studies suggest a lake-level fluctuation of + 10 to - 50 m for the past 12,000 years (Wirrmann & Oliveira Almeida, 1987). In historical times, the lake level has fluctuated as much as 5 m within a 2 year period [Carmouze & Aquize-Jaen, 1981: figure 3(b)]. The last major fluctuation occurred between September 1985-April1986 when the level of the lake rose nearly 3 m, inundating many square kilometers of the littoral zone in Peru and Bolivia and destroying at least 11,000 ha of agricultural fields planted in potato and other crops. The terrestrial vegetation of the altiplano is characterized by associations of compo- sites, grasses, legumes and solanaceous plants. Dominance of one group over another is primarily dependent upon local precipitation. Edaphic communities occur in areas of sandy, moist soils, or in zones possessing high groundwater (Cabrera, 1968). In general agricultural crops are segregated altitudinally (Bowman, 1916; Galdo Pagaza, 1981). Maize, barley and wheat are grown below 3350 m. Potatoes and quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) flourish up to 40004200 m, while caiiiwa (Chenopodium pallidicaule) grows to 4300 m. Above 4300 m no agricultural crops are grown, and this high zone supporting natural vegetation such as bunch grasses is given over to pasturage for domestic animals, particularly llama and alpaca. Many indigenous crops of the altiplano are derived from the same families as natural vegetation. Tiwanaku Raised Field Systems The excavation and analysis of raised fields in the near hinterland of Tiwanaku was initiated with a pilot programme spanning the period from 1979-82 conducted under the aegis of the Instituto National de Arqueologia de Bolivia (INAR). This pilot programme of research, which was directed by Alan Kolata and Oswald0 Rivera of INAR, focused on Figure 2. Map of the Pampa Koani raised field system study area. TIWANAKU RAISED FIELD SYSTEMS 237 Swole with standing water H Excavated section n c 0 IO 30 M Figure 3. Plan and section of raised field segment in the Lacaya sector. This field geometry is used as the basis for the finite element model of field function discussed in the text. large scale raised field systems in the Pampa Koani zone, which Kolata (1987: 188) now designates as the northern component of the Tiwanaku sustaining area. During the pilot programme, test trenches were excavated across raised field segments in the Lakaya sector of the Koani zone in order to determine their chronological context and cultural affiliation, and to examine the technology of construction, modification and use of these massive structures. Diagnostic ceramics within the context of these agricul- tural structures were extremely rare. However, direct structural association between field segments and habitation mounds containing such diagnostics indicated a clear chrono- logical and cultural affiliation with the Tiwanaku IV-V period (c, AD 400-1200). The possibility of earlier Tiwanaku III (c. AD 10&400) utilization of habitation mounds and raised field segments was also raised by the initial work of the pilot programme, but in the absence of clear, unambiguous ceramic associations this conclusion remains tentative (Kolata, 1986: table 1). Stratigraphic examination of the fields indicated that
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