The Making of an Imperial Agricultural Landscape in the valley of Belén

Abstract

Agricultural planning is not limited to works of terracing, land allotment and hydraulic engineering. As a collective social practice, agriculture also requires the formalization of a corporate coordination system, based on devices such as calendars and ceremonies, which relate the collective of farmers with the space-time of agricultural practice in a given socio-economic and political context. We present an unusual architectural structure located in the Altos de Arica (south-central Andes), whose circular shape and combination of windows and niches echo the characteristics of a special Inca building of Cuzco¿s main square: the sunturhuasi. By means of a 3D multiscale modelling-based simulation, we demonstrate the landscape and astronomical potential of this architecture. The results are consistent with ethno-historical information about the Inca agricultural calendar and related astronomical observation practices. Taking into account the local archaeological context, we suggest that this special architecture constituted a central stage of an imperial built environment related to the political economy of maize production.