Water is an essential asset to all of humankind and has been paramount in the proliferation and development of life in the past. The importance of water is, in part, drawn from its role as a necessity for survival, although this alone does not raise water to its prominent state. Throughout history, water has been understood beyond its means for survival. The ability of civilizations to utilize and manipulate water has promoted rapid advancement and has often been a symbol of prestige or complexity among cultures (Bray 2013:164).
Currently, the inability for a country or culture to access water represents economic and political struggle. Approximately one million people die each year, worldwide, due to issues related to access to safe and sanitized water. In areas with no consistent access to water, inhabitants are often confined to poverty due to the time commitment of searching safe water to bring home (Water.org 2019). Although the access to safe and sanitary water is a basic right for many in the world today, the connection between socioeconomic power and the ability to manipulate and harness water still remains.
The Inca Empire had exceptional control over the ability to transport and store naturally available water across their civilization. Water was a driving force in the development of the Inca civilization, and it corresponded with a sense of power, community, and religion. Water features of the Andean landscape such as springs and lakes were often perceived as sacred places (Bray 2013:165). With the prevalence of water among the Andes, located in the heartland of the Inca Empire, the organization of a network of water transport from Andean water sources to Inca civilizations became an expansive and well-maintained system revered by the Inca.
Modern design technologies demonstrate that the genius of Inca water systems can be fully visualized within the Andean landscape and the culture that designed them. My final project explores the Inca integration of canals to transport and allocate water in at the Mamaconas Complex in the site of Pachacamac, Peru, a location known for its ceremonial significance to the Inca Empire.
The site of Pachacamac is one of the largest ceremonial centers found among the pre-Columbian civilizations of the Andes region, located on the western coast of Peru near modern-day Lima. Since its inception in the Early Intermediate period (~200BC), Pachacamac housed multiple archaeological cultures including the Lima, Wari, Ychsma, and Inca. Under the influence of its Inca rule, Pachacamac saw prosperous changes as a ceremonial site of pilgrimage (Eeckhout 2013:137-140). Pilgrims from across the Inca empire would travel to Pachacamac to make offerings at its well-known oracle room as well as partake in large cultural and religious festivities. The oracle room was located on the Temple of the Sun, one of the three sectors resulting from divisions of Pachacamac’s geographical area (Eeckhout 2013:140). Pachacamac’s Temple of the Sun sector includes the Acllawasi, or Mamaconas Complex, which was the “House of the Chosen Women.” The Acllawasi was constructed by the Incas for these chosen women, who dedicated themselves to the cult of the Sun God (Pozzi-Escot et. al 2018).
Pachacamac has an arid, desert-like climate, making the ability to obtain water from any nearby natural sources a necessity. Natural rainfall is dictated by seasonal elements, preventing Pachacamac from relying on rainfall to supply its water needs. The El Niño climatic changes disturb the regular desert condition and can produce ample precipitation over Pachacamac’s coastal area, however these events occur no more than once every 15 years (Ortloff, Moseley, and Feldman 1982:573). Due to the inconsistencies in water sourced from rainfall, Pachacamac needed to look to other naturally occurring means to source its water in the past.
Pachacamac retrieved its water from the nearby Lurin river and natural water tables under its structures (Pozzi-Escot et. al 2018). The Lurin river flowed through nearby Andean highlands and caused nearby flora to prosper, giving the region a lush, green appearance (Figure 1). Due to the proximity of the Lurin River to Pachacamac, water was diverted from the river and passed through a large canal to be accessed by Pachacamac residents and pilgrims for various needs. Because of Pachacamac’s arid climate, much of its water was utilized for irrigation purposes in the valley floor. The allocation of diverted water from the river across farmland areas was from a large diversion canal. A specific diversion canal (Figure 2) runs along the hills of Pachacamac and delivers water to Pachacamac and the wetlands west and north of the Mamaconas Complex. Many other separate canals were used for irrigation of the wide plain of the valley delta, which sourced water from the Lurin river further up in the valley to spread the water over the entire valley floor to maximize farming. Despite this arid climate, the collection of seasonal rain in the highlands provided enough water to support year-round agriculture at Pachacamac through the river-canal diversion system (Ortloff et al. 1982:572).
Certain areas at Pachacamac also had the fortune of being located above prosperous natural water tables. Specifically, the Mamaconas Complex had access to a significant amount of groundwater tapped from the water table below, which connected a network of canals and pools. As described by Julio Tello, one of the first archaeologists to conduct a study of the water systems in place at the Mamaconas Complex, “water ‘emerged from the subsoil in the manner of spouts, drained by a conduit to the canal that feeds the Urpay Huachac lagoon’” (Pozzi-Escot et. al 2018). Essentially, these canal systems were dug into the ground where the water table was located, feeding water into the canal, which transported the water to wherever the designers of the canal had intended. The manipulation of water into these pools and canals was used for the domestic raising of ducks or irrigation, according to Tello (Pozzi-Escot et. al 2018).
A network of pools and canals at the Mamaconas Complex were fed from the underground water table. The use of these pools is not definitively known. Possible uses of the pools, based on geographical and archaeological studies, have been interpreted differently. The allocation of water to these pools for domestic use was previously mentioned regarding the raising of ducks by Tello, however other scholars have further ideas of domestic uses of the pool water (Pozzi-Escot et. al 2018). W. Espinoza Soriano proposes that the pools were instead used for the raising of certain species of fish. In a pool of salt water, the castrated fish were placed to fatten and stored live for food of the people of Pachacamac (Espinoza Soriano 1974). Other scholars believe the pools are associated with ritual bathing connected to the cult of the Sun God due to the location of the pools in the Mamaconas Complex and near the Sun Temple (Pozzi-Escot et. al 2018). While the function of the pools at the Mamaconas Complex continue to be debated, the complex and masterfully constructed canal systems used to transport water show the importance of water in the cultural and ritual purpose of the Inca at Pachacamac.
The goal of this project is to use modeling software to create a physically accurate and aesthetically pleasing simulation of water moving through the canal and pool network at the Mamaconas Complex. In my research of the water systems in place in Pachacamac, archaeological studies of the area have well defined the ways that water is sourced and transported about Pachacamac. However, I found little to no documentation on the volume of water transported through sections of the canal over time, the capacity of the canal and pool systems utilized, or water movement in the overflowing of canals due to flash flood events such as El Niño. My interest in the canal these physical properties of the canals and the water flowing through them was the driving force behind why I wanted to create a physically-accurate simulation in my modeling efforts. The creation of model that is realistically proportioned by measurements taken in real life allows for an accurate, computer-based simulation of water running through these canal systems to convey extensive information about Inca knowledge of hydraulic engineering. For my model, I used a small section of the canal system running along the perimeter of the Mamaconas Complex with its connection to a ritual pool located inside the Mamaconas Complex as the base to run the simulation (Figure 3). Following the creation of the pool and canal, I wanted to integrate this structure into a landscape mimicking a section of Pachacamac to contextualize the functions of the modeled canal and pool.
In my visualization of the water control and management by Pachacamac, I used Google Earth for topographic context of the mountains, desert, coast, and irrigated plain (Figure 1-2). The Lurin river flows from the mountains westward down to the coastal plains and desert (Figure 1). Branching from the river, I could also trace a modern canal used to divert water from the river around the contours of Pachacamac (Figure 2). This canal was most likely used for domestic purposes, making adobes and plasters, ritual uses, and the maintenance of nearby wetlands during the pre-Columbian period. Google Earth provided essential data for mapping and understanding the movement of water at Pachacamac.
My modeling process was heavily based on the research done by archaeologist Julio Tello and his team about the canal and pool system at the Mamaconas Complex in the 1940s (Castro and Martínez 2009). The structures I used as a base for my water simulation were modeled directly from sketches, maps, and photographs found in journals of his and his team’s work (Figures 4-7). Particularly useful was the documentation of what Max Uhle called “Ritual Pool 2”, a ritual pool located within the walls of the Mamaconas Complex (Castro and Martínez 2009). Only until recently has Tello received recognition for his excellent studies of Pachacamac in the 1940s. My project would not have been possible without his extensive work and the publishing of his journals and fieldnotes by the National University of San Marcos.
I began the process of constructing my model of the canal and pool system at the Mamaconas Complex by examining the numerous sketches, maps, and photographs in the publications of Tello’s journal work detailing the composition of ritual pools in the Mamaconas Complex. I originally wanted to model three separate scenes: watering being diverted from the Lurin river using a diversion dam, the movement of water from a primary canal to smaller irrigation canals in agricultural fields near Pachacamac, and the flow of water into the ritual pool at the Mamaconas Complex. At this time, I was more focused on a simulation of the water flow and volume rather than the architectural and landscape model in which this simulation would be done. I discussed possible water simulation methods with TAs, but it was difficult to determine the proper software to do this simulation without a model of the pool and canal established. Expressing my concerns for the water simulation, Dr. Badler proposed the use of the animation of a plane textured to look like water in place of another more complicated system, thus making the viewer think that the water was moving through whatever canal system I would model. While not attempting a completely physically-based water simulation, a technique of approximating the look of water in 3D modeling to show the flow of water to the architectural modeling of the scenes.
Examining Tello’s sketches, maps, and photographs, I learned about the architectural built environment at the Mamaconas Complex. A sandstone material was the primary construction material due to Pachacamac’s geographic location. In the creation of the walls of the Mamaconas Complex, a close-fitting, almost seamless, coursing method was used with this sandstone to build the walls of the structure. This same method was used in the construction of the canal and pool walls (Figure 5). The pools and canals could have simply been hollowed out from the ground on which the Mamaconas Complex was built around, showing that the Inca were placed much importance in their hydraulic engineering methods. Tello’s research provided information on the internal features of Mamaconas Complex ritual pools as well. The use of stairs to navigate platforms of the ritual pools was not emphasized in certain sketches, however various photographs indicated that stairs were incorporated into the pool structure for individual access to easily enter and exit the ritual pool. Tello’s research also indicated the existence of canal routes that ran under the walls of the Mamaconas Complex. The main canal ran along the perimeter of the structure, but these side canal routes under the walls permitted water from the main canal to be transported into the ritual pools located inside the Mamaconas Complex (Castro and Martínez 2009). The understanding of these features influenced the decisions that I made when modeling the canal and pool structure.
The modeling of the pool-canal system was done in Autodesk Maya 2019. I started the modeling of the canal system for my Mamaconas Complex scene with a scaled image of “Ritual Pool 2” and its water-providing canal (Figure 8). In this scene, I wanted to include the ritual pool, connecting canal, and selected walls of the Mamaconas Complex based on the included structural details in Tello’s sketches and technical drawings. I chose to use this image for modeling an accurately proportioned water feature in the scene from which I could base other elements of my model. The creation of a proportionally correct model was important for my water simulation to run realistically through the canal structure. With the image containing architectural measurements of the ritual pool structure, I began modeling Ritual Pool 2 using Maya 2019.
I began the ritual pool and canal scene of the Mamaconas Complex by creating a cube and centering one of the corners of the cube at the origin of the provided, scaled grid. From here, I could adjust to the size of the cube to match Tello’s image including measurements (Figure 8) by directly typing in the size of the length and width of the cube to get a matching base for my modeling. I had no measurement for the depth of the pool, so I used trial and error to get it match depths shown in Tello’s sketches drawn from different angles. With the base done, I used the NURBS Square tool to draw rectangular elements on my 3D base, indicating areas where the walls, raised and lowered platforms to match, and the pool location (Figure 9). With these indicators in place, I placed edge loops along any edges of the NURBS squares that did not align with the edges of my base. The NURBS squares are only drawings aligned with the model, not actually part of the model, so the edge loops were necessary to make portions of the base extrudable to raise or lower areas as described in the sketches. Once the edge loops were all placed, extrusions corresponding to the wall and pool features were done as shown by the sketches of the pool (Figure 10).
Other images in Tello’s documentation showed the Ritual Pool 2 in the Mamaconas Complex to have stairs leading down to the water-submerged sections. From the base, I extruded a platform up from the bottom of the previously extruded pool floor as an intermediate state between the bottom and top of the pool, and then added stairs between these layers through rectangular extrusions of the stair shapes, which were created by adding edge loops. Stairs now led from the top edge of the pool to the intermediate platform and from the platform to the bottom of the pool (Figure 11-12). With the pool modeling complete, the next modeling step was the addition of the canal connecting to the Ritual Pool 2, which provided water for the pool.
Initially, I tried to model the canal a separate entity and join it to the pool. Using a cube and multiple extrusions, the canal looked similar to its structure as indicated in the sketches (Figure 13). To attach the canal to the pool, I made a small canal passage through the wall of the pool structure by extruding a rectangle through the wall. This feature matched Tello’s sketches which indicated that the water from the canal flowed under the southeastern Mamaconas Complex wall through a small passage and into the ritual pool. The creation of the canal passage was more complex than expected. Extrusions of the hole shape had to pass completely through the wall to make a functioning opening for water, however this addition would add extra geometry on the outside of the passage. Deletion of this geometry would delete an entire face of the pool wall. After some searching to solve this issue, I used the Bridge tool fill the missing pool face, which worked well. In connecting this separate canal to the passage, I used the Target Weld tool. This worked for the attachment, however strange polygons were created on the canal as a result. The structure looked complete (Figure 14-15). I found that when the animation timeline was set to frame 1, the canal collapsed on itself at the target welds, making the modeled shape unusable. I realized this problem was due to the target welds and I decided to start the remodeling of the canal, reverting my scene back to when it was only the pool structure.
To avoid target welding, I decided to extrude my canal out from the hole, so the scene remained as a singular object throughout the whole process. I used similar technique of extrusions to successfully make the canal shape with no strange overlaps between the canal and the hole at the connection site (Figure 16). With the canal connected to the pool, my initial modeling was completed, and I could move on to the water simulation for the pool-canal system. Due to time limitations, I decided to only focus on modeling the single scene of the pool-canal system at the Mamaconas Complex rather than all previously proposed scenes.
Although Dr. Badler had given me a solution to the addition of water to the scene that would satisfy the viewer, this method would not simulate the physical properties of water movement, which is something that I wanted to demonstrate with my model. I began searching for information about water simulations in Autodesk Maya 2019 and other software. I found a Maya 2019 plugin called Bifrost online, which could create physically-based simulations of gases and fluids. I studied a YouTube tutorial on how to create a scene with the software. In a new scene in Maya 2019 I created a rectangular pool to hold the water. I added another rectangular prism that just fit inside the cavity of the pool, which I made an object that emits a Bifrost fluid from its current position in the scene using the Bifrost Emitter tool. I also made the pool a Bifrost collider, so that the emitted water particles would interact with the pool walls but not go through the walls. I dragged the emitter above the pool and pressed play on the animation timeline to cause the water to fall as affected by gravity. The particles fell into the pool and began splashing outward (Figure 17). The process was computationally intensive on my computer, causing the water particles to fall too slowly and the animation to not play at the correct speed. Each particle contains information on how they should move in response to physical conditions such as gravity. The calculations that are used to simulate this physically-accurate movement of the water particles require long computation times, especially with the volume of particles that I used, resulting in the slow animation speed. I paused the scene mid-splash, added lights to the scene, and used the Arnold Renderer to see how the scene turned out, as realism was a goal in this project. The render results were impressive (Figure 18). This was exactly what I wanted out of a physically-based water simulation. With this success, I shifted my focus back to the Mamaconas Complex scene.
Returning to the canal scene, I added in a Bifrost emitter shape that fit the canal shape. I assigned the mesh that made up the canal, pool, and Mamaconas Complex walls structure as a Bifrost collider and let the fluid flow. I added in lights to the scene so that I could render the scene later. The water particles interacted well with the canal (Figure 19) and successfully flowed into the pool, although the particles only sparsely flowed through the passage into the pool (Figure 20). Renders of the water in the canal were satisfactory (Figure 21), however renders of the water in the pool appeared more blob-like then fluid-like (Figure 22) due to the sparse number of particles and the algorithms deciding whether a group of particles becomes visible amount of fluid.
Satisfied with the water simulation, I addressed the issue of realism in the scene. The model was untextured and isolated as a free-floating structure with no spatial or architectural context. With help from the Adam Canarick, our Teaching Assistant, I added a skydome to the scene with a high dynamic range image of a sky and landscape with similar to that of Pachacamac. The pool-canal system was contained within this skydome, which provided lighting to the entire scene and made views of the whole model look more natural (Figure 23). Canarick also helped me create a local landscape. We added a plane to the scene and using the Transform tool, the vertices of the plane were randomly shifted upward to create a natural looking hill-like terrain for topographic context of my model. Using the Sculpt tool and the movement of vertices and edges with Soft-Selection, I manipulated the landscape such that pool-canal system fit naturally into the ground. I raised the pool base into part of hill so that the canal ran downslope. The water sourced from the natural water table would then successfully flow in the canal and down a gravitational gradient (Figure 24). The digital landscape does not reflect the actual landscape at Pachacamac in which this pool-canal system is located. My goal with the landscape was to show how the pool and canal would fit into the ground rather than to integrate my system into an accurate model of the entire site of Pachacamac.
The final step for my project was to insert realistic textures to the landscape and pool-canal system to make the scene come to life. Canarick suggested using the website FreePBR.com to obtain textures with included bump and roughness maps for my project. I found appropriate textures for the canal, pool platforms, and landscape ground. With the help of Josh Nadel, the head Teaching Assistant, I applied the textures to their corresponding points on the scene. Obtaining an ideal color match with some of the textures was difficult, but Nadel helped resolve this issue by suggesting the use of the Hypershade section of Maya 2019. The information encoding how the texture appeared was represented as a graph with multiple nodes. Each node represented an aspect of the texture (material, roughness, bump mapping, and other functions) and arrows flowed from one node to another, regulating how information affected the appearance of the texture to the viewer. I added a new node that to apply changes to the color of the texture image, making the texture look much more accurate on the model. On the same FreePBR website, I found a tidal pool texture for the bottom of the pool area. The Bifrost water is transparent, causing the water to take on the appearance of the texture underneath it. With the wrong texture under the water, the slight odd look of the water detracts from the realism established by the textures. This tidal pool texture added a slightly murky look which made the water in the ritual pool appear more natural. The pre-rendered version of the model looked much better than before with the completion of the textures, but still a bit unnatural (Figure 25). Once the scene was rendered, the textures greatly improved the local landscape context of the scene compared to previous renders.
I saved multiple renders of the final, textured scene with Bifrost water running through the canal to obtain multiple perspectives of the complete scene (Figures 26-32). One main goal of my project was to examine the physical movement of the water through the simulation. Although the water is present in the final renders, the real way to capture the properties of the Bifrost water in the canal was through an animation/video. To render a time-lapse animation of the water flowing through the canal system and into the pool, I put a continuous Bifrost emitter in the canal and rendered a sequence of frames in the Arnold Renderer as the water flowed. I rendered a total of 1,000 frames, with each frame taking about 60 seconds to render due to the computationally heavy Bifrost particles. The final render took over 15 hours to complete because of this. I initially wanted a camera moving through my model and viewing the water from different angles, but the computation power required for even a static camera was too prohibitive. I used the rendered sequence of images with to make a video of the flowing water (“FillingofRitualPoolwithTextures.mp4”). Despite the issues with rendering, my video accurately demonstrates water flow through the canal and into the pool.
My initial goals with this project were to create 1) a physically based water simulation to understand the hydraulic engineering aspects of Pachacamac’s canal system and 2) a realistic recreation of the pool-canal system at the Mamaconas Complex. Regarding the water simulation my goal was achieved. In placing the Bifrost emitter and running subsequent simulations, I learned about proper water volumes in the canal. When using too much water in the canal, some would be lost over the edges of the canal, showing that a lower volume of water would be used. If the flow of the water was too fast, a build-up of water could result at a chokepoint in the canal, especially at the smaller canal passage into the ritual pool. I knew little about the water volume used or water flow rates in these canals in the beginning. Using the 3D model and simulation program, I could determine when the volume of water exceeded the capacity of the canal, when the volume of water was too low to properly allocate water to the rest of the canal and the pool, and when water flow rates would overflow. The realism of the models and simulation could be improved. Although realistic in terms of textures, some of the geometry is too angular or sharp to match with the actual structure housing this ritual pool at Pachacamac. Overall, I accomplished most goals.
With more time to work with this project, I would extend the scope of the modeled canal system. In my current project, the visualizations of the interactions between the water, the canal, and the ritual pool are useful to demonstrate their use and function. However, the most interesting interactions would come from analyzing the flow of water at intersections between canal systems in the entire site of Pachacamac. For example, the large diversion canal (Figure 2) flows around the perimeter of Pachacamac to the end of the canal section that I modeled and simulated. These two canals meet and subsequently flow into a large wetland, but how the water from each system specifically interacts is unclear. Does one canal contribute more to the outward flow from this point than another? Is an alternative architectural or engineering configuration needed to ensure water flow? I feel that because my simulation is physically-based and the Bifrost water will behave similarly to actual water, the extension of the modeled canal system could address these questions and possibly others.
Some fascinating projects done by other students in the course could be combined with my project. Student interns over the Summer of 2019 created a model of the entire Mamaconas Complex, of which I only 3D modeled a small section. My scene of Ritual Pool 2 could be integrated into the larger Mamaconas Complex scene to provide a context to my isolated pool-canal system and the larger complex. Davies Lumumba, another student in the course, modeled roofs for the Mamaconas Complex using Inca techniques, which could be used to complete a digital reconstruction of this important structure and my modeling simulation.
The Inca understood the significance and power held by water. The ability of the Inca to manipulate naturally occurring water, both above and below the ground, serves as a symbol of imperial prosperity. The hydraulic network established by the Inca provided a sense of organization and unification among the Andes region. Water carried meanings of origins, identity, community, and connectedness among the Inca, all of which contributed to their prosperous empire (Bray 2013:185). In the past, this control of water clearly signified a successful civilization. In the present, this connection seems to be forgotten.
Cultures without the proper access to water suffer socially, politically, and economically worldwide (Water.org 2019). In a world where a significant portion of the population has access to safe, sanitized water, the connection between water and power has become lost to those who do not struggle to obtain a consistent source of water. The understanding of water’s influence on civilizations in the past informs societies of the present on how dire the situation is for cultures who regularly struggle to access water.
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