Water and Hydraulic Technology in the Eastern Andean Mountains: The Amarete Valley

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Water Management in the Andes: Past, Present, and Future" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The Puna Apolobamba pastures played a critical role in farming, pastoralism, and agropastoralism in the Kallawaya territory. Located to the east of the Titicaca basin, the area was dotted by sunken fields, bofedales, and water qocha reservoirs supplemented with canals. In this presentation, I discuss the nature and distribution of tajanas, a set of interconnected stone water receptacles and canals constructed to collect and distribute water to the system of farming terraces in the Amarete Valley. I also discuss the antiquity and variability of tajanas and similar water-collecting technologies and the role that they played, and still play, in the rise and expansion of farming terraces in the eastern Andes.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Water Management in the Andes: Past, Present, and Future   •
• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 38283.0