Engineering the Inka Empire

Brief bios of the engineers, computer scientists, archaeologists, Andeanists, and other scholars who took part in "Engineering the Inka Empire: A Symposium on Sustainability and Ancient Technologies," presented at the National Museum in Washington, DC, November 4, 2013. The symposium described research and other work toward the exhibition "The Great Inka Road: Engineering an Empire," scheduled to be on view at the museum from June 26, 2015, to June 1, 2018.

Brief transcript of the video showing discussion following the symposium presentations "Engineering the Inka Empire."

Brief transcript of the video showing closing remarks for the symposium "Engineering the Inka Empire."

Brief transcript of the video "The Inka Road through Ethnoarchaeology: Time and Space."

Brief transcript of the video "Road Construction Technology in the High Cordillera."

Brief transcript of the video "A World with Strings Attached: The Place of Khipu in Building the Inka Empire."

Brief transcript of the video "Visualizing Cusco, the Inka Capital: Planning and Construction."

Brief transcript of the video "Machu Picchu: Road Construction, Technology, and Water Management."

Brief transcript of the video "Engineering the Andes: Indigenous Suspension Bridge Technology."

Brief transcript of the video "Introduction: Engineering the Inka Road."

Ruth Wright (Wright Paleohydrological Institute) and Kenneth Wright (Wright Water Engineers, Inc.), examine a deserted road leading downhill to the Urubamba River. They uncover viewing platforms and revive Inka drinking fountains while studying the builders’ intentional designs for slope stabilization, drainage, and retaining walls.

Andeanist Colin McEwan (Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection) asks, To what end is this deep knowledge of material and landscape employed? What is the nature of empire? He welcomes the discussion between specialists and nonspecialists that the symposium and exhibition will inspire.

Lively discussion of Andean self-sufficiency today; the ethics of engineering the environment and the reasons behind its success; and how Inka social organization, managed through the roads, khipu, and highly productive agriculture, allowed for the rise of the empire.

NMAI archaeologist Ramiro Matos (Quechua) speaks of the value of the contemporary Quechua and Aymara stories and community memory gathered for the exhibition. The road still links the “Four Parts Together”—a geographic, political, and cultural concept alive then and now. And social structures and earth-centered spiritual beliefs that date to the empire and earlier still persist in the region.

By observing the energies of nature, and engineering natural forces like water from rain and ice melt, the Inka sculpted marshland and steep slopes subject to erosion into a large-scale, sustainable environment capable of supporting high-yield agriculture. Civil engineers Christina Fiori (Virginia Tech) and Clifford Schexnayder (Arizona State) use ground-penetrating radar to look at specifics of road-building and constructing drainage systems for high volumes of water.

Ethnoarchaeologist Gary Urton (Harvard/ Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection) deciphers khipu, a system of recording information in knotted strings that were carried by runners along the Inka Road between the capital and the four provinces. Urton reflects on the impact that this network had on the administration of the vast Inka Empire—its people, assets and overall structure— and describes the Khipu Database, new software-assisted research.

Architect and archaeologist John Ochsendorf (MIT) describes his long-time fascination with Inka bridges. Inka descendants still build the grass cable spans essential for use of the Inka road and suitable for the vertical environment of the Andes.

A virtual 3D reconstruction of the imperial plan of the Inka capital, Visualizing Cusco is an interdisciplinary collaboration by architect Jose Alejandro Beltrán-Caballero (Universitat Rovira i Virgilii, Tarragona, Spain), archaeologist Ricardo Mar (Rovira i Virgilii), and Crayla Alfaro Aucca (Architect of the City of Cusco) to discover, compile, and interpret data from Inka remains under the modern city, illuminating its earlier construction and management of resources.

The Inkas’ holistic and monumental vision of environmental engineering and administration in extreme and varied environments is being researched for the exhibition "The Great Inka Road: Engineering an Empire," scheduled to be on view at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC, from June 26, 2015, to June 1, 2017. Welcome by Kevin Gover, director of NMAI, and Wayne Clough, 12th secretary of the Smithsonian. Symposium moderator: Jose Barreiro, National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI).