Web site

This isn’t perfectly organized, but here are some rough
notes on what I’m thinking about including in the web site we will eventually
make for the Akapana:

 

• intro/background/history/significance of akapana and the
  people visiting it (text, photos)


• talk specifically about details of the solstice, the
  alignment of akapana with the sun, any other natural phenomena


• what akapana supposedly looked like back in the day


• demonstration of the double walls and also demonstration
  that the walls have shifted slightly by nature (or maybe people)


• 3D model


• talk about the complicated waterways that are supposedly
  built into Akapana, and/or show what it would look like in the rain


• “people" the akapana; this will require some research to
  figure out what the various hypotheses are as to what the Akapana was built
  for.


• if we can, show the night sky over the Akapana and point
  out any celestial bodies (stars, planets, etc) that align with features. not
  sure if we can pull that off. leonardo benitez of penn talks about some of
  that stuff with relation to the semi-subteranean temple and the kalasasya

 

Also, below are some useful lecture notes about the Akapana
from the web site of archeologist Bruce Owen (http://bruceowen.com/andeanae/490-03f-15.htm).
My understanding is that he’s never done work on the Akapana himself, so this is
aggregated information from secondary sources:

 

Akapana "pyramid" mound

• around 200 m (about 650 feet) square
  
  
  
  • complex stepped shape in plan
  
  
  
  


• almost 17 m (55 feet) high


• stone-faced terraces with "H type" masonry
  
  
  
  • huge sandstone and andesite blocks, very well shaped
  
  
  
  


• some tennoned heads have been found in the debris of the
  upper sides, but none in place


• probably had a sunken court on top
  
  
  
  • although most of the evidence destroyed by massive
    looter's hole
  
  
  
  


• and rooms around it with cut stone wall bases (possibly
  adobe upper walls), stone thresholds, and some flat, cut stone paving
  
  
  
  • some food garbage (potatoes quinao, maize), but no
    signs of cooking
  
  
  • lots of sherds of plain and decorated serving wares
    
  
  
  • residences of people who were supplied with prepared
    food?
  
  
  • places where people were served ritually charged
    meals?
  
  
  
  


• internal drains and openings in the terraces
  
  
  
  • built of large cut stones, wildly over-engineered
  
  
  • drained the top of the Akapana, probably the sunken
    court
  
  
  • the drains run to cut-stone spouts in the terrace
    retaining walls, which would have gushed water onto the paved top surface of
    the terrace below
  
  
  • these have drains that in turn flow out from the next
    lower terrace face
  
  
  • so during a rain (or after, if the drains could be
    closed and opened by operators at the top), the Akapana mound would spout
    water from step to step
  
  
  
  


• Stairways probably at various places
  
  
  
  • at the foot of one was found a "chachapuma" sculpture
    showing a feline holding a trophy head
  
  
  • and its pedestal that would have put it at eye level
    
  
  
  • probably one on either side of the bottom of the
    staircase
  
  
  
  


• dedicatory (?) offerings
  
  
  
  • "kero smash" at foot of one of the terraces
  
  
  • numerous dismembered adult male corpses
  
  
  • not clear whether these represent one big offering
    event, or a series of events repeated over time
  
  
  
  


• Use of the Akapana
  
  
  
  • water/rain/fertility/agriculture ceremonies?
  
  
  • ceremonies involving trophy heads, human and animal
    sacrifices?
  
  
  • ritual feasting, drinking from decorated keros?
  
  
  
  

Water damage?

I recently read online from multiple sources that a Basque treasure hunter diverted a river into the Akapana in a failed attempt to unearth nonexistant buried treasure during the 1700s. However, those sources weren't particularly reliable, so I need to follow up on them. If true however, they would explain the slight vertical misalignment I observed in my 3D models since large amounts of water can easily shift earth.

Akapana & People

I’ve been focusing exclusively on the structure of the Akapana so far, but I’m beginning to look into how the Akapana was actually used by the original inhabitants of Tiwanaku, and what significance it had to their lives. I’ve found a bunch of references related to this that I’ll be looking into further later.

Even more Sketchup

I’ve done some more work with Sketchup, and come to the conclusion that I really hate its “snap-to” feature. I can see how it’d be helpful for architects, but it really doesn’t make sense for working with archeological data. Some features of Sketchup are nice though. For example, I made some of my walls crash straight through parts of the excavated site. By turning on the "X-ray" view, everything becomes transparent and you can see the slight misalignment in the walls as my additions intersect parts of the original data. However, the misalignment is making continuing work very difficult. I think for the final project we’re going to have to create an idealized model of the Akapana rather than build on top of the topographical data.

More Sketchup

I returned to Sketchup tonight, using the correct file. The more data points a file has, the more strain it puts on the computer, so this smaller, simplified AutoCAD file was much easier to work with than the original, site-wide file. I’m pretty intent on confirming whether or not the walls of the Akapana align or not. A huge shortcoming of Sketchup is that its extremely difficult to use for work with rounded surfaces or natural materials like dirt and rock. It simply wasn’t created for that purpose. However, I hear it’s typical for archeologists to have to work with tools designed for other purposes, so I guess I’m just getting an accurate taste of the real world.

Anyway, the linearity of Sketchup can actually be used to its advantage when trying to determine if various components of the Akapana line up. There are 3-5 excavated sites on the structure (that I can see from the topographical data). By inserting rectangular-shaped blocks into the model, I was able to connect the first and second decorative wall layers between 2 or 3 excavated sites. I should mention that I’m not interested in the misalignment cited by prior archeologists. The discussion with Alexei made it clear that the double-wall theory explains that. I’m more interested in checking to see if the Akapana is level and if adjacent walls of the structure are where one would expect to find them. As it turns out, my model shows that there is about a 2 foot elevation difference between the two excavated walls I chose to examine. Unless the Akapana was intentionally slanted, I believe that shifting ground can be blamed; it has been thousands of years since the pyramid was built, after all.

Double walls

I forgot to mention in my first post that I didn’t even know who Mollie was, but in any case I finally had a sit-down meeting today with my teammate Mollie and with Dr. Alexei Vranich, Director of the Tiwanaku Archaeological Project in Bolivia. There seems to be a lot of disagreement in the literature about particular features of the Akapana (which, as it turns out, is a temple, a pyramid, and a mound of dirt all in one), and I hoped meeting with Alexei would help clear up some of the confusion. I quickly realized that he was raising a lot more questions in my mind than he was answering. I obviously have some fun research excursions ahead of me.

One particularly interesting point that Alexei brought up was the perceived misalignment and variation in the walls of the Akapana. Some archeologists have alleged that the walls of the Akapana do not align in any obvious fashion, and that the stonework shows signs of hastiness in places, departing from its well-polished, perfectly-interlocked appearance in particular regions. However, Alexei pointed out that these assumptions came about as a result of an incorrect understanding of the structure. The Akapana has a stepped-pyramid structure. Alexei pointed out that the archeological evidence indicates that each of its walls are in fact doubled. That is, on any given layer of the Akapana, there are two walls running parallel to each other, one roughly-constructed wall for structural support, and the other more refined wall directly in front of it and obscuring it for aesthetic value. Aside from the archeological evidence, this also makes sense from an engineering perspective, so I’m pretty convinced. The fact that extremely experienced archeologists had apparently misinterpreted the site definitely goes to show that published research reports need to be taken with a grain of salt, and returning to the actual data to draw one’s own conclusions is important rather than exclusively relying on secondary data sources. Perhaps something to consider in our own model; I will be taking the topographical data pretty seriously.