La Revista Digital 1 Versión Final Revista No. 2 - Prueva | Page 50

K. Lane
Figure 10. Plan of Rac 1 – Huancacocha.
Figure 11. Plan of Uc 3 – Tsaquicocha, Uchpacancha Valley.
western sierra. It is this watershed that will logically have
the greatest number of water and soil harvesting technology
given that, unlike the glacier-capped intermontane
cordillera, there is no permanent source of water aside
from the seasonal rains.
Prehispanic communities developed the means to
guarantee – as far as possible – continuous access to
water. Yet, concomitant with this, as befitting an agro-
pastoralist society, went a policy of controlling soil seen in
the construction of these silt dams. These in turn provided
the wherewithal for the creation of artificial pastures –
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bofedales. At present, these features are abandoned or
under threat from redevelopment as water dams. The latter
should be avoided as silt dams served a set of functions
which are as necessary now as they were in the past.
As this paper shows, not everything is necessarily as
would seem at first sight, with the added implication that
all these features need to be understood within the context
of the landscape in which they are found. Only then can
we have a better insight into the use, function and possible
rehabilitation of these hydraulic structures, and thereby
recover a small part of this lost indigenous knowledge.
Revista de Glaciares y Ecosistemas de Montaña 2 (2017): 41-50