Researchers Explore Possible Use of an Inca Structure in Central Peru

HUAYTARÁ, PERU—According to a statement released by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), art historian Stella Nair of UCLA and her colleagues suggest that a surviving Inca structure in central Peru was built to amplify sound. The stone building, called a carpa uasi, or “tent house,” is thought to have been constructed in the mid-fifteenth century. It was preserved because it was repurposed as the bottom level of a Christian church by later Spanish colonists. The carpa uasi had walls on three sides, with an opening at one end. Nair said that sound, perhaps in the form of drums, could have been focused toward the open end of the building and out to the surrounding area. “Sound was deeply valued and an incredibly important part of Andean and Inca architecture—so much so that the builders allowed some instability in this structure just because of its acoustic potential,” Nair said. She and team member Jonathan Berger of Stanford University will employ 3D modeling to investigate what the roof of the carpa uasi may have looked like, and how sound would have traveled through and out of the building. To read about the potential use of another mystifying Inca structure, go to "An Overlooked Inca Wonder."