Stretching the Boundaries

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

I granchi e la statistica

"I granchi della famiglia Ocypodidae, per via della loro scarsa capacità visiva, sono in grado di calcolare la probabilità che l'oggetto che stanno osservando possa essere un predatore... Gli occhi di questi granchi sono dotati di una bassissima risoluzione, pari a circa un totale di 8.000 pixel per ogni occhio.... A questa risoluzione, un predatore come un uccello è visibile sotto forma di un semplice e insignificante puntino scuro, e non è possibile distinguere se si tratta di un animale innocuo o potenzialmente pericoloso. Per ovviare alla loro ridotta capacità visiva, i granchi hanno quindi elaborato una strategia che consente loro di calcolare la probabilità che uno di questi puntini scuri possa essere un predatore." by Dita di Fulmine
http://www.ditadifulmine.com/2011/04/granchi-usano-statistica-per-rilevare.html

Raised fields in Bolivia

The image shows the "raised fields" near the Titicaca Lake, in Bolivia.

Note the "snake": eye, tongue and teeth.

This image, obtained after processing a Google Maps image, shows the network of waru-warus, that is, of the "raised fields" - earthworks separated by canals - near Tiwanaku. This is an ancient agricultural technique used by Andean people starting from the first millennium BC. Each raised field is approximately 10 meters large and more than one hundred long.

Just lines?

Near the shore of the Titicaca Lake, the raised fields are well preserved.

They are arranged to form symbols, not just parallel lines!

A bird and a lamb? Or other animals?

This image, obtained after processing a Google Maps image, shows some waru-warus, that is, the "raised fields" - earthworks separated by canals. This is an ancient agricultural technique used by Andean people starting from the first millennium BC. Each raised field is approximately 10 meters large and more than one hundred long.

Andenes

Andenes are an ancient method to cultivate the Andean highlands.

Here an image from Google Maps.

Ringed Hills

A beautiful collection of images from Google Maps.
http://www.atlantisbolivia.org/ringedhills.htm
Very interesting the top of the hill with concentric rings!
"Many of the hilltops on the Bolivian altiplano have at some time been surrounded by concentric ringed walls and/or irrigation channels and many of these hilltops in turn seem to have suffered from earthquake damage. Closer study suggests that many hilltops originally had concentric ringed irrigation canals, but in many zones these appear to have been destroyed by earthquakes and later generations have reoccupied the land and built walls alongside the former irrigation ditches."
I have searched the "ringed feature south of volcan Quemado". Here it is after processing.

Another ringed structure

Images obtained by Google Maps

Alpaca

In the "The Continuum encyclopedia of animal symbolism in art", by Hope B. Werness, we can find a very interesting discussion on Alpaca.

Waru-warus near the lake

This image, obtained after processing a Google Maps image, shows the network of waru-warus, that is, of the "raised fields" - earthworks separated by canals - near the Titicaca Lake (Huata, Puno, Peru). This is an ancient agricultural technique used by Andean people starting from the first millennium BC. Note that the structure of the network is created after a careful planning.

Each raised field is approximately 10 meters large and more than one hundred long.

More on waru-warus
arXiv:1009.4602 [pdf] Geoglyphs of Titicaca as an ancient example of graphic design, Amelia Carolina Sparavigna
arXiv:1009.2231 [pdf] Symbolic landforms created by ancient earthworks near Lake Titicaca, Amelia Carolina Sparavigna

Radial structures at Rodadero

As discussed in some previous posts on "qochas", these structures had and have an agricultural function. Some qochas had a ceremonial use too. At Rodadero (Cusco) we find the huge Qocha Chincanas.
Near the parking of this archaeological site, where it is placed the statue of the White Christ, the satellite imagery (Google Maps) shows two radial/circular structures as those used for agricultural purposed near Titicaca lake.

Near Qenko and Rodadero

One of the beautiful examples of the Incaic culture in the Cusco region are the ruins of Qenko, located approximately 6 kilometers from the capital of the area, Cusco. Qenko is near the Rodadero, a giant rock hill with numerous stairwells and benches carved into the stone. The hills near Qenko and Rodadero are used as cropfields. During this weekend I was studying qochas (lakes, ponds) and searching for ceremonial qochas in Peru, when I saw by means of Google Maps this hill. After image processing to enhance details, it seems that this hill possesses many concentric structures, as a qocha. May be it is another ceremonial qochas near Cusco.

More details at

http://arxiv.org/abs/1104.4748

Geoglyphs of Titicaca

28 p. Book Geoglyphs Titicaca Sparavigna

Images of geoglyphs near Titicaca Lake. The ancient artificial landscape

with geoglyphs is an important example of an engineering graphic design

for an age and place where no written documents existed. Geoglyphs

are created by a network of earthworks, which constitute the remains

of an extensive ancient agricultural system. It can be seen by means

of the Google satellite imagery on the Peruvian region near the Titicaca Lake.
Public Category: Research Reads: 2657 Published: 10 / 09 / 2010 Share Add to Collections