By Me. Cláudio Fernandes
Assim like os Aztecs and theMayans , which distinguished themselves among the civilizations of Pre-Columbian America with grandiose and complex engineering works, theInca Civilization , which flourished in South America, especially in the region of present-day Peru, was also and continues to be a focus of interest in studies in the area of the history of inventions. In addition to housing constructions, as seen in the city of Machu Picchu , the Incas also developed technologies with strings braided able to build bridges.
Recently, a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) , in the United States, John A. Oschendorf, stated that historians and archaeologists have underestimated the importance of this type of Inca technology. There is, according to Oschendorf, an estimate that about 200 bridges made with textile fiber ropes may have been built with the aim of connecting the most distant regions of the Inca empire with its center, the city of Cuzco.
Journalist John Noble Wilford reproduces the account of a Peruvian chronicler who witnessed the construction of one of these bridges. The account follows:“Garcilaso de la Vega reported, in 1604, how cables were made. The fibers, he wrote, were braided into ropes the size needed for the bridge. Three of these ropes were sewn together to make a larger rope, and three of them were sewn together to make a larger rope, and so on, the thick ropes were thrown across the river with small ropes and tied to rock ledges. Three of the large cables provided the flooring for the bridge, which was usually just over three feet wide. Another two served as handrails. Pieces of wood were tied to the floor, which was then covered with branches to give pack animals a firm step .” [1]
This process of making the bridge required a contingent of skilled men, with excellent technical mastery and with precision and strength for the braiding of the ropes. As the Incas inhabited the mountainous and steep regions of Peru, these fiber rope bridges became essential to cross the cliffs and abysses between one mountain and another or the gaps that opened up on the path covered in the same rock (see image in text top).
Many of these buildings survive to this day and the technique used in them is still cultivated by native Peruvians, who use it to build everything from domestic utensils to more complex constructions.
NOTES
[1]: Wilford, John Noble. Team rebuilds Inca bridge in USA . FOLHA DE SÃO PAULO, São Paulo, Monday, May 14, 2007.
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