Building Chan Chan: A Project Management Perspective

Abstract

Abstract The labor investment in ancient monumental architecture is an important factor in hypotheses concerning a society’s size, organization, and social complexity. Most methods of quantifying labor expenditures are limited to simply designed structures with a minimal number of elements. Due to the lack of practical analytical methods, complex architecture is often described subjectively, offering little quantitative value, resulting in inferences that could be misleading or wrong. Using Ciudadela Rivero at the site of Chan Chan, Peru, as a case study, this research employed construction industry-standard planning, estimating, and scheduling tools to calculate the labor requirements and construction times under various building scenarios. Additionally, the application of Critical Path Method scheduling provides the means to model and compare numerous building scenarios by simulating the effects of various construction and labor organization strategies in their cultural context. The results for Ciudadela Rivero revealed a labor input of over two million labor hours, which could be accomplished by a modest labor force of as few as 250 workers over a six-year period. These data affect numerous archaeological hypotheses concerning scale of construction, organization of labor, and complexity of social organization.

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