There are thousands of aligned holes in Peru. Archaeologists now think they know who made them
A series of nearly 5,200 holes stretching nearly a mile (1.5 kilometers) across the Pisco Valley in the southern Peruvian Andes has puzzled researchers for nearly a century. But a new look at the area called Monte Sierpe, or “snake mountain,” could help archaeologists unravel why ancient people built it hundreds of years ago.
The “hole belt,” as it is informally known, first attracted attention when National Geographic published aerial photographs of the site in 1933.
However, since there are no written records of the formation, its purpose is left open to interpretation, and there are many. Hypotheses for the use of the holes include defense, accounting, storage, gardening, water collection, and fog capture purposes. People who support the ancient astronaut theory, the belief that aliens are real and shaped the first civilizations on Earth, have also suggested extraterrestrial connections.
New drone images and microbotanical analysis of pollen grains found within the holes lead researchers to suggest that the site served first as a bustling marketplace for the pre-Inca civilization and later as a method of accounting for the Incas, according to a study published Nov. 10 in the journal. antiquity.
“Why would ancient humans drill more than 5,000 holes in the foothills of Southern Peru?” said lead study author Dr. Jacob Bongers is a digital archaeologist at the University of Sydney and a Visiting Research Fellow at the Australian Museum Research Institute. “We don’t know why they are here, but we have produced some promising new data that provides important clues and supports new theories about the use of the site.”
looking back in time
Study co-author Charles Stanish, a professor in the anthropology department at the University of South Florida, said Monte Sierpe’s size made it difficult to study, but drone technology allowed a new perspective.
Each hole is 3.3 to 6.6 feet (1 to 2 meters) wide and 1.6 to 3.3 feet (0.5 to 1 meter) deep. Drone photos show they are organized into about 60 separate sections separated by empty spaces, Bongers said. His team added that it was also able to identify patterns, such as a section of 12 rows of seven to eight holes, suggesting that the organization was not random.
Crops and other items may have been placed in pits hundreds of years ago. – C. Stanish
Bongers stated that old pollen grains found inside the holes indicate the presence of wild plants such as reeds and willows, which were traditionally used to make baskets, as well as crops such as corn.
Crops and other items may have been placed in these baskets or dropped into holes that may have been lined with plant material. Structures may also have been built on or near the holes, Bongers said, but there is no remaining evidence to suggest whether any architecture existed.
The team believes that the indigenous people of the pre-Inca Chincha Kingdom in the coastal and highland regions of Peru may have come to exchange and barter goods using their own goods instead of money.
“Perhaps other important resources such as cotton, coca, corn and chili peppers could have been placed in the holes and traded,” Bongers said. “For example, a certain number of holes containing corn would be equivalent to a certain number of holes containing another type of crop, such as cotton or coca.”
Dr. D., an associate professor in the department of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Dennis Ogburn said the clear evidence provided by the pollen helped rule out many of the site’s other proposed uses. Ogburn was not involved in the new study.
“Monte Sierpe is a truly mysterious site in Andean archaeology, and I am excited to see this research being done,” Ogburn wrote in an email.
Surveying an altered landscape
Dating of the holes indicates that the site was occupied between 600 and 700 years ago.
While the team is still executing more radiocarbon dating To establish an accurate timeline, they believe it was built during Peru’s Late Middle Period between 1000 and 1400 AD; This is consistent with the pre-Inca civilization’s use of the site.
Dr. Jacob Bongers used drones to capture high-resolution images of the sprawling area. -J. Rodríguez
Pollen from citrus plants introduced to the region during the colonial period between 1531 and 1825 indicates that the site was still in use after the fall of the Inca Empire in 1532 due to the Spanish colonization of Peru. It was probably eventually abandoned “because the Spanish couldn’t find a way to integrate the area into their economic expansion,” Bongers said.
It is possible that Monte Sierpe contained only a few sections of holes as an exchange market before expanding under the Inca empire.
Or it may have been completed before the Incas arrived. But either way, the team believes the Incas used the site as a large-scale accounting device.
“In a way, Monte Sierpe could have been an ‘Excel spreadsheet’ for the Inca Empire,” Bongers said.
Monte Sierpe’s segmented organization reflects an Incan counting system involving knotted strings called khipu. One of these devices, containing 80 groups of cords, was found in the Pisco Valley.
“The numbers knotted in these strings show a complex series of arithmetic relationships, indicating that this is a surviving record of accounting transactions that may have been used at Monte Sierpe,” Bongers said.
Monte Sierpe was near the pre-Hispanic road network and ideally located for bartering and accounting between two major Inca sites, Tambo Colorado and Lima La Vieja.
Members of Bongers’ team continue to study khipus in Peru to test the possible numerical relationship between Monte Sierpe’s design and the Inca counting system. If there is a connection, these gaps may relate to the empire’s method of collecting tribute, the first form of tax, from local communities.
Ogburn said more support was needed to be convincing, given that the marketplace and accounting systems operated in two very different ways and that the connection between the holes and the Inca khipus was tenuous.
Preservation of ancient heritage
As new research aims to uncover the secrets of Monte Sierpe, future findings may shed light on a poorly preserved piece of history.
“The Andes are one of the few world regions where ancient, large-scale societies like the Inca Empire developed, but there is no strong evidence of pre-Hispanic currencies or writing systems,” Bongers said.
Bongers said the “hole strip” is ideally located in the Pisco Valley to bring people together. -J.L. Bongers
Dr. is a research group leader at the Center for Addiction and Slavery Research at the University of Bonn in Germany. Christian Mader believes that the article is an important contribution to Andean archeology, as well as to the study of ancient economies. Although Mader was not involved in this research, his work focused on pre-Hispanic economies and barter.
“Their suggestion that the site served as a marketplace during the Late Middle Period and as a means of accounting for goods and tribute during the Inca Empire is interesting and compelling,” Mader wrote in an email. “And this paper shows how much we still have to learn about Indigenous economic mechanisms.”
Monte Sierpe presents a difficult puzzle to interpret, Bongers said, and part of the puzzle is presenting hypotheses rather than arguments that can be tested further to better understand the local heritage.
“The narratives we create about local cultural heritage have a real impact,” Bongers said. “It is crucial to ensure that such narratives include Indigenous perspectives and archaeological evidence to accurately represent Indigenous heritage.”
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