Aerial photo of Monte Sierpe. (Credit: J.L. Bongers)
An international team of archaeologists has uncovered new evidence that the “Band of Holes” a vast line of more than 5,000 human-carved pits stretching across a hillside in southern Perulikely were part of an Indigenous system for accounting and exchange centuries before Europeans arrived. The findings, published this month in the journal Antiquity and coauthored by University of South Florida anthropologist Charles Stanish, combine sediment analysis and drone photography……..Continue reading….
By: U. South Florida
Source: Futurity
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Critics:
These circular, stone-lined although unused graves lay in rows, seven to nine, and marched up the 50° angle to the slope called Mt. Sierpe, that is the “snaking” line of graves reminding the one who named it of a serpent. There are over 5,000 such graves; empty, graves in so far as they are circular and stone-lined, and of the same construction of those graves which are found with mummies, weavings and pottery.
Over the years, it has been speculated that they were graves, defensive positions, or storage places. Recent thought is that they were storage pits built during the time of the Inca Empire (1438–1533). For years, ever since 1931 they appeared on the photographic plates of the aerial surveys of the Shippee–Johnson expedition, they were the “strange and mysterious pockmarks”, but when discovered and surveyed by the von Hagen expedition in 1953 and found to be unused graves, the mystery was compounded.
The Inca engineers would have seen the same phenomena but as in the case of the equally mysterious Nasca lines, they filled in those which interfered with the road and ran it over and through them. Archaeologist John Hyslop wrote in his 1984 book The Inka Road System that “Circular structures, sometimes semisubterranean, that may have been used for storage are also found on the Peruvian south coast in the sites Quebrada de la Vaca (Andes 1960:252, 253) and at Tambo Colorado.
Hundreds of stone-lined circular holes in rows have been found on a low ridge on the north side of the Pisco Valley (Shippee 1933:93; Wallace 1971:105–106). Although their role has not been determined, a hypothesis for investigation is that they were used for storage. They are between two important Inka sites (Tambo Colorado and Lima la Vieja), and very near the point where the Inka coastal road crosses the road to the highlands.
They might be one of the empire’s larger storage sites.” In 2015, archaeologists from UCLA made a brief visit to the site, using photography from drone aircraft to create a detailed map. They speculate that the holes could have been used to measure produce given to the Inca state as tribute; the measurements might have been recorded on Incan khipus and reported to government officials.
The archaeologists hope to do further studies to detect pollen or phytoliths that could tend to confirm this hypothesis. In 2025, researchers published an article theorizing that, based on existing evidence, Monte Sierpe originally “functioned as a barter marketplace and was later used as an accounting device for tribute collection.
“These data support the hypothesis that during pre-Hispanic times, local groups periodically lined the holes with plant materials and deposited goods inside them, using woven baskets and/or bundles for transport,” Bongers explained. What’s more, the aerial imagery suggests that the holes’ arrangement aligns with numerical patterns.
The researchers argue that this, in addition to its segmented organization, makes Monte Sierpe like a giant khipu: a cord and knot documenting system used by Andean people. As such, Monte Sierpe may have been a giant accounting system that the Inca state utilized to collect tributes.“
This study contributes an important Andean case study on how past communities modified past landscapes to bring people together and promote interaction,” Bongers concluded. “Our findings expand our understanding of barter marketplaces and the origins and diversity of Indigenous accounting practices within and beyond the ancient Andes.”
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