Peru's Band of Holes May Have Been Inca Tax Ledger
The 1.5-kilometre Band of Holes with about 5,200 pits was used for barter and later for tribute accounting, reflecting complex social and economic systems of ancient Peruvians.
- Using new analyses, archaeologist Jacob Bongers and the research team argue Monte Sierpe initially served as a market and later as a large-scale accounting system, with its 5,200 aligned holes spanning about 5 kilometers.
- Radiocarbon dating results indicate charcoal from one pit dates to 1320–1405 CE, suggesting Chincha culture occupied Monte Sierpe before the Inca Empire arrived around 1400 CE.
- Using drone high-resolution imagery and microbotanical analysis of sediments from 19 holes, researchers found maize, Amaranthaceae, Pooidae, Cucurbita, basket plants, and an Inca khipu-like layout.
- Researchers suggest the Inca repurposed the holes as a tribute register and accounting device, with the team proposing the later Inca used them for tax collection and redistribution, as detailed in the journal Antiquity.
- The site consists of some 5,200 holes that have provoked many competing explanations since National Geographic Society's 1933 aerial photographs, and researchers plan a second phase of fieldwork to study local khipus.
54 Articles
54 Articles
There are thousands of aligned holes in Peru. Archaeologists now think they know who created them
A series of about 5,200 holes stretching nearly a mile (1.5 kilometers) across the Pisco Valley in the southern Peruvian Andes has baffled researchers for nearly a century. But a fresh look at the site, called Monte Sierpe, or “serpent…
There are thousands of aligned holes in Peru. Archaeologists now think they know who created them
A series of about 5,200 holes stretching nearly a mile (1.5 kilometers) across the Pisco Valley in the southern Peruvian Andes has baffled researchers for nearly a century. But a fresh look at the site, called Monte Sierpe, or “serpent…
There are thousands of aligned holes in Peru. Archaeologists now think they know who created them
By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — A series of about 5,200 holes stretching nearly a mile (1.5 kilometers) across the Pisco Valley in the southern Peruvian Andes has baffled researchers for nearly a century. But a fresh look at the site, called Monte Sierpe, or “serpent mountain,” may help archaeologists to decipher why ancient people constructed it hundreds of years ago. The “band of holes,” as it’s informally called, first garnered attention wh…
There are thousands of aligned holes in Peru. Archaeologists now think they know who created them
By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — A series of about 5,200 holes stretching nearly a mile (1.5 kilometers) across the Pisco Valley in the southern Peruvian Andes has baffled researchers for nearly a century. But a fresh look at the site, called Monte Sierpe, or “serpent mountain,” may help archaeologists to decipher why ancient people constructed it hundreds of years ago. The “band of holes,” as it’s informally called, first garnered attention wh…
There are thousands of aligned holes in Peru. Archaeologists now think they know who made them
(CNN) — A series of about 5,200 holes stretching nearly a mile (1.5 kilometers) across the Pisco Valley in the southern Peruvian Andes has baffled researchers for nearly a century. But a fresh look at the site, called Monte Sierpe,…
There are thousands of aligned holes in Peru. Archaeologists now think they know who made them
(CNN) — A series of about 5,200 holes stretching nearly a mile (1.5 kilometers) across the Pisco Valley in the southern Peruvian Andes has baffled researchers for nearly a century. But a fresh look at the site, called Monte Sierpe,…
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