pre-hispanic

For nearly a century, the enigmatic Monte Sierpe monument in Peru has puzzled archaeologists with its thousands of mysterious aligned holes, with many theories being put forward for their purpose. With ideas ranging from systems to collect water or even an Inca tax, standing burials, grain storage, defense, trail marking, to a sophisticated agricultural system. New research combining microbotanical analysis and aerial photography suggests this iconic Andean feature served first as a sophisticated marketplace and later as an accounting system, revealing evidence of Indigenous economic practices long before European contact. Could this theory finally have found the answer to Peru’s baffling Band of Holes? Stretching for around a mile (1.5 km) across the rugged terrain of the Pisco Valley in