This mountainside is covered in thousands of mysterious ancient holes. Scientists now believe they know why
Archaeologists may have just solved mystery of Peru’s grid of holes
- Peru's Monte Sierpe, a site featuring thousands of holes snaking across a mountainside in the Andes, has long puzzled archaeologists regarding its original purpose.
- Early theories, following its discovery via aerial photographs in the 1930s, suggested the holes were unused pre-Inca civilisation graves.
- New research utilising drones and soil analysis has revealed numerical patterns in the holes and a structural resemblance to Inca khipu, ancient knotted-string accounting devices.
- Soil samples from the holes contained ancient pollen from maize and reeds, indicating that plants were deposited there, possibly in woven baskets or bundles.
- Scientists now propose that Monte Sierpe served as a pre-Inca marketplace for exchanging goods, eventually evolving into a large-scale accounting system under the Inca empire.