The decades-long perseverance of a Florida archaeologist has helped solve one of Peru’s most complex geological puzzles: the origin and purpose of the so-called Band of Holes in the country’s mountainous Pisco Valley.
Charles Stanish, a professor of archeology at the University of South Florida and an expert on Andean culture, spent years studying more than 5,200 bizarre mountainside shallow pits, known to local residents as Monte Sirpe – Serpent Mountains.
During several field trips since the 1980s he speculated that the holes were man-made indentations that were created during the pre-Inca period for a rudimentary market place, then adapted by the Incan civilization into a sophisticated type of accounting and storage system, possibly for agriculture.
Rival theories abound – ranging from the sensible to the bizarre. Some analysts believe that the hole may have been a complex network of water storage tanks; A more extreme belief, broadcast on the Ancient Aliens television program and exploited by an enterprising travel company, was that they were prepared by extraterrestrial beings, perhaps to cover up the crash of their spacecraft.
Now Stanish, in partnership with his former graduate student at the University of California, Los Angeles, Dr. Jacob Bongers of the University of Sydney, believe they have found the smoking gun.
In their most recent expedition they used advanced drone technology to conduct the first comprehensive aerial mapping of the site, producing high-resolution images that revealed “surprising patterns” of how the holes were arranged.
The rows of holes, each 3 feet to 6.5 feet wide, appear segmented and mathematically structured, he said, a layout mirroring khipas, knotted-string instruments that the Incas used to count and keep records.
“Monte Sierpe is extremely difficult to map from the surface,” Stanish said. “You can’t even see its full pattern from the mountain above because of the permanent fog in the area. And because there were few artifacts there, archaeologists couldn’t accurately date or interpret it.”
Even more conclusive, Stanish said, were the results of microflora analysis of sediment samples taken from inside the holes. The fossilized seeds yielded traces of crops such as maize and wild plants traditionally used for weaving and packaging goods.
“We proved that the seeds did not fly, they did not come on the wind, they were put there by humans,” he said. “We didn’t find any colonial-era seeds, with the exception of one below, and we did find a little bit of pre-Inca carbon-dated seed, which was fascinating.
“And the best thing was that we found reeds, traditional reeds and willows that the Inca and Quechua people use to this day to carry things. So we found reeds, we found seeds.”
Stanish said future work will focus on further analysis of the recovered seed samples, while Bongers plans to lead an upcoming expedition for more excavations. But he said he believes his explanation of the existence of the Band of Holes is now “pretty solid”.
He said, “If we find anything that changes the interpretation, we will say the same. But I doubt it.”
He said he hoped Peruvian authorities would recognize the historical importance of the holes and take steps to protect them.
“I am not worried about tourists, foreigners coming,” he said. “I’m concerned that landowners will take the land and then irrigate it. People have to make a living, and I appreciate that. But, yes, this is a precious site for indigenous people and for their pride, and it’s important to recognize that.”
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