“In a sense, Monte Sierpe could have been an ‘Excel spreadsheet’ for the Inca Empire.”
Drone mapping and soil analysis have finally explained Peru’s Monte Sierpe, where 5,200 perfectly aligned holes stretch 1.5 kilometers across the Pisco Valley. Researchers found traces of maize and reed baskets in the holes, suggesting they served as a pre-Inca barter market. The layout mirrors the structure of an Inca khipu, a knotted-string accounting device found in the same valley. The site sits between two Inca administrative centers at a natural crossroads for highland and coastal trade. The Band of Holes has long been prominent in pseudo-archaeology circles, but the explanation turns out to be commerce, not aliens.