🔗 Band of Holes

🔗 Archaeology 🔗 Peru

The Band of Holes, also known in Spanish as Monte Sierpe (serpent mountain) or Cerro Viruela (smallpox hill), is a structure consisting of approximately 5,200 human-sized and stone-lined pits found in the Pisco Valley on the Nazca Plateau in Peru. Modern residents near the site have no knowledge of who made the pits nor how they were used. For many years, it has been speculated that they might be graves, defensive positions, or storage places. In 2015, researchers determined that the structure was built during the time of the Inca Empire (1438–1533), speculating that, because of a relationship to the Inca khipus device long-believed to be related to accounting, perhaps the structure was used to sort quantities of produce into standardized measurements using various pits that measure from 3.3 to 6.6 feet wide and 1.6 to 3.3 feet deep, and that the structure might be related to regional produce trade or to accounting for taxation using produce. In 2025, new scientific analysis suggested further support for that concept and encouraged more detailed research.