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WonderArchaeology fact

Monte Sierpe in Peru, known as the Band of Holes, is a line of about 5,200 pits running up a hillside. In 2025 researchers proposed that it began as a barter marketplace and was later used by the Inca to count goods.

Antiquity, 2025

HistoryArchaeology

The story behind the card

The pits, each roughly big enough for a person to stand in, stretch for about 1.5 kilometres in the Pisco Valley. They became widely known after the American aviator Robert Shippee photographed them from the air in 1933. In 2015 archaeologists suggested they were used to measure produce paid to the Inca state as tribute. The 2025 study, led by Jacob Bongers of the University of Sydney, found maize pollen and traces of reeds used for baskets in soil from the pits. The team argues that people of the Chincha Kingdom, which ruled the valley before the Inca, carried goods there in baskets and set them in the holes to trade. The blocks of pits also resemble the layout of a khipu, an Inca record made of knotted strings, found in the same valley.

Türkçe oku
Peru'daki Monte Sierpe'de, bir yamaç boyunca şerit hâlinde uzanan yaklaşık 5.200 çukur vardır. 2025'te araştırmacılar, burasının önce bir takas pazarı olduğunu, daha sonra da İnkaların malları saymak için kullandığı bir hesap düzenine dönüştüğünü öne sürdü.
Antiquity dergisi, 2025

Her biri aşağı yukarı bir insan boyunda olan çukurlar, Pisco Vadisi'nde yaklaşık 1,5 kilometre boyunca uzanır. Amerikalı pilot Robert Shippee'nin 1933'te havadan çektiği fotoğraflarla geniş çevrelerce tanındılar. 2015'te bazı arkeologlar, çukurların İnka devletine vergi olarak verilen ürünleri ölçmeye yaradığını ileri sürdü. Sidney Üniversitesi'nden Jacob Bongers'in yönettiği 2025 araştırması ise çukurlardaki toprakta mısır poleni ve sepet örmekte kullanılan sazların izlerini buldu. Ekibe göre vadiye İnkalardan önce hâkim olan Chincha Krallığı'nın insanları malları sepetlerle buraya getiriyor, çukurlara koyup takas ediyordu. Çukur gruplarının dizilişi, aynı vadide bulunan bir khipuya, yani İnkaların düğümlü iplerle tuttuğu kayıtlara da benziyor.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Band of Holes
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