Amazing Alignment of thousands of shallow Band of Holes
In the valley of Peru Pesco, there is a strange arrangement of cursory and superficial pits. The pits are aligned in a narrow band and their width is around 14 to 20 meters, which meets up a hill for about 1500 meters. Their function or purpose is a mystery. The specialty is that it is famous as Cerro Viruela (Smallpox hill) or Monte Sierpe (Serpent mountain). It is also known as the name Band of Holes.
Cerro Viruela is a well-known
site, it is also famous among archeologists who have been doing work in Peru
for many decades.
This site first
became famous among visitors in the 1930s due to an aerial Photograph of
aviator Robert Shippee which he published in National Geographic. After that, a
little number of archeologists went there to see the site. In 1953, another
person who was American visited Victor Wolfgang von Hagen explored the area,
and explained the pits as graves, he said that those are like empty graves. He
described that there are almost 5,000 such graves on the site.
John Hyslop also an
archeologist, wrote in his book titled The Inka Road System that such type of
circular structure can be used for storage, similar to the ones found on the
coast of south Peruvian in the sites Quebrada de la Vaca and at Tambo Colorado.
The width of the
holes is almost three feet across and their length is 20 to 40 inches deep.
There are available there with different types, some of it was artificial
mounds of mud and the others were made up of small rock structures on the
earth. The band consisted of many different patterns of holes.
Satellite view of Band of Holes.
A team of archeologists from the University of California
visited in 2015, explored it, and made a comprehensive study of the site, they
created a mao of the Band of Holes by using a drone, and they explained after
the analysis that it is mad up between 5,000 and 6,000 depressions. These archeologists did not get any solid
evidence, but a road named Inca was found nearby, many numbers of colas (Inca-period
storage houses), and they discovered the Inca-period pottery near the band, it
concludes that the Band of Holes dates to sometime around the fifteenth century
after the Inca Empire defeated the people of Chincha. They also noticed the
holes were just used for the one time to store something, but they were
confused that why was not clear.
Another researcher from the University of California, Charles Stanish, who was an expert on Andean cultures and explored it. And described that these holes were made to measure products that farmers used to deliver to the Inca kings as tributes.The Band of Holes is located in the beautiful valley which is agriculturally produced and named Pisco Valey, this is just four miles away from Tombo Colorado, which is a massive 15th Century Inca Administrative center. The Band of Holes is made along a road that is leading from the floor of the valley to Tambo Colorado. According to Stanish, “It’s the perfect place to stop, measure your produce, and make sure you have the proper amount of tribute,”. He thought that each block of the holes belonged to a different family, or ayllu, that relates to a different tax-paying group. He said you should have each social group come up and then fill up their holes with maize, squash, or any other product in front of the accountants of the state. These goods can be shifted to Tambo Colorado, or wherever the authorities wanted to take them.
In the end, after the conclusion of many studies, no one knows
where these holes come from.
Photo: Paul Catacora
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