We May Finally Know The Purpose of 5,200 Mystery Holes in Peru

Image: These holes at Monte Sierpe in Peru may once have held crops, goods and tribute, a new study suggests. Image credit: C. Stanish; Antiquity Publications Ltd; CC BY 4.0. (black background added) Article by Michelle Starr. Science Alert – November 10, 2025. Research article: Antiquity.

Hundreds of years ago, someone took great pains to carve thousands of holes into a long ridge-top strip in the Andean foothills. Just who built the structure known as Monte Sierpe, and why, has baffled the world since 1933, when the National Geographic Society published Robert Shippee’s aerial photographs of the strange site. Now, archaeologists think they know the answer. An analysis of plant material found inside the holes suggests that it may have initially functioned as a market and later as an accounting system, says a team led by archaeologist Jacob Bongers of the University of Sydney in Australia. […]

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