Archive 3009

Archaeology: “An Overlooked Inca Wonder”

April 25, 2016

Hillary Ojeda

A passion for aliens and archaeology ignites an investigation into one of ancient Peru’s long-lost wonders.

The Band of Holes, in the Pisco Valley, Southern Peru. (Photo: Facebook/Archaeology Magazine)

Monte Sierpe, an ancient Peruvian archaeological site, popularly known as the Band of Holes is unearthed from the archives, after an archaeologist received a phone call from a man asking about the link between aliens and Incas in Southern Peru.

Archaeology magazine dives into the story about Monte Sierpe where “Thousands of aligned holes in Peru’s Pisco Valley (which) have attracted the attention of archaeologists.”

It was two years ago when Charles Stanish, a University of California, Los Angeles specialist on Andean cultures, heard from a Pittsburgh resident over the phone. The man recalled a television program claiming the existence of a Peruvian site and the “handiwork of extraterrestrials”.

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Although an expert in the area, Stanish had never heard of the site, and is not prone to investigating alien theories. However, after viewing the coordinates on Google Earth, he decided that this was a case worth investigating.

“I’d never seen anything like it,” Stanish told Archaeology magazine.

Bewildered by the site and the purpose of the holes, Stanish and his colleague Henry Tantalean began to speculate the various uses: “it could have been part of a defensive structure, or served as a marker for a trail, or might even be a geoglyph in the tradition of the nearby Nazca lines.”

What do you think, Living in Peru readers? Will they conclude it was a defensive structure? Aliens? Or, a marker for a trail? Read the Archaeology Magazine article here to find out.