Mysterious Holes in the Andes May Have Been an Ancient Marketplace

The site is located on a low ridge that is oriented roughly N-S on the north side of the Pisco River, an intermittent river in western Peru that drains from the mountains into the Pacific Ocean. The first screenshot shows the general geographical context. [0]

[0] [Band-of-Holes-General-Geographical-Setting.png](https://postimg.cc/XpQ65nRJ)

The Pisco River valley is located between the well-known Nazca Plain with it's geopglyphs and the less well-known Chincha Valley with it's geoglyphs. I found a nice paper detailing the thoughts about the origin and age of the geopglyphs in the Chincha Valley. It is a short paper that is interesting reading. [1]

[1] https://www.pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.1406501111

To get an idea of the local setting for the Band of Holes or Huella de la Serpiente as they are known locally which translates as Serpent Footprint I have another Google Earth screenshot that illustrates the location and it's proximity to a wide agricultural plain on either bank of the Pisco River. The Pisco River is an intermittent river, in fact in the Google Earth views there is no water behind the dam. It looks barren and a great place to avoid if there are flash floods in the forecast. The detailed view of the site is in this screenshot [2].

[2] [Band-of-Holes-Detailed-Geographical-Setting.png](https://postimg.cc/qgGsH7hx)

So that one can conclude as I did that the site was unlikely to have been used as a defensive feature and that it makes more sense for it to have been a local granary for the region's farmers I have a series of slides showing the site in map view and in street view. The first slide is zoomed into the site. [3] One can see the dark line of holes to the right of the thin yellow trace. At the southern end (the screenshot and most others are oriented N-S), we see a semicircular ridge that can be used to locate the site from a street level view. The locals call this the Huella de la Serpiente, probably because it looks a lot like the trace that a snake would leave across the open ground as it slithers.

[3] [Huella-de-la-serpiente-Google-Earth-annotated.png](https://postimg.cc/rz5h0cdR)

At the south end of the serpent track there is a feature that can assist locating the site in Google Street View, a high tension power line pylon. It is visible just below center just to the right of the end of the Band of Holes. It's shadow extends across the ground roughly towards the pickup truck parked near the irrigation canal. [4] This is probably the serpent's tail.

[4] [Huella-de-la-serpiente-Google-Earth-detail-annotated.png](https://postimg.cc/MfGbFkD0)

Looking up slope on Google Earth we can locate the serpent's head at the oval erosional feature. [5] The width of the Band of Holes is approximately 17 m (55.7 ft) from top to bottom though it does vary in places.

[5] [Huella-de-la-serpiente-Head-Google-Earth-detail-annotated.png](https://postimg.cc/qz4dg17c)

One can get an idea of the positioning of the Band of Holes along the ridge in the next Google Earth screenshot that is taken near the middle of the Huella de la Serpiente. You can see how it hugs the highest part of the low ridge on the western side of the divide where water would naturally flow into the channels either side of the ridge. [6]

[6] [Huella-de-la-serpiente-line-Google-Earth-detail-annotated.png](https://postimg.cc/xcJFfHvM)

It may be difficult to understand the context of the site until you see it from ground level. That is what the next set of screenshots will provide, a Google Street View display taken from a location along the road just north of the river looking out across the agricultural fields on the valley floor. The first slide shows the ground level view from the road. [7]

[7] [Huella-de-la-serpiente-street-view.png](https://postimg.cc/G4zD6g4q)

Since you may not auto-orient and instantly recognize the site from ground level without a bit of assistance I have labeled and noted relevant features for you. [8]

[8] [Huella-de-la-serpiente-street-view-annotated.png](https://postimg.cc/PvkNC1Lx)

The final slide has been zoomed into the site so that it is easier to correlate the features noted in Google Earth Map View with things that are visible in Street View. [9]

[9] [Huella-de-la-serpiente-street-view-detail-annotated.png](https://postimg.cc/Ln9LvMX8)

After seeing all of it in Street View it seems most likely that the site was a large granary where the farmers stored their grain for consumption and for next season's crops. It is likely that the grain and other products were stored in woven baskets that were sized to fit the holes along the ridge which seem to be consistently sized. With appropriate covers it could all be weather proof and durable while being protected from scavengers. That low ridge appears to me to serve no useful purpose as a defensive feature since it is one of many similar ridges in that valley. The ridge is not tall enough nor is it steep enough to be a hazard to climb and if it was used for storage, everything would be convenient to the fields across the Pisco River Valley. The fact that it is located in a wide spot in the valley makes it even more likely to have been used as a granary. I'm sure someone could come up with a volume of seed that could be stored in this collection of holes along the Huella de la Serpiente. That would help others understand how many people the site could feed or how many acres of seed crop could be planted.

If you do this though, please do not list the volume in terms of Olympic sized swimming pools. Use something that would be more universally understood.

That's a stretch. All it indicates to me is that these people ate and they had woven baskets.

13°42′59.9″S 75°52′28.46″W

If there really were baskets of corn there, it seems more likely it was used for storage, and situated along the ridge not too far from the valley floor to protect the crops from floods and perhaps raids. Picture (a) in the article has a defensive settlement marked nearby.

Still, a very enigmatic site