5,200 holes carved into a Peruvian mountain left by an ancient economy | Hacker News Reader

5,200 holes carved into a Peruvian mountain left by an ancient economy

newatlas.com

146 pointsdefrost77 comments

I think this comment is substantially more informative than the article itself:

https://newatlas.com/environment/5-200-holes-peruvian-mounta...

  Each hole is constructed- dug out and lined with rock.
  These are not mining holes, nor used to store things.
  If you want to store stuff, you would put these pits
  along the bottom of the hill, not running a long distance
  up the hill.
  
  They tried to keep the lines somewhat straight, crossing
  gullies. I can't guess what valid use they might have had,
  other than religious. They seem pointless.

ChromeXX January 1, 2026 10:38 AM

It's safe to say, since it's been proven these holes exist all over the Amazon, that they were created to catch or divert animals, to keep them from reaching their village. After finding the normal route of the animals and their crossings, the holes were possibly dug to confuse the animals and funnel them into the small foot traffic areas to be caught and killed - whether for food or to control their travel. If it would stop humans from wanting to traverse the land, animals wouldn't want to either. Also, I see "scientists" make this mistake over and over; the lay of the land now is not what it was back then, and large ravines that are there now may have been lush with greenery and completely flat. Earthquakes and landslides could have completely changed the overall landscape by now too.

> It's safe to say, since it's been proven these holes exist all over the Amazon, that they were created to catch or divert animals, to keep them from reaching their village

Are you serious? There's an absolutely massive logical leap from [these holes exist all over the Amazon] -> [they were created to catch or divert animals]. Do you have some other evidence to argue in favor of this?

its another comment from the link lol

oh lol I missed that

Greentext name, bold unfounded claims, 'scientists' in smug quotes. Troll, arrow down and move on.

Religion always seems like the default explanation for anything without an obvious use and it seems lazy. Maybe it was a game, a rite of passage, a boundary marker, or perhaps there was a Peruvian Mr. Beast running a competition. Anyone else remember the Cards Against Humanity "Holiday Hole"?

We always want to pretend that we're better and more evolved than those knuckle draggers of ages past -- simply because someone else made a computer for us to use.

Chronological snobbery.

Would you rather live then or now?

That does seem like an orthogonal question to me. That we are wealthier and better off now doesn't really say much about the raw capabilities of the people now vs then, when it's obvious that technology has a truly gigantic role in the wealth of modern times (and compounds onto itself: many technologies making developing new technology easier).

We can only speculate on evidence we have. The prehistoric chubby dolls (Venus figurines) from archaeological digs that many hypothesized to be fertility totems can be hypothesized to be just idealized symbols of female form as the shape changed depending upon the average temperature - ice age meant fatter dolls, temperate times meant thinner dolls. https://www.sciencealert.com/the-mystery-of-the-enigmatic-ve...

> Religion always seems like the default explanation for anything without an obvious use and it seems lazy.

This is one of the bits I remember from reading A Canticle for Leibowitz as a kid. It's about monks in a post nuclear armageddon world. At one point they find an ancient fallout shelter with a bathroom, and they interpret it as a spiritual space where a priest would sit on the "throne" and read "holy scrolls" held by the metal bar next to the throne...

I think we make that kind of mistake when doing armchair archeology or anthropology a lot.

The same joke is in David Macauley's Motel of the Mysteries (see drawing in https://www.byanyothernerd.com/2020/04/stranger-days-39-myst...).

Ive heard that same criticism from working archeologists and anthropologists, especially relooking over old finds but still often used in current unexplained finds. Stick with weird holes drilled in it? Religious scepter. Stone dildo? Religious fertility symbol. Weird hermit hut foundation? Religious monk retreat.

But I think ancient peoples were far more practical and far less concerned over religion and gods than we like to pretend. Sure they might believe lightning are the gods being angry or meteors are the gods taking a dump above the earth or that it is just the nature of existence, they got no real way to explain such things. But that doesn't mean everyone spent all their extra time worrying about such things and furiously producing endless amounts of religious offerings and symbols.

Archeologists consider the ancients to be a game of Dwarf Fortress - once food and security is provided for, you turn everything else into religious trade goods for the caravan.

I wonder why the commenter discounts the idea that they were used to store things. Especially since the article gives evidence that things were stored in the holes:

"Hole soil analysis also found ancient pollens of maize – a key staple in the Andes – and reeds traditionally used for basket-making. In addition to this, there were traces of squash, amaranth, cotton, chili peppers and other crops that haven't been farmed on the arid land where Monte Sierpe sits. Because many of these plants produce little airborne pollen, it's unlikely they settled in the holes naturally."

> Especially since the article gives evidence that things were stored in the holes

They explain it as these holes are at the top of the mountain. Why climb the large mountain to store your grain there just to have haul it back down later? My own guess answers: safer from animals, precipitation, safe from enemies.

Storing in general could mean different things: putting baskets with grain and produce there for a minute and them someone else immediately pick it up in some bartering exchange, it's not really storing then, I guess? Or, even religious offerings can also be explained as "storing" -- they are stored in there until the "gods" (i.e. elements) destroy them (i.e. consume them) and the gods are appeased, that way ensuring good harvests and other benefits.

Could also be a form of refrigeration if crops were grown in the valley but benefited by cooler temp storage at higher altitudes

Likewise it could have been snow/ice farming to have it available into the summer.

Not sure what the weather was like here that long ago but it’s another angle to explore.

>Why climb the large mountain to store your grain there just to have haul it back down later?

Yes and after going on a trip to Machu Picchu a few years ago, the locals don't seem to feel gravity quite the same way most of us do these days. There was a gal on our 4 day hike that got hit pretty hard with altitude sickness a day in. A local porter about her size carried her on his shoulders for the rest of the trip, in flip flops, and the only reason he stayed back with our slow asses was so she could talk to her husband along the way.

It's the most visceral experience I've had in the levels upon levels of human capability. Really wild to see in person.

Also Peru is phenomenal.

If you went up and down Machu Picchu every day for years, I bet you'd perform like the porter.

Genetics probably play a big role in the necessary adaptations beyond a certain point.

Perhaps. The Sherpas, too.

From a pure endurance sports point of view, natural ability of latin americans in altitude has been successfully reached by other athletes through altitude training camps, tents simulating altitude and drugs (epo,...).

I mean it can certainly help, but this is still well within an average human's range of adaptability. Building up new muscle "easily" (and also atrophying muscle when it isn't used) is one of human kind's super powers in the animal kingdom.

You aren't going to run into any real significant physical limits from your genes until you are pushing beyond what the top 1% of other humans can do, and being able to run up and down mountains all day isn't something only a portion of the locals could hope to achieve, native to the area or not, they just gotta do it for long enough.

High and dry, a good place for preservation of organic material. Maybe the holes were simply to get out of the wind.

New idea: this looks the the holes on the surface of a golf ball. Maybe this was an attempt to alter the wind as it crested the hill? Would a strong wind perhaps even whistle as it passed over these holes?

That's within the range you can acclimate to. They don't feel the altitude like we do.

I've made an attempt on Kilimanjaro. We ascended the first three days with porters but no guides. Our guides met us at that camp, they had come up in one day--they did it all the time, going from the surround to the summit in one day was possible and safe. For us--out of the question. The expected outcome would be unconsciousness before reaching the summit.

Yeah, they're just assuming that if you wanted to store something you'd store it at the bottom of the hill.

While I'm no archeologist/anthropologist, I have seen an ancient grainery near the green river in Utah. It was about an hour long very steep half hike half rock scramble to get up to the ledge where it was at.

So maybe ancient people had reasons to put storage sites in more difficult to access locations.

It’s actually pretty common to store food at higher elevations in the historical and archaeological record, including among the Incas (but mostly in qollqas). More wind at higher elevations means less moisture, which is the biggest factor in preservation. There are plenty of examples from every era, stretching from ancient Minoans to 20th century Berbers.

My first explanation would be offerings. The rarity of those crops in the area would mean they were more valuable and therefor likely to be used as offerings.

edit: Or heck, maybe they wanted to keep it away from wildlife or invaders.

Why wouldn't you spread out, though, instead of working in basically a line? (At least, as much as topography reasonably allows.) That way, your travel distance to any particular item increases at like sqrt(stuff), instead of just linearly.

yeah, I've been thinking about that since I read the article!

I'm wondering if the line goes along the crest of the hill, so it's basically as wide as the crest is. But there's still, why 7-8 holes wide, and why are there some groups... lots of questions to think about!

This is just a little strange to me. Pollen is produced at the flowering stage, not the growing and harvesting stages, months later. While there may be pollen on a grown ear of corn, it would be there for the same reason that it is everywhere else, because it is airborne and somewhat durable?

Here's my hypothesis from ignorance: I don't know much about South America but understand that they freeze dry potatoes on high slopes?

Perhaps they dry best in these holes, the community built them together, like building an oven or kiln, the regularity and sections of 50 holes allow to track whose produce is where; and maybe you sell them on at the same time.

Or, how about ice collection - each hole gets filled with water/snow, it freezes, the lumps are the right size for carrying back to an ice hole. Maybe they can slide them down the slope like a historical ice-cube dispenser.

Your hypothesis is probably correct. The Incas were experts at using their mountainous topography to freeze dry things. In fact the word 'jerky' comes from Quechua.

https://www.etymonline.com/word/jerky

The latest theory is a marketplace. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/11/251110021048.h...

> “Dug out”

My initial thought was these were probably “drilled out” probably with an animal walking in circles, almost like a horse walker but with a drill bit attachment

"If you want to store stuff, you would put these pits along the bottom of the hill, not running a long distance up the hill."

Unless you want more favorable conditions for long term storing, or in case a enemy comes and blunders what is easily avaiable at the bottom of the hill.

If you're hiding food from enemies then you're going to pack it into isolated hiding places, not jammed together with 5,000 others in a feature visible for miles around and where everyone that the enemy might decide to question knows where it is. So storage, yes, but hiding it from enemies seems unlikely.

Huh, and there I would have assumed this was defensive architecture akin to the Great Wall of China (albeit more rudimentary). I’m guessing that was ruled out early.

I agree. I also appreciate how the commenter feels at peace with acknowledging and accepting the fact that he does not want to guess because we simply do not have enough information and may never have enough.

It’s exactly what frustrates me so much about supposed “scientists” like the one quoted in the article; they say “we don’t know what something is for” then these “scientists” offer and apply all kinds of fanciful imaginative purposes and state them with authority that people accept.

I think it should be professionally disqualifying for scientists to propose any kind of theory or fanciful and imaginative purpose unless there has been rigorous debate and there is a solid theory backed by multiple points of evidence. Making unverifiable claims based on internal imagination and biases does not help and can even cause corruption of science, as I know for a fact happens.

You only have to hear “scientists” with PhDs openly say variations of the following most egregious example; “I just draw the graph and then look for the data to support it”, to know why sciences are so corrupted in many places.

I understand why people do it, especially if it’s your life, but science is largely about the disciplining human nature, something that seems to be crumbling and failing in many ways across many domains in the American empire.

The article implies that the hillside location is something of a meeting ground between the riverine populations and the mountain population

Maybe this was almost like an early version of blockchain where earlier holes were no longer used for some reason and only new holes were used and this allowed you to continuously build up a history. In other words maybe we each row was a new year and required both sets of trading partners to participate in its creation

This is actually how ancient civilizations safely stored the spent nuclear fuel from their nuclear reactors.

>I can't guess what valid use they might have had,other than religious. They seem pointless.

I agreed there are for religious purposes but certainly not pointless for them.

My hypothesis is that it is for their offerings to God, perhaps a fraction from the population fresh produced. In religion like Islam you need to set aside 2.5% of yearly income for charity from farming produces, for example.

These rectangular structures namely Mustatil (rectangle) are very common (over 1000 of them) in built in ancient Arabia and they probably also being used for religious offerings [1]. The location are normally on top of the hills or elavated places similar to this.

Fun facts, Abrahamic religions have common rectangular religious structures. The Kaaba in Mecca was originally in rectangular shape before taking the modern square footprint or iconic cube structure [2]. According to Islamic tradition it's believe to be the first house of worship ever being built in the world by Adam. It's later reconstructed and renovated by Abraham and his son Ishmael.

The ancient Jews during Moses time also has rectangular portable worship structure so-called Tabernacle containing the infamous Ark of the Covenant [3].

Recently in 2025 a unique, 2,800-year-old First Temple-period cultic structure, featuring a 220-square-meter rectangular area, was discovered on the eastern slope of the City of David in Jerusalem. This site includes a ritual altar, a standing stone (masseba), a winepress, and an oil press, indicating significant ritual activity.

[1] Mustatil:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustatil

[2] Kaaba:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaaba

[3]Tabernacle:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tabernacle

[4] Unique structure used for ritual practices during the time of the First Temple discovered in the City of David:

https://www.gov.il/en/pages/first-temple-period-structure-us...

The first thing that came to my mind:

https://imgur.com/gallery/lni-enigma-of-amigara-fault-junji-...

Yes but these holes are holier. Hence the religious explanation.

It would make sense that the holes were a convenient way of thinking and speaking about large quantities of goods such that tribes of people might want to exchange. It would be a very visual way of comparing dissimilar goods, like "1 hole has 50 alpaca skins and I need 200 for the shelter I'm planning to build, so I need 4" and "1 hole has 8 baskets of dried fish which can last 3 families thru the winter, so I need 3 for the nine families on the farm", etc.

And I bet they paid a bit of rent for the privilege. Pretty cool.

"200 for the shelter"! and they paid rent?

Is property on your mind?

I think you are in error to assume that the financialisation of property we have in our culture is a natural state everywhere at all times, and that it would have inevitably also applied to historical cultures.

Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45900238 Nov. 2025

Africa is experimenting with something fairly reminiscent to this.

Not sure about the content, but this one has the best pictures:

https://www.upworthy.com/forgotten-half-moon-water-harvestin...

I'm just not sure if the relationship between the holes, the ridgeline, and prevailing winds (rain) line up for this being a water harvesting solution. But it's clear that in several sections they've done this on all of the terrain that's walkable on some of those hills, and I know walking ridgetops is often a solution to get through rocky or desert areas.

I always like seeing the desert reclamation stuff, but I always kind of think that the before pictures are taken in the dry season and after pictures are taken in the rainy season

Peru is a marvelous country, and one of the greatest trip destinations in the world. A travel guide described Peru as the Egypt of the Americas. I went there just knowing about the Incas, but they one just one among dozens of civilizations. It blows your mind.

The greatest sadness is to see the amount of wonders destroyed by the Spanish invaders.

Somewhat tangentially related, it always pains me to think of the fact that 1000s of ancient temples in India were destroyed by the Mughals. If the ones left behind are anything to go by, it’s a tremendous loss.

Based on the current state of things, we have probably discovered only 50% of the wonders there. Nobody is digging deeper, figuratively and literally.

Agreed. I just traveled to Peru for the first time a few months ago and visited Cusco for 7 days. For me, it was not enough, since all I wanted to do was go back immediately upon leaving. I'm normally the kinda person that wants to travel to as many new places as possible, but Peru was different. I can easily say I want to go back there at least 5 more times in my life.

Reflecting on it when I got home, I couldn't understand what made me not decide to go earlier in my life. I had Machu Picchu at the top of my bucket list since childhood as I'm sure many do, but it was never at the top for some reason. That was such a big mistake and I wish I went to Peru a long time ago, there's no other place like it, and it only gets harder to travel there the older you get since the altitude is rough. The number of elderly and retired people I saw struggling in Cusco from altitude sickness was too high. I heard a horror story of someone needing to spend a week in the hospital and unable to see a single site.

Kinda sad that this was done less than 1000 years ago at presumably great human efforts, yet we have forgotten why we even did it.

Lack of record keeping is the key problem.

Will someone 1000 years from now know what you spent your lifetime working on? Will your lifetimes work also be a mystery to future generations and will they shrug and say "all this computer code must be for religious sacrifice, we can see no other purposes for it"?

Is there any way we can make the current era of humanity the 'well documented one', for example by etching all our digital data into diamonds to last millions of years?

> Will your lifetimes work also be a mystery to future generations and will they shrug and say "all this computer code must be for religious sacrifice, we can see no other purposes for it"?

I doubt any computer code will survive for 1000 years.

really? I feel absolutely assured that every ugly temporary code fix I put in place, will persist for eternity..

If they are similar to khipus (used for accounting) perhaps we're looking at the invention of a central bank.

Think about it, the village has a hard year, so they collectively borrow grain from another village. How do you settle disputes about exactly how much was borrowed? You build a big thing on the edge of town that everyone can see and can't destroy without a bunch of effort.

here is the google maps satellite view for anyone who is interested:

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Band+of+Holes/@-13.7072611...

I wonder if the mountain had a landslide in the past since they unexpectedly stop and what appears like a terrain change.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/LFMS6uVg3V3agVZc6?g_st=ic

If the case, wonder how far this Band of Holes went on for originally.

What if some of these ancient mysteries simply weren't logical. Investigations always assume that there was some very rational reason but still in our modern society we have exuberance and economic bubbles. The phenomenon is well-documented. What if it was something like that? The hole digging just got out-of-control?

# And though the holes were rather small

# They had to count them all

# now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Haaaalllll

How have shallow holes in the ground not been completely filled up over the last 600 odd years.

With what? It's not exactly a fertile ground for growing things, and at the top of a hill.

I mean it rains once and the ditch I dug is already a quarter full of dirt is how it has worked for me. It probably doesn’t rain all the often.

Maybe they were looking for a chest containing jewels, deeds, and promissory notes.

Has the "Gargantua Wasps" theory already been ruled out?

Customs and taxes on the border ridge?

I would like to see something about the wider geography of the area.

So is that 1.04 Albert Hall holes?

1.3x if I did the math right

"Four thousand holes in Blackburn, Lancashire And though the holes were rather small They had to count them all Now they know how many holes it takes to fill the Albert Hall"

"And here on this mountainside, we store roman dodecahedrons..."

Maybe ancient currency like the Rai stones?

I wonder what future civilizations millennia from now will think of the remnants of our civilization.

Archeologist from the future: WTF is a 'labubu'?

The holes were created without concern for slope angle or whether there was a drainage arroyo. To me this does not indicate something of secular practical usage. I'd lean toward a ritualistic behavior that had to happen in a certain place, tied with previous performances of the ritual, and performed many times. Question: can they date the holes at either end?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com