Overview
- The peer‑reviewed Antiquity paper, led by Jacob L. Bongers with Charles Stanish, analyzes the Monte Sierpe feature in Peru’s Pisco Valley.
- The formation spans about 1.5 kilometers with roughly 5,200 pits arranged in some 60 segments, each hole about 1–2 meters wide and 0.5–1 meter deep.
- Drone surveys reveal repeated counts of rows and holes that mirror the organizational logic of Andean khipu recording systems.
- Sediment samples yielded maize and other crop pollen plus Typha and Salix remains consistent with basketry, with ceramics and charcoal indicating Chincha‑period activity.
- The team proposes a Chincha marketplace origin with later Inca reuse for tribute accounting, rules out fortification, burial, gardening, or water‑collection functions, and plans further fieldwork to test the landscape‑khipu hypothesis.