TY - JOUR
T1 - Indigenous accounting and exchange at Monte Sierpe (‘Band of Holes’) in the Pisco Valley, Peru
AU - Bongers, Jacob L.
AU - Kiahtipes, Christopher A.
AU - Beresford-Jones, David
AU - Osborn, Jo
AU - Medrano, Manuel
AU - Dumitru, Ioana A.
AU - Bergmann, Christine
AU - Román, José
AU - Tavera Medina, Carito
AU - Tantaleán, Henry
AU - Huamán Mesía, Luis
AU - Stanish, Charles
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press.
PY - 2026/2/1
Y1 - 2026/2/1
N2 - Stretching for 1.5km and consisting of approximately 5200 precisely aligned holes, Monte Sierpe in southern Peru is a remarkable construction that likely dates to at least the Late Intermediate Period (AD 1000–1400) and saw continued use by the Inca (AD 1400–1532). Yet its function remains uncertain. Here, the authors report on new analyses of drone imagery and sediment samples that reveal numerical patterns in layout, potential parallels with Inca knotted-string records and the presence of crops and wild plants. All this, the authors argue, suggests that Monte Sierpe functioned as a local, Indigenous system of accounting and exchange.
AB - Stretching for 1.5km and consisting of approximately 5200 precisely aligned holes, Monte Sierpe in southern Peru is a remarkable construction that likely dates to at least the Late Intermediate Period (AD 1000–1400) and saw continued use by the Inca (AD 1400–1532). Yet its function remains uncertain. Here, the authors report on new analyses of drone imagery and sediment samples that reveal numerical patterns in layout, potential parallels with Inca knotted-string records and the presence of crops and wild plants. All this, the authors argue, suggests that Monte Sierpe functioned as a local, Indigenous system of accounting and exchange.
KW - Inca
KW - Late Intermediate Period
KW - South America
KW - accounting
KW - archaeobotany
KW - exchange
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105021260231
U2 - 10.15184/aqy.2025.10237
DO - 10.15184/aqy.2025.10237
M3 - Artículo
AN - SCOPUS:105021260231
SN - 0003-598X
VL - 100
SP - 145
EP - 163
JO - Antiquity
JF - Antiquity
IS - 409
ER -