Peru’s 5200 holes were a marketplace and accounting tool not a mystery site

Archaeologists say the pits weren’t for storage

Archaeologists studying Monte Sierpe in Peru have decoded thousands of small pits once assumed to be ritual or unknown storage features. New findings suggest the holes formed a structured marketplace where goods were placed and measured, functioning as an early accounting system—possibly connected to Inca record-keeping—recasting how ancient Andean trade and economy worked.