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

42 pointsby defrostyesterday at 5:58 AM19 commentsview on HN

Comments

nomdeptoday at 6:42 PM

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.
show 5 replies
FrameworkFredtoday at 7:17 PM

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.

yomismoaquitoday at 6:09 PM

The first thing that came to my mind:

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

show 1 reply
brudgerstoday at 7:43 PM

So is that 1.04 Albert Hall holes?

kruncktoday at 6:25 PM

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?

opengrasstoday at 7:03 PM

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

dvhtoday at 6:39 PM

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