00:00We're flying over the foothills of the Andes and approaching one of the most mysterious archaeological finds in history.
00:08Along a rocky ridge in Peru, you may notice something strange.
00:14It's like a giant motorcycle has driven along a mountain and left a tire mark.
00:18However, the lower you go, the less it looks like a tire track.
00:22This is something even more bizarre.
00:24These are thousands of holes in the ground that could fit a space hopper.
00:30There are so many that they stretch in several rows along the mountainside.
00:35If you stand next to the first pit, you won't be able to see the last one in the distance.
00:40This place is called the Band of Holes, and for decades, scientists couldn't figure out what it was.
00:47However, it now seems that the mystery has been solved.
00:51It's unlikely that you'll be able to guess what it is, but there are some theories for you.
00:56A trail of small excavated holes about one mile long was created by an extraterrestrial civilization to communicate with space.
01:06These holes were dug by ancient peoples to collect water during the rain.
01:10A large country used these holes to collect taxes.
01:15In the past, geologists made these holes to collect condensation from the fog.
01:21Farmers dug those pits to grow crops there.
01:25Perhaps these are small trenches for people to sit in and defend themselves during enemy attacks.
01:29The mysterious trail is very similar to a geoglyph.
01:37Geoglyphs are giant patterns on the ground that can be seen from a great height.
01:42These patterns are created by removing the topsoil.
01:45Then, workers place stones or plant trees on the bare land.
01:49So, the Band of Holes is probably a geoglyph, but it's quite strange.
01:55It's not a pattern or a drawing, but just a straight line running through a mountainous area.
02:01So, what are your assumptions?
02:05Let's take a closer look at this thing.
02:07For the first time, this Band of Holes was noticed by aerial photographer Robert Shippey in 1931.
02:15So, these pits have been there for quite some time.
02:18There are about 5,000 to 6,000 of them here.
02:22Some of them are dug into ground mounds, while others are in stone formations.
02:28This means that the creators didn't care about the quality of the soil.
02:33So, these pits were hardly used for growing crops.
02:37If these were graves, scientists would have found human remains there.
02:41But there was nothing like that.
02:42Besides, these pits are not deep enough to be graves.
02:48We've got to discard the idea that this road was made by inhabitants of another planet,
02:52because, come on, that's just not serious.
02:56Then, what is it?
02:58A defensive line or markers for travelers?
03:01If people had fired arrows from these holes or stored ammunition there,
03:05there would surely be traces left, right?
03:08But there's nothing like that there.
03:10Nothing that would indicate conflicts and battles.
03:13But surely, there was something else there.
03:17Any artifacts?
03:19Oh, yes.
03:21Scientists have found traces of corn and wild plants that were used to weave baskets.
03:25So, they kept baskets with corn here?
03:29No, rather, they arranged pits with these plants and then placed corn and other goods in them.
03:36Then, it's something like a show window.
03:39That is, hundreds of people came here, dug holes, and put their goods inside.
03:44Thousands of other people passed by and chose what to buy.
03:47What if it's an ancient supermarket or shopping mall, and these pits were shelves?
03:54Right now, we are much closer to solving this mystery.
03:59Yes, people dug those pits in order to put goods inside and measure them.
04:05One pit of corn.
04:07One pit of cotton.
04:09One pit of hot pepper.
04:11It was something like a measurement system instead of pounds.
04:14But they didn't do it for trading.
04:15To fully understand what was happening here, we need to determine exactly where this market was located,
04:22in which country it was built, and who lived there.
04:27Near the band of holes, archaeologists have also discovered the remains of warehouses in the Inca civilization.
04:34There were pieces of pottery that indicated the period around the 15th century.
04:39It was during this period that the Inca civilization conquered the Chincha people.
04:43They were a pre-Columbian indigenous people living on the southwestern coast of what is now Peru.
04:51And in the 15th century, they encountered the Incas.
04:55They were an American Indian people who created a gigantic empire even before Columbus discovered America.
05:01The Incas inhabited the territories of Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, and Argentina.
05:10This civilization was famous for its advanced state structure, as well as for building extensive networks of roads and majestic cities.
05:18As an empire, the Inca lasted from the mid-15th to the mid-16th centuries, before getting conquered by the Spanish conquistadors.
05:27Okay, the picture is getting clearer.
05:31The Incas came to the Chinchi territory and conquered it.
05:34But why did they force them to dig these holes?
05:37Or did they not force anyone?
05:39To answer this question, let's look at what is nearby.
05:44Next to the band of holes was a large Inca administrative center.
05:48And not far from the pits, the Inca built a road leading to it.
05:52Negotiations, trade, calculations of profits, and the distribution of food and other goods likely took place at this center.
06:01The Incas didn't have money as we understand it.
06:04They didn't pay with coins, much less paper notes.
06:07But they needed to collect tribute from the conquered peoples.
06:11So, they came up with a system for exchanging goods.
06:14The only problem was how to properly calculate the amount of corn, pumpkin, pepper, and other stuff.
06:20They didn't have scales, but they came up with another way.
06:26Holes.
06:27The Chinchi had to fill the pits with their goods.
06:30And then the Incas would collect them, taking them to the administrative center.
06:34The pits may have been distributed among individual Chinchi families.
06:38Each of them paid the Incas.
06:40That's how it happened.
06:42The Inca troops, which included guards, accountants, and officials, were traveling toward the administrative center.
06:49Along the way, they stopped at the band of holes, where people had already laid out their goods.
06:55The Incas loaded everything into carts, and then took it to their base and counted it there.
07:00In a sense, this is what paying taxes looked like about 600 years ago.
07:05Okay, you've just found out the answer to one of the most confusing archaeological mysteries.
07:12Scientists have spent a lot of time and effort to crack it.
07:15But let's look at something else.
07:18Something that remains a mystery to the entire archaeological community.
07:22Perhaps you can solve the mystery of the Nazca Lines.
07:26We don't have to go far from the band of holes.
07:30The giant geoglyph of the Nazca Lines is also located in Peru.
07:34And that's what we've got here.
07:37Over 300 geometric shapes, 800 straight lines, and 70 images of animals and plants, called biomorphs.
07:45The sizes of some of these biomorphs are as large as the Empire State Building.
07:52And some lines reach up to 30 miles.
07:55That is, someone painted such a giant geoglyph that it can be seen from space.
08:00But who made this?
08:01And the main question is, why?
08:05Scientists suggest that this was created by the Nazca people.
08:08Their peak and period of prosperity occurred from around 1 to 700 CE.
08:13So these lines are definitely over a thousand years old.
08:18They appeared a long time ago.
08:20But people were only able to identify the landscape and the drawings after the advent of aviation.
08:27Commercial pilots flying over Peru in the 1930s saw the full scale of the geoglyphs for the first time.
08:34And since then, people have been trying to figure out their nature.
08:38Someone thought the lines had something to do with cartography or astronomy.
08:42But this theory didn't catch on because there was no evidence.
08:46To solve this mystery, we need to explore the area.
08:49The region where the Nazca lines are located is quite hot and dry.
08:53The people who lived there needed water since they only got 20 minutes of rain per year.
09:00Therefore, many archaeologists have suggested that this geoglyph was associated with rituals to summon rain.
09:06It was difficult for people to survive there without moisture.
09:11They believed that images of certain mythical creatures could bring rain.
09:15Anyway, this theory hasn't been proven yet.
09:18Scientists are still wondering.
09:20And what do you think?
09:21That's it for today.
09:25So hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends.
09:30Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the bright side.
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