The greatest sadness is to see the amount of wonders destroyed by the Spanish invaders.
Think about it, the village has a hard year, so they collectively borrow grain from another village. How do you settle disputes about exactly how much was borrowed? You build a big thing on the edge of town that everyone can see and can't destroy without a bunch of effort.
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."Hole soil analysis also found ancient pollens of maize – a key staple in the Andes – and reeds traditionally used for basket-making. In addition to this, there were traces of squash, amaranth, cotton, chili peppers and other crops that haven't been farmed on the arid land where Monte Sierpe sits. Because many of these plants produce little airborne pollen, it's unlikely they settled in the holes naturally."
They explain it as these holes are at the top of the mountain. Why climb the large mountain to store your grain there just to have haul it back down later? My own guess answers: safer from animals, precipitation, safe from enemies.
Storing in general could mean different things: putting baskets with grain and produce there for a minute and them someone else immediately pick it up in some bartering exchange, it's not really storing then, I guess? Or, even religious offerings can also be explained as "storing" -- they are stored in there until the "gods" (i.e. elements) destroy them (i.e. consume them) and the gods are appeased, that way ensuring good harvests and other benefits.
While I'm no archeologist/anthropologist, I have seen an ancient grainery near the green river in Utah. It was about an hour long very steep half hike half rock scramble to get up to the ledge where it was at.
So maybe ancient people had reasons to put storage sites in more difficult to access locations.
Perhaps they dry best in these holes, the community built them together, like building an oven or kiln, the regularity and sections of 50 holes allow to track whose produce is where; and maybe you sell them on at the same time.
Or, how about ice collection - each hole gets filled with water/snow, it freezes, the lumps are the right size for carrying back to an ice hole. Maybe they can slide them down the slope like a historical ice-cube dispenser.
It's safe to say, since it's been proven these holes exist all over the Amazon, that they were created to catch or divert animals, to keep them from reaching their village. After finding the normal route of the animals and their crossings, the holes were possibly dug to confuse the animals and funnel them into the small foot traffic areas to be caught and killed - whether for food or to control their travel. If it would stop humans from wanting to traverse the land, animals wouldn't want to either. Also, I see "scientists" make this mistake over and over; the lay of the land now is not what it was back then, and large ravines that are there now may have been lush with greenery and completely flat. Earthquakes and landslides could have completely changed the overall landscape by now too.
its another comment from parents link
Are you serious? There's an absolutely massive logical leap from [these holes exist all over the Amazon] -> [they were created to catch or divert animals]. Do you have some other evidence to argue in favor of this?
And I bet they paid a bit of rent for the privilege. Pretty cool.
https://imgur.com/gallery/lni-enigma-of-amigara-fault-junji-...