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Band of Holes Mystery Solved?


MysteryBuff

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After much thought and research, I think I have solved this one. It appears to be an unfinished construction site. Only practical purpose and location would be a culvert to divert melt water from the nearby mountains to where they lived. This would back date the site to when there were snow caps on those mountains, est. 15k-20k B.C.? I find it even more interesting how I think it was done. I believe if someone does microscopic and chemical analysis of the displaced soil, you will find exposure to heat and pressure, and gun powder residue. That would suggest ancient alchemy. All the compounts needed (sulfur and nitrates) are found in South America. This is not such a far-fetched theory, I just believe human civilization is far older and more advanced then given credit for. Any comments, further ideas welcome. :)

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And here I thought Band of Holes was that group that did the song I Ran,and Courtney Love was the singer . My bad

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Hi MysteryBuff,

If you're not the 'reincarnation' of Orion von Koch, then there's a (closed) thread about this:

http://www.unexplain...showtopic=46653

http://www.world-mys...piscovalley.htm

*Looks around, a la Basil Fawlty.

You seemed to have gotten away with mentioning him once, but don't do it again, lest he re-appear.

Buff,

Do you have any (logical) reason to believe humanity had technology sufficiently advanced to study (al)chemistry before being able to work metal? Twenty thousand years ago is a long way back. Do you have any reason to think something like the concept of turning things to gold could be ideated?

This would be something other than positing early man looked a rock and thought, "I wish this were shinier." I think that, too, sometimes, when I see rocks, but I'd be hesitant to suggest I invented alchemy.

--Jaylemurph

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After much thought and research, I think I have solved this one. It appears to be an unfinished construction site. Only practical purpose and location would be a culvert to divert melt water from the nearby mountains to where they lived. This would back date the site to when there were snow caps on those mountains, est. 15k-20k B.C.? I find it even more interesting how I think it was done. I believe if someone does microscopic and chemical analysis of the displaced soil, you will find exposure to heat and pressure, and gun powder residue. That would suggest ancient alchemy. All the compounts needed (sulfur and nitrates) are found in South America. This is not such a far-fetched theory, I just believe human civilization is far older and more advanced then given credit for. Any comments, further ideas welcome. :)

I can conceive that the "it's to store grain in" theory is a bit shaky. Hell, I'm the usual sceptic and I have a hard time believing that one. But from there to say they blasted them with chemicals, that's a bit of a stretch as well, considering the age of said holes.

What makes you think that this was the method used? Do you have any evidence that would support this? And I'll repeat it yet again, Erich Von Däniken (or his ilk) is NOT evidence and never will be.

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hi,

first off, Jay ,the chinese discovered gunpowder, in a search for an(elixer of imortality) they failed at that but found gunpowder along the way

gunpowder is only 3 ingredients, that some other peoples might have made a similar accidental discovery i dont find to extreme.

alchemy is now Fabled as a search for gold ,but i'd say it started as just normal human curiosity ,finding strange colored rocks and such ,than testing them to see what uses they may have.only gold exists in its pure form in nature, ancients had to melt ore BEFORE they found the metal inside

Searcher, i agree my theory is a stretch,but after reading other ideas proposed.why would anyone invest that kind of time/resourses to make useless holes in the middle of nowhere.my thought(people will go to any length to secure fresh water sourse)without it you die.

why gunpowder, looking at the holes themselves they mostly resemble bomb/impact creators, meteor impact so spaced i find near imposible so that left intentional excavation and no i dont think E.T. is needed to explain how curious and clever people can be

and btw i dont believe i'm a reincarnation of anyone ,unless someone has proof of such things i'll stick to more(earthly) explinations

as to evidence that would require the soil testing i suggested,if i had the resourses for that i'd have done it already :)

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Thanks Abe. Darn frustrating in that the holes look like a ceremonial path to that ICA Face (whatever that is). That area looks to be too eroded to make out anything but perhaps someone with some good computer imaging skills could improve on it? Quite the mystery.

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Hmmm... wonder what they could have been for. Seems like a heck of a lot of them.

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Thanks Abe. Darn frustrating in that the holes look like a ceremonial path to that ICA Face (whatever that is). That area looks to be too eroded to make out anything but perhaps someone with some good computer imaging skills could improve on it? Quite the mystery.

It looks like some huaqueros did some serious digging.

And of course the locals say they don't know who did it, heh.

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It looks like some huaqueros did some serious digging.

And of course the locals say they don't know who did it, heh.

Hell maybe it was some rock-munching gophers that did it, lol

On a more serious side and I'm not having a stab at you MysteryBuff, but I'm trying to explain the why explosives would have been rather unlikely to be used in this case, beside's from the fact that they didn't have any as this has never been evidenced in any way.

Holes in the ground made by explosives, tend to be rather irregular, due to minute differences in the ground density and composition, amount of rocks and pebbles, etc. and even weather conditions like atmospheric pressure and humidity play an important role.

Anybody that has worked with explosives at one time or another or has directly seen their effect can agree to that.

Also, when you have explosions so close to one another, you de facto change some of the conditions for the next few charges you set, so you need to recalculate amount of explosive, depth of the hole you set the charge in, etc. It takes a lot of adjusting in the present, when we have god knows how many explosives to pick from, which are easier and more safe to handle, than black powder and not to mention more efficient.

I mean it took the Chinese a few hundred years just to adjust the formula to it's different uses, which does not account for the setting and usage of the charges, once you want to use it.

BEsides I'm unsure soil testing would have shown anything as most likely rain and weather would have washed most chem traces away.

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Looking at Google maps you can see the Band at the 100m scale.

Near 13.707409S, 758750047W

Just north of a little bump in the road called Libertadores.

The holes are bowl shaped indentations in the dirt and stones, not clean cut, circular, flat bottom holes in stone.

It looks very much like a ceremonial pathway to me. It is very interesting. I wonder if any archeology has been done around it? I'd look for building remains or a ceremonial site at either end.

Maybe it started as a one hole wide path, and the pilgims kept digging more holes with each festival.

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I'll bet on huaqeros, graverobbers.

It's kind of a 'profession' in Peru, like the fabrication of fake artifacts (think Cabrera, Ica Stones).

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Is it known for certain that the holes were dug.. and not some weird natural phenomena being uncovered?

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I don't think it was robbers or any kind of water ditch. This thing is like 7000 feet (2000 meters) long and the width does not change much.

From Google Maps... (with some arrows on it by Me)

post-26883-0-38192600-1361323004_thumb.j

If you type "Band of Holes, Pisco Province, Ica Region, Peru" into Google Maps, it takes you right there.

Edited by DieChecker
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It does be intriguing as to what it might be, I for one would also exclude grave robbing or water. To be honest I find the storage theory a but flaky as well.

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I've thought about these things and I can't even come up with one good speculation on their existence.

but I like mysteries too, so that's good!

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It does be intriguing as to what it might be, I for one would also exclude grave robbing or water. To be honest I find the storage theory a but flaky as well.

This pic I found using Google:

40309868.jpg

Don't know, but these holes don't look that impressive from ground level, and look much like the result of the work of a large group of huaqueros.

The difference from other illegal digs in Peru is that here it seems a large group of people was systematically searching for something they expected to be there.

It could have happened as long ago as the 19th century, so not one local may remember who made those digs/holes.

.

Edited by Abramelin
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Abe, I would accept your theory that these are just holes dug recently by people looking for artifacts to sell but when you look at the holes from google they just seem too damn regularly spaced. Its possible that the graverobbers have a leader whos very meticulous about the search; the holes also go (what appears to be) the entire length of the path to the eroded face of that hill or moutain top. I would suggest investigating the area to the right of the holes up there as there appears to be something else going on in that area. Very odd.

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Abe, I would accept your theory that these are just holes dug recently by people looking for artifacts to sell but when you look at the holes from google they just seem too damn regularly spaced. Its possible that the graverobbers have a leader whos very meticulous about the search; the holes also go (what appears to be) the entire length of the path to the eroded face of that hill or moutain top. I would suggest investigating the area to the right of the holes up there as there appears to be something else going on in that area. Very odd.

Is there a relation with what looks like the remnants of an abandoned settlement nearby?

Few miles east from the band, a satellite photo shows structures that look like the remnants of an ancient settlement (these formations do not look natural and there is nothing similar in the entire area):

lostcity_1.jpg

http://droushka.blogspot.nl/

Edited by Abramelin
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I don't think it was robbers or any kind of water ditch. This thing is like 7000 feet (2000 meters) long and the width does not change much.

From Google Maps... (with some arrows on it by Me)

post-26883-0-38192600-1361323004_thumb.j

If you type "Band of Holes, Pisco Province, Ica Region, Peru" into Google Maps, it takes you right there.

I did, and what I found seems to suggest the holes were some sort of agricultural thing (holes for trees as someone suggested). The holes start in what appears to be an agricultural area:

Pisco_BandofHoles_zps7b8de5a0.jpg

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Don't you fine clever gentlemen have things better to do than finding and looking at holes ?

uhm ... never mind

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Ancient Water harvesting perhaps?

Oh s**h*y**te ! You just put an uncomfortable thought in me head, Why not the earliest form of public lavatory ?

:cry:

~edit : is Shiite allowed ?

~2nd edit : Why I believe so! :lol:

Edited by third_eye
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