Agreed that GPR could be a useful tool for tracking the full extent at the valley floor. It is likely that sedimentation and agricultural activity have combined to help bury that end in sediment.
The head of the serpent is interesting as you note. The pattern breaks at the neck and there is the second short line of holes to the east that does not have a matching set on the west side of the line unless it is completely buried. A lidar or GPR survey may help understand that slope.
I found this serpent amulet on Etsy [0] that implies that the word Amaru means serpent in Quechua so I looked that up and found a nice description that may help explain breaking the pattern at the head. [1]
The Amaru serpent could manifest with several different heads so the people who made this example may have used the natural bowl to show their local version of the Amaru that they believed would provide their desired results - rain, crops, etc.
Another thing that I have not seen considered is that these holes may have been used to hold vessels for storing wine or brandy made from grapes that grew in the region. Evidently Pisco is a type of wine produced in the Nazca region in pre-Columbian times. [2] The vessels in the photo which store the wine may be a design passed down since ancient times. If you have a series of holes in the ground of a consistent size and you produce lots of vessels for storing something that you produce locally and those vessels are size to fit the holes in the Band of Holes then maybe this was their wine storage site.
As another possible explanation, though it does seem possible it also seems a bit far-fetched and would definitely require some drone study I found this site [3] which claims to see pictograph symbols in the chain of holes when viewing the site from Google Earth satellite view taken on a specific date.
the uniform size suggests each hole contained some device or container, whether wine, food, both. Either storage or factory as in wine. Baskets and maize suggestive of corn storage or corn booze
Very interesting that you suggest corn booze in addition to wine. Chicha was a traditional fermented drink made from corn (maize) and other grain crops. It was fermented in large ceramic vessels according to this source [0]. One of the links I had earlier to the wine making showed ceramic vessels that looked consistently sized and shaped and I think it is possible that they are in a traditional design. I wonder whether anyone has tried fitting a similar modern vessel into one of the holes after excavating to near it's original design.
I did find another recent paper that suggests that the site was part of an Inca tribute collection system where everyone's tributes would be tallied. It is a very interesting paper and offers another plausible use case for the site in the context of what they have already found in the area. [1]
Perhaps tributes were paid in grain, or liquid products. Near the end of the paper they note that:
>In either regard, the line of holes at Monte Sierpe
would have provided an ideal place to deposit tribute,
where it could be easily recorded by the accountants
of the Inca state (quipucamayoc) on site and then
transported to Tambo Colorado or wherever the Inca
authorities desired.
This valley was an important valley along the ancient Inca road so it makes sense that they would need a place to store things for distribution or to accumulate them for tributes.
The head of the serpent is interesting as you note. The pattern breaks at the neck and there is the second short line of holes to the east that does not have a matching set on the west side of the line unless it is completely buried. A lidar or GPR survey may help understand that slope.
I found this serpent amulet on Etsy [0] that implies that the word Amaru means serpent in Quechua so I looked that up and found a nice description that may help explain breaking the pattern at the head. [1]
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amaru_(mythology)
The Amaru serpent could manifest with several different heads so the people who made this example may have used the natural bowl to show their local version of the Amaru that they believed would provide their desired results - rain, crops, etc.
[0] https://www.etsy.com/listing/1487839343/peruvian-hand-carved...
Another thing that I have not seen considered is that these holes may have been used to hold vessels for storing wine or brandy made from grapes that grew in the region. Evidently Pisco is a type of wine produced in the Nazca region in pre-Columbian times. [2] The vessels in the photo which store the wine may be a design passed down since ancient times. If you have a series of holes in the ground of a consistent size and you produce lots of vessels for storing something that you produce locally and those vessels are size to fit the holes in the Band of Holes then maybe this was their wine storage site.
[2] https://www.exploorperu.com/blog/peru/pisco-culture/
As another possible explanation, though it does seem possible it also seems a bit far-fetched and would definitely require some drone study I found this site [3] which claims to see pictograph symbols in the chain of holes when viewing the site from Google Earth satellite view taken on a specific date.
[3] https://www.ancient-origins.net/opinion/mysterious-holes-per...
It's interesting whatever they were doing.