Spheres of Costa Rica Re-examined

You may recall the Post titled “Artifacts That Baffle Modern Man” a bit more than two years past (late February 2012) which in part quantified that “in the 1930’s, hundreds of stone spheres were found scattered throughout the Diquis Delta of Costa Rica in Central America, ranging from a few centimeters (1 centimeter = 2.54ths  of an inch) to over 2 meters (6.5 feet) in diameter and weighing as much as 15 tons. The spheres are near perfect in shape.  Dating estimates, range from 200 BC all the way up to 1500 AD”.

The ancient stone spheres of Costa Rica were made famous by the original sequence of “Raiders of the Lost Ark,” when a mockup of one of the enigmatic relics almost crushed Harrison Ford (Indiana Jones).

Most archeologists believe the stones were first created around 600 A.D., and dating to after 1,000 A.D. sometime before the Spanish conquest.  You see, the spheres are dated in the pottery style so radiocarbon dates are associated with archeological deposits found in very close proximity to the stone spheres.   The biggest problem with this methodology may be that it often gives the latest or most probable use of the sphere but it will not establish when it was made. The bottom line is that these objects may have been used for centuries before they were left sitting for the past thousand years or so.   This alone makes it very difficult to say exactly when they were completed. 

Although we may not have yet determined when or why these mysterious stones were made, most research suggests the primary “design technique” that was used was pecking, grinding, and hammering with other stones. Though most of the stones display obvious signs of erosion, some spheres that have been found still have what appear to be marks from the blows of hammer stones. For this reason it’s generally thought that that’s how they were formed, by hammering on big rocks and sculpting them into a spherical shape.

The simple truth is that the people generally thought to have made them didn’t leave written records. Therefore we only have archeological data to try to reconstruct the circumstance which brought about their creation.  Wouldn’t you know it; the culture of the people who are believed to have made them became extinct shortly after or just before the Spanish conquest.

(Left) Stone Sphere Located on the University of Costa Rica’s Campus

Just as you’d expect there are several other schools of thought that surround the stones, such as they came from Atlantis, or that they are really “freaks” of nature. Some local legends even claim that the native inhabitants had access to a potion of some mysterious sort which enabled them to soften the rock for sculpting.  Believe it or not, research led by Joseph Davidovits of the Geopolymer Institute in France, has lent some support of this later theory, but it is not supported by geological or archaeological evidence.

‘Ancient’ locals often say that the stone spheres were “Tara’s cannonballs”. Tara (Tlatchque), don’t you know, was the god of thunder who used a giant blowpipe to shoot the balls at the Serkes (the wind and hurricane gods) when they tried to enter the region.

It has been claimed that the spheres are perfect, or very near perfect in roundness, but some spheres are known to vary by at least 5 centimeters (2”) in diameter. In any case the stones have been damaged and eroded over the years, and therefore it’s impossible to know exactly what their original shape was.  Never the less, a safe bet is that the original design was oval; which lends some credibility to the “cannonball” theory.

Some say the most outrageous theory may be that humans didn’t have the ability to make the near-perfect spherical shape absent some sort of undiscovered technology, so they must have been created with the help of aliens or the people of Atlantis.  However, common sense suggests this notion is not correct because we all know Ancient Aliens used Proton Torpedoes (not cannonballs) and there is no reason to suspect Atlantis was located anywhere near Costa Rica.  

Sources:

http://tgsfree4allinfo.blogspot.com/2012/02/artifacts-that-baffle-modern-man-in.html                                                                                http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/03/100322143217.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_spheres_of_Costa_Rica http://amyth.com/2013/08/stone-spheres-of-costa-rica/

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