Stone Spheres of Costa Rica

[[[ TODO: Summary Here ]]]

What are the Stone Spheres?

Each stone sphere is carved from a hard igneous rock. Most of the spheres have diameters ranging from 60 and 120 centimetres. However, some are significantly larger, with diameters of 170 centimetres, and the largest known sphere has a diameter of 257 centimetres and weighs 15 tons. Most of the stone spheres have been found in the Diquis Delta, which is in the southern Pacific region of Costa Rica. Within the Diquis Delta, many of the spheres come from a few sites in a banana plantation in the Sierpe-Térraba Delta. However, there are a number of other sites containing spheres in that part of Costa Rica, and spheres have been documented in at least one site in Panama. The spheres have been found with artefacts which suggest that they were made between A.D. 400 and 800.

Discovery

One of the first people to describe the stones formally was Samuel Lothrop. However, he was not the first person to discover the spheres. He learned of their existence through an acquaintance who told him that the spheres were uncovered at a banana plantation owned by the United Fruit Company in the Diquis Delta. These stone spheres were well known in the region already, although they had not been well studied. Lothrop's wife, who accompanied him when he began investigating the spheres, said that "next door was the house of the company manager, and beyond it a public park. In the exact center of the park was a perfectly rounded sphere about three feet in diameter" . By the time Lothrop began to study the area it had already been significantly disturbed by the banana plantation's operations and by the activities of treasure hunters. Indeed, many of the balls were severely damaged by people who hopped to find gold inside them, sometimes even blasting the spheres with dynamite.

Samuel (Sam) Lothrop

Samuel Kirkland Lothrop (1892 - 1965) was a fascinating character, and was in some ways a transition from the earlier "India Jones" style of archaeologist to more modern, formal archaeology. He grew up in Massachusetts and Porta Rico, and graduated from Harvard in 1915. He served in World War I as a Second Lieutenant in United States Army Military Intelligence, and received his PhD from Harvard in 1921.

Context

Social Context

The spheres have generally been found in preserved static settlements. It appears that the spheres were often placed in public places, such as plazas, for display. These settlements were fairly well developed, being characterized by paved roads and homes with stone foundations. Also, the spheres have been found in both large and small settlements. While some spheres stood alone, many were placed in geometric patterns. The spheres were often associated with other objects, such as smaller "peg-base" anthropomorphic sculptures and ceramic pottery fragments. They were also sometimes found with metallurgical artifacts, especially gold and copper artifacts. The "peg-base" statues are particularly interesting, because, like the stone spheres, they are fairly unique to the Diquis region.

The culture which constructed the spheres was a strongly hierarchical society, characterized by a stratified social structure. These social structure was not unique the people who built the spheres, with similar hierarchical structures appearing throughout the region.

While it is true that most of the spheres appear to have been placed in public places or in homes this is not always the case. Some were placed in fields outside of the local villages and towns. There is also some reports, most notably by Lothrop, that some of the spheres were found in burials. However, he discovered this when he observed the burials being plundered by treasure hunters.

The Diquis Delta is not the only area in the region with monumental architecture, however. Another pair of sites in the nearby San Jose Province are known to contain significant monumental constructions dating to the Chiriqui archaeological phase. These sites are characterized by large stone structures in which houses were surrounded by large rings of paving stones.

Construction

The spheres would have been time consuming and difficult to produce. Many the spheres are carved from local igneous rocks which are quite hard, and the artisans who built them probably used repeated heating and cooling cycles to weaken the rock. Also, some of the spheres are quite large, and these would have been difficult to transport. They were likely moved using levers and may have required felling trees and the placement of paving stones in ordered to transport them.

What is the pseudoarchaeological narrative associated with the Stone Spheres?

Atlantis In America by Ivar Zapp and George Erikson

Ivar Zapp and George Erikson are responsible for most of the pseudoarchaeological interest in the spheres. In their book, Atlantis In America, they present an argument to the effect that the spheres represent evidence of Atlantian influence in South America . Their argument centers on several points:

Perfect of Spheres

First, Zapp and Erikson claim that the artefacts are perfectly spherical. They argue that would have been impossible for local population to manufacture the "perfect" spheres. Thus, they could only have been built by a group of people with advanced technology.

However, the artefacts are not perfectly spherical. The spheres are known to be imperfect, and in any case erosion has damaged many of the spheres too much to be meaningfully measured. This claim appears to come from Lothrop's original description of the spheres. However, according to his wife - who accompanied in the field him as he took the measurements - he was unable to excavate many of the larger spheres, and thus had to estimate.

Size of the Spheres

Second, they exaggerate the size and weight of the spheres, claiming that some weigh more than 30 tons with diameters of three meters. Again, they argue that *this*. In fact, the largest known sphere weighs only 16 tons and has a diameter of around 2.5 meters.

• ( More here, but I don't want to lean to much on until I can find a hard copy of Zapp & Erikon's book. )

Indana Jones

At the beginning of the classic Indiana Jones film Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Arc the hero takes an artefact from a tomb or temple. However, he inadvertently sets off a complex array of booby traps. One of these traps is massive stone sphere set into a system of rails such that the sphere pursue him out the temple. Some authors have suggested that sphere in this scene was inspired in part by the Costa Rican Stone Spheres.