Were Costa Rican Spheres Ancient Receivers?

Archaeology - Spheres Ancient receivers - spherical stones, were did they come from what are they?

One of the strangest mysteries in archaeology was discovered in the Diquis Delta of Costa Rica. In the 1930s, the United Fruit Company planted huge quantities of bananas in this region. Workers clearing forests found numerous spherical stones. The balls were perfectly round and were anywhere from a few inches to over 8 feet in diameter. They were composed of solid granodiorite; a very hard igneous rock. The mysterious balls were cut, trimmed and then polished to a high luster.

The spheres number over 300. The large ones weigh many tons. Today, they decorate official buildings such as the Asamblea Legislativa, hospitals and schools. You can find them in museums. You can also find them as ubiquitous status symbols adorning the homes and gardens of the rich and powerful.

Columbus visited Costa Rica in 1502 on his fourth voyage to the New World. Prior to that time, the Costa Ricans had no recorded history. There are no Pre-Columbian monuments like there are at Copan or Tikal. There are no ancient, stone cities in this area. Referring to the odd spheres, Ray Vaughn has written: ’Costa Rica makes up for in uniqueness.’

The Costa Rican Balls have been endangered ever since their discovery. Treasure hunters have destroyed many with the aid of dynamite. Agricultural activities have cracked and broken a number of these enigmatic balls. Banana planters have moved almost all of the balls. Presently, only 6 of these objects are known to stand in their orginal locations. The spheres have been relocated to the tops of hills and mountains as well as on islands many miles off the coast.

The source of these rounded rocks are absolutely known. The quarry was the summit of the Talamanca mountain range. Unfinished spheres were never found. Like the monoliths of the Old World, the Costa Rican quarry was more than 50 miles away from the final resting place of these mysteries.

In the 1940s, Samuel K. Lothrop studied these granite spheres. In his Archaeology of the Diquis Delta, Costa Rica, he suggested that the spheres were placed in ’astronomically-significant’ alignments. We will never know if Mr. Lothrop’s theory is true. Outside of a few exceptions, the balls were either utilized or stored at Finca 6 (Farm 6) in southern Costa Rica.

by Doug Yurchey

web site www.yurchey.Com