The Mysterious Giant Stone Spheres of Costa Rica Debunked
There are hundreds of perfectly round stone balls in Costa Rica, of different sizes and weights. Many of these balls were destroyed by gold prospectors and, during the colonial era, by clearing or military exercises. Many, however, still adorn the private gardens. Their riddle always challenges science.
Enigmatic balls
Even today, it is unknown where the stone spheres of Costa Rica can come from. Although there are a few copies at the State Museum of San José and new excavations make it possible, at irregular intervals, to discover new ones, buried in the silt of a delta or in the mud of the jungle, very little is known about them.
The heaviest stone ball discovered so far weighs 16 tonnes. They are all perfectly rounded and uniformly equal in diameter. Many have an extremely smooth surface, which means that they were most likely polished using a mixture of water and sand. One wonders, however, how the men who made them were able to obtain such a perfect rounding, especially for the largest and heaviest balls. Indeed, the realization of these balls presupposes not only certain knowledge of geometry, but also an appropriate technique. Without mechanical means, it is, moreover, almost impossible to manufacture such objects. In addition, the stone spheres of Costa Rica are made of granite, a material that does not exist in this region. There is, however, a granite quarry, about 50 kilometers downstream from the river.
Astronomical symbols or divine perfection ?
Many Indian peoples have lived in the region where these stone spheres were found. However, none of them reported legends that could refer to them. Neither can claim authorship or provide any information about them. We know, however, that these stone balls were of particular importance to the Indians, since some - among the smallest - were used as a funeral offering. Some researchers thought they saw in the arrangement of the smallest balls the representation of an astronomical constellation. However, these conclusions could not be applied to the larger stone balls, since these sites have been exposed over the centuries to bad weather or wars, so that in most cases their original arrangement is unrecognizable today.
In addition, in the rare cases where the arrangement of the stone balls is still decipherable, it does not seem able to confirm this hypothesis, the balls forming straight lines, wavy lines or triangles. Furthermore, this representation of stellar bodies as balls does not correspond to the beliefs of the Mayans and the Incas who believed that celestial bodies, like the Sun, had a disc shape. This theory would therefore lead to suppose the existence in Costa Rica of a totally original culture, which many scientists take for improbable.
Finally, according to another theory, the perfection to which the creators of the stone spheres of Costa Rica aimed must be interpreted as a kind of religious office. The stone balls, the result of this extremely careful work, would symbolize divine perfection. This interpretation would also explain that there are very few traces of ancient beliefs. However, it is likely that one will never know for sure whether this theory corresponds to reality.
