 The Spherical Facts |
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In
Southern
Costa Rica,
there are a vast number of unusual spherical stone artifacts! These Giant Stone
Spheres ranging in size from mere inches to yards (or meters) in diameter.
Hundreds of these have been found, and many more likely remain buried beneath
the jungle to this day! No one has an exact number of those that
have been found and unearthed, but certainly they were in the hundreds, or how many remain. |
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Of all the existing
remnants of Costa Rica's Precolumbian cultures, none are more mysterious than these stone spheres!
Principally because we have few clues of their origin, and fewer
still of their intended use. |
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They are generally found
in the Diquis Delta region, which covers the
southern half of
Costa Rica. These
near perfectly shaped spheres of granite,
some as large as a tall person and others as small as a grapefruit, were dotted
throughout the area. |
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Relocated or looted
spheres can be
seen today in the Museo Nacional and various parks and gardens in San José, as well as
throughout the entire country. |
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In addition to the
Diquis region, some have
been found, undisturbed for centuries, on the Isla del Caño island,
20 kms west of Costa Rica's southern Pacific coast. |
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Who carved these enigmatic orbs? What
was their purpose? How did they get to Isla del Caño? Some of these answer
are fairly well known, yet other answer remain elusive. |
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No one has the answers to
all of these
questions. The puzzling granite spheres of southern
Costa Rica serve to
underscore how little we know and understand the Precolumbian cultures of the
region. |
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It is believed, based upon
contextual information, that the spheres are to product of the Diquis
culture, during their period of from 500 CE to 700 CE (AD). However,
as these artifacts are of stone, and there is the possibility of
relocation, and other environmental factors, proper dating for their
creation is somewhat speculative. There are others who
speculate that the age of the spheres extends back as far as 4,000 years
and the products of a much older culture. |
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Palmar Sur
& Palmar Norte are where most of the spheres have been found,
along with Isla del Caño
Isla del
Caño
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Many spheres are over two meters in diameter, yet are nearly perfectly spherical and very only a
few centimeters. They are
uniformly crafted from granite, andesite, and
some even of sedimentary
stone, and weighing up to between 13 and 16 tons (depending upon estimates). |
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Some
spheres found in the Diquis Delta were
apparently rafted and hauled to their present location from places many
miles (kilometers) distant. |
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The
spheres have been found in various alignments on the surface, with some placed on
mounted cobbled platforms, presumably to be more visible from a distance, or safe from
flooding. Although no burial remains have been found beneath
them, there have been found pot shards, and the spheres are often grouped in the vicinity of a Diquis cemetery
zone. |
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Palmar Norte - Rio Terraba
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At least
300 spheres have been recorded in the literature. Surely many more
were destroyed and others remain undiscovered. No immediate local source
exists for the granite (where the stones were found); and no stone-working tools have been found
near the spheres. "The best spheres are perhaps the finest
examples of precision stone carving in the ancient world." The
maximum circumference error in one 6-foot, 7-inch diameter sphere in
only 0.5 inch, or 0.2% (see how this might have
been done here). The spheres are often grouped, but no
general system or alignment mode seems to exist. "One very
disturbing mystery emerges in examining the Diquis culture. The
superb stone-carving skill necessary for the creation of the spheres
was not applied to any other object."
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