It’s hard work being an archaeologist, but you love that it takes you around the world. You’re always discovering new and fascinating architectural finds from civilization past, but nothing has prepared you for what youencounter in your current dig in Costa Rica.
One of the biggest mysteries possible in archeologyis how ancient civilizations could create something so big, so perfectly constructedthat it would seem impossible to make by human hands. That’s the mystery behind the massive stonespheres of Costa Rica.
Imagine a mysterious collection of over threehundred stone spheres, almost perfectly round, ranging from as small as a few centimetersin diameter to as wide as over eight feet at their center. The smallest ones are light enough that youcould probably play catch with them - if they weren’t priceless artifacts. The biggest weigh up to sixteen tons, tooheavy to move without powerful construction equipment. From the smallest to the largest, most aremade from gabbro, a coarser version of basalt, but some are made from limestone and sandstone.
To make them this uniform and this smooth,especially at the larger sizes, would take some heavy-duty equipment. But none of that equipment existed when testingindicates they were created - between 300 and 1550 CE. That wasn’t just before the age of constructionequipment, it was largely before the age of modern machinery! When first discovered by modern archeologistson the coastal region of Isla del Cano, they were completely puzzled.
Not only couldn’t they figure out how themassive stone spheres were made, they had no idea what they were used for - and neitherdo you. What use would a society have for giant smoothrocks that were too heavy to move? The site they were found in doesn’t giveyou many clues - it’s a big location that contains both a long-abandoned settlementand a burial ground. It was active during both the Agua Buena periodfrom 300 to 800 CE, and the later Chiriqui period from 800 to 1550 CE, which is believedto be the heyday of the Diquis culture.
That means most of these stones were madeby civilizations that came and went before Europeans arrived, so they’re not goingto be giving you any answers. All that’s left of the civilization nowis some architecture consisting of a pair of retaining walls - and of course, lots ofspheres. The stones sat, largely undisturbed, for hundredsof years, until progress came marching along. The United Fruit Company, one of the mostpowerful businesses in the world in the 1930s, was making inroads into the jungle so theycould turn the land into banana plantations.
They quickly ran into the hard spheres andfound them very difficult to move out of the way. As more workers arrived, they were confusedby these giant smooth rocks. They tried to move them out of the way withequipment, damaging them. Then they became convinced they were a secretancient way to store gold, and tried to blow them up with dynamite.
That worked to break them apart, but insidethere was nothing but smooth stone. The spheres didn’t give away their secretseasily, as the only information that could be gained from them was their age via stratigraphy- the study of sedimentation in rocks.
But even that wasn’t exact, because therocks had been moved many times. Before all the spheres could be destroyedby reckless workers, the government of Costa Rica stepped in. They protected the area as a key archeologicalsite and let scientists inspect them over the years to see if they could unlock theirsecrets. And that’s where you come in. You’re determined to find a theory thatmakes sense, but you’re not the only one looking for those answers. Some of the world’s best archeologists areon site along with you, and everyone’s got a wild and crazy theory for how the sphereswere made and transported.
The site is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site,and you’ll be watched carefully to make sure you don’t damage anything. You and your fellow scientists spend hourswandering around the site, looking at the large and small spheres and gathering whatclues you can. Now it’s time to take the evidence you’vefound and see if you can develop a theory about their creation that passes scientificmuster. You and your fellow archeologists begin talkingover dinner, and it’s clear that they’ve developed some wild theories.
The man to your left starts talking. “I think they were lifted here by aliensand planted in this civilization. Aliens who were capable of space travel couldhave technology far beyond ours, making it easy for them to use tractor beams in theirspaceships to lift stones far beyond what machinery could do on Earth. As for their purpose, they might be ancientreligious artifacts from an alien civilization.
They could be encoded with information thatour human eyes can’t process, and they might be waiting for the aliens to return to reclaimthem for their true purpose!” The table laughs - it’s clear they’renot buying the alien theory. But it’s far from the only crazy idea goingaround the table. Another archeologist speaks up. “You know, these stones were right acrossthe Atlantic ocean from the rumored site of the lost continent of Atlantis.
Perhaps they’re remnants of that lost civilization,and were crafted underwater and brought ashore by the cataclysm that destroyed it.
They could have been constructed more easilyunderwater, because buoyancy helps counteract gravity and it’s easier to move heavy thingsunderwater. It’s impossible for us to move them or figureout their purpose because they were never meant to be used on land.” The table erupts in arguments against yetanother wild theory, but they’re not done yet.
A man with a wild bushy beard who you don’tremember from the expedition - maybe he just wandered in for a hot meal? - has his owntheory. “Sure, they’re giant spheres to us, butwhat if they weren’t so big for the people who created them? There are lots of legends in many culturesabout ancient races of giants, from the Titans of Greece to the Nephilim of the Bible.
What if these spheres were created long beforethe age of man, by giants for whom they were no bigger than marbles were for us? They could have been playthings for them,left behind for us tiny humans to find and puzzle over something that was never meantfor us!” The table looks like it’s about to riotat the ridiculous theories, but thankfully the next ones are a little more logical - ifstill pretty out there. “Alchemy was a common study in the ancientworld, with scientists studying how to transform natural substances.”
A woman at the far end of the table says. “What if these spheres were constructednot by hard workers, but by scientists who had figured out how to soften the materialthey were made of? That way they could be rolled and shaped bythe workers easily, and when the treatment wore off they would harden into solid stoneagain for their purpose.” It’s a theory more grounded in science,but still not one you’re willing to buy.
There’s one big problem - if such a compound existed to make it easy to shape stone, why isn’t there more evidence of it, you ask? “Perhaps they hid it well? Maybe the secret of the stones is encodedin the stones themselves?
They could be printed on the surface of thestones, using cyphers that could only be read by the people who built them.” “Or maybe they’ve hidden the secret inthe center of the stone!” A wild-eyed man jumps up from the table.
“Maybe we should break one open and findwhat it holds?” You have to explain that not only would thatbe very, very illegal - you would be destroying a Costa Rican national treasure and damaginga world heritage site, both of which could send you to prison for a long time - but that’sone of the few questions that’s already been answered.
There were many theories back when the sphereswere discovered about the spheres holding secrets or treasures, and many were destroyed,but in the center the explorers found nothing but solid stone. Some thought they might have been rolled arounda small solid object, like a coffee bean, but even that was never found. That was a close call, and you can see thecrowd needs to be calmed down.
You decide to share some theories more groundedin evidence. The first is that the spheres were slowlyrolled from softer material, like clay. There is a lot of evidence that the spheresare tied to pottery styles from the pre-Columbian era, and they could have initially been rolledby hand and eventually pulled by teams and pulleys to keep them moving once they becametoo large to move individually. This is how many structures too big to behandled by bare hands, like the Moai of Easter Island and the monuments at Stonehenge, unreconstructed.
The problem with this theory is that evidenceis that the spheres are made from solid rock, not malleable material. But there’s one more theory, and it’sthe one scientists everywhere are settling on. What if the only way to shape giant stonesand turn them into these mysteriously smooth orbs was...with other giant stones? A closer look at the stones indicates thatwhile to the naked eye, they look pretty smooth, they’re actually not perfect spheres.
They’re shaped slightly unevenly, and youcan find traces of damage and markings from hammer stones. That indicates that the smaller stones wereshaped by hand and formed into spheres from their original shape by standard pre-industrialtools like hammers and chisels.
But what of the giant stones? They were still too large to be moved by craftsmen,but it’s believed that they were finished by slowly working on chiseling them away withtools, then polishing them with sand. That is responsible for the smoother appearance,but they were likely carved from existing rocks with a natural shape.
The biggest stones are probably in the samespot they were when they were originally carved, and those excavated indicate that they weremoved enough to be polished all around.
How were they moved? Likely in a similar way to the Easter Islandstatues, where they were hooked up to ropes and pulleys and pulled, or “walked” byteams of workers. Your fellow archaeologists are impressed byyour reasoned theory, and they applaud. But there’s still one big question hangingover everyone’s head.
These spheres are enormous, and with the technologyof the time, people must have put a ridiculous amount of work into crafting them. But why? What is the significance of these stones thatmade them such an important project for the ancient pre-Columbian civilizations of CostaRica that they crafted them over hundreds of years?
The most common theory is religion, especiallyas the spheres were found near a graveyard. Could they be tributes to the deceased, orofferings to the Gods? We know relatively little about the religiousbeliefs of the people who crafted them, and there are no clear religious signifiers onthe spheres. Another theory is that they could be artillery,as the carefully carved spheres resemble primitive cannonballs and could deliver some real destructionif aimed right.
But while these theories make sense for thesmall to mid-sized ones, can you imagine trying to haul one of the giant ones into a catapult? And what kind of catapult could throw oneanyway? The simplest solution may be that the sphereswere decorative, an artistic flair created by an ancient civilization using only thebasic tools.
Why would a long-gone civilization want hundredsof carefully carved stone spheres scattered around their village? Who knows, but you could ask the same aboutyour Great-Aunt and her collection of hundreds of cat statues.
Your architectural expedition to explore thestone spheres of Costa Rica is at an end, and you’ve learned a lot. But for those who want to see these mysteriousorbs for themselves, the national monument of Guayabo de Turrialba is open to the public,but the sites are closely guarded to make sure the stones don’t get damaged.
Several that were removed from the site forcloser examination are on display in museums around the country, and the spheres are regardedas Costa Rica’s most prized architectural possession. Some are even installed around the countryin government buildings like the Legislative Assembly.
There are still a lot of questions about themysterious stone spheres, and you and your friends will be far from the last with theoriesabout how they were created.
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