This is the old man,
Thank you for your kind words. I hope you will enjoy your dig and share with us the results later on when you reach them.
Have a nice day.
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Next Out-of-Place-Artifact I want to talk about are the Stone Spheres of Costa Rica:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_spheres_of_Costa_Rica#Myths
“The stone spheres of Costa Rica are an assortment of over 300 petrospheres in Costa Rica, on the Diquís Delta and on Isla del Caño. Locally, they are also known as bolas de piedra (literally stone balls). The spheres are commonly attributed to the extinct Diquís culture, and they are sometimes referred to as the Diquís Spheres. They are the best-known stone sculptures of the Isthmo-Colombian area.
They are thought to have been placed in lines along the approach to the houses of chiefs, but their exact significance remains uncertain.
The Palmar Sur Archaeological Excavations are a series of excavations of a site located in the southern portion of the country, known as the Diquís Delta, and have centered on a site known as "Finca 6" (Farm 6). The archaeological findings date back to the Aguas Buenas Period (300–800 CE) and Chiriquí Period (800–1550 CE).
In June 2014, the Precolumbian Chiefdom Settlements with Stone Spheres of the Diquís was added to the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites. In July 2014, a project, which had been proposed in 2011, to declare the spheres a national symbol of the country was approved.”
>> Notable: the petrospheres come in different sizes and different types of stone.
“Description
The spheres range in size from a few centimetres to over 2 metres (6.6 ft) in diameter, and weigh up to 15 tons. Most are sculpted from gabbro, the coarse-grained equivalent of basalt. There are a dozen or so made from shell-rich limestone, and another dozen made from a sandstone.”
>> We’ve seen the shell rich limestone before = like the type of stones used in Giza Pyramids.
“They appear to have been made by hammering natural boulders with other rocks, then polishing with sand. The degree of finishing and precision of working varies considerably. The gabbro came from sites in the hills, several kilometres away from where the finished spheres are found, though some unfinished spheres remain in the hills. They are used for decoration.”
>> I wish the names of the locations would be known to check. I tried to look for some pictures of the quarries and the unfinished stones: Found none. Also yes, these petrospheres could be given their current shape via hammering but it’s very hard to tell; and it’s done manually by different individuals, this is why we have variation in the working precision and finishing touches. It’s normal isn’t it? It all depends on how skilled and experienced the person working on these is. Ask 2 modern day sculptors to carve the same statue; provide them with the same materials, tools, measurements and instructions, then let them work. When they both finished, the end product will be different even though it’s similar = all depending on how experienced, meticulous and talented the sculptor is. Here we have the same case.
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“Geographic setting and location
The archaeological site of Palmar Sur is located in the southern portion of Costa Rica, known as the Diquís Delta, and in the southernmost part of the Puntarenas Province. The Diquís Delta is defined as the alluvial plain with the geographical boundaries of the Fila Grisera to the north and east, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and the Osa Mountains comprising the southern boundary.
The Site is located in Palmar Sur, southern Costa Rica. The site is located on approximately 10 hectares of property that was previously owned by the United Fruit Company in the alluvial plain of the Térraba River.”
>> What caught my attention about the location of the stone spheres is how they are scattered near and around RIVERS. Interesting, isn’t it?
“Site description
The archaeological site of Farm 6 has been dated to the Aguas Buenas Period (300–800 CE) and Chiriquí Period (800–1550 CE). It was a multifunctional site accommodating a settlement and a cemetery, and remains of monumental architecture and sculpture are also present on the site. The monumental architecture consists of two mounds which were constructed with retaining walls made of rounded river cobbles and filled with earth. The site contains multiple locations where large stone spheres are found in situ. Additionally, since many of the stone spheres in the region were removed from their original locations and serve as landscape decoration, the site has become a storage location for spheres that have been returned to the National Museum. One of the neighboring towns to Farm 6 also had spheres or "esferas". They were called "zanahoriagas", for their more oval-like shape.”
>> Now this is the best messed up site I’ve ever seen in my life. Most of the important information we could have gotten out of the site is lost and/or extremely difficult to get now. Like what type of information; orientation, axiality, matching constellations, measurements = distances and angles between each petrosphere, if they were placed according to a zoomorphic, geometric or other designs, etc. All of these are lost forever.
“Pre-Columbian history
The stones are believed to have been first created around the year 600, with most dating to after 1000 but before the Spanish conquest. The only method available for dating the carved stones is stratigraphy, but most stones are no longer in their original locations. The culture of the people who made them disappeared after the Spanish conquest.”
>> In other words we cannot accurately date them. And since we cannot date them, we don’t know WHOM made them. So we don’t know the WHEN, don’t know the WHOM, we don’t know exactly the WHERE, we only know the HOW = so how are we going to find out the WHY? The damage done to the petrospheres and the sites is immense.
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“Post-contact history
The spheres were discovered in the 1930s as the United Fruit Company was clearing the jungle for banana plantations. Workmen pushed them aside with bulldozers and heavy equipment, damaging some spheres. Additionally, inspired by stories of hidden gold, workmen began to drill holes into the spheres and blow them open with sticks of dynamite. Several of the spheres were destroyed before authorities intervened. Some of the dynamited spheres have been reassembled and are currently on display at the National Museum of Costa Rica in San José. The collection at the National Museum of Costa Rica is made up of six of the spheres. A lot of the spheres also ended up as lawn decorations for many Tico citizens.”
>> Almost had a heart attack after reading this paragraph. It’s an archaeologist worst nightmare scenario come true. A horror show. I want to draw anons attention to how “greed” from looters and fantasy dreams of gold = treasures can ruin a site, an artifact and cause un-repairable damage to cultural knowledge, heritage.
“The first scientific investigation of the spheres was undertaken shortly after their discovery by Doris Stone, a daughter of a United Fruit executive. These were published in 1943 in American Antiquity, attracting the attention of Samuel Kirkland Lothrop of the Peabody Museum at Harvard University. In 1948, he and his wife attempted to excavate an unrelated archaeological site in the northern region of Costa Rica.The government had just disbanded its professional army, and the resulting civil unrest threatened the security of Lothrop's team. In San José he met Doris Stone, who directed the group toward the Diquís Delta region in the southwest ("Valle de Diquís" refers to the valley of the lower Río Grande de Térraba, including the Osa Canton towns of Puerto Cortés, Palmar Norte, and Sierpe) and provided them with valuable dig sites and personal contacts. Lothrop's findings were published in Archaeology of the Diquís Delta, Costa Rica 1963.
In 2010, University of Kansas researcher John Hoopes visited the site of the Stone Spheres to evaluate their eligibility for protection as a Unesco World Heritage Site.”
>> And anons now know where they need to go check for the initial information about the excavations. I would like to suggest to do a background check on the mentioned names and WHOM is financing such expeditions.
“Historical background
Before the arrival of the Compañía Bananera de Costa Rica, a branch of the United Fruit Company, and banana plantations in the 1930s, vegetation in this area offered a great deal of biodiversity in both plant and animal resources. Resources available to Precolumbian inhabitants in this alluvial plain consisted of riverine and ocean resources, including mangrove forests located in the Terraba and Sierpe Rivers.
The rich alluvial soils of this region facilitated historical agriculture since the 1930s. The United Fruit Company dominated this southern region with banana plantations as early as the 1920s in Parrita and Quepos. The UFCO entered Palmar Sur in the 1930s under the name of Companía Bananera de Costa Rica in an effort to avoid antimonopoly legislature. Today the landscape is still carved into agricultural fields which are owned by co-ops and consist of plantain, banana, and palm plantations.”
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