So perhaps John Hoopes is the closest thing at the University of Kansas to
the movie action hero.
Hoopes, associate professor of anthropology and director of the Global
Indigenous Nations Studies Program, recently returned from a trip to Costa Rica
where he and colleagues evaluated the stone balls for UNESCO, the United
Nations cultural organization that might grant the spheres World Heritage
Status.
His report will help determine if sites linked to the massive orbs will be
designated for preservation and promotion because of their "outstanding
value to humanity."
Hoopes, who researches ancient cultures of Central and South America, is
one of the world's foremost experts on the Costa Rican spheres. He explained
that although the stone spheres are very old, international interest in them is
still growing.
"The earliest reports of the stones come from the late 19th century,
but they weren't really reported scientifically until the 1930s -- so they're a
relatively recent discovery," Hoopes said. "They remained unknown
until the United Fruit Company began clearing land for banana plantations in
southern Costa Rica."
According to Hoopes, around 300 balls are known to exist, with the largest
weighing 16 tons and measuring eight feet in diameter. Many of these are
clustered in Costa Rica's Diquis Delta region. Some remain pristine in the
original places of discovery, but many others have been relocated or damaged
due to erosion, fires and vandalism.
The KU researcher said that scientists believe the stones were first
created around 600 A.D., with most dating to after 1,000 A.D. but before the
Spanish conquest.
"We date the spheres by pottery styles and radiocarbon dates
associated with archeological deposits found with the stone spheres,"
Hoopes said. "One of the problems with this methodology is that it tells
you the latest use of the sphere but it doesn't tell you when it was made.
These objects can be used for centuries and are still sitting where they are
after a thousand years. So it's very difficult to say exactly when they were
made."
Speculation and pseudoscience have plagued general understanding of the
stone spheres. For instance, publications have claimed that the balls are
associated with the "lost" continent of Atlantis. Others have
asserted that the balls are navigational aids or relics related to Stonehenge
or the massive heads on Easter Island.
"Myths are really based on a lot of very rampant speculation about
imaginary ancient civilizations or visits from extraterrestrials," Hoopes
said.
In reality, archaeological excavations in the 1940s found the stone balls
to be linked with pottery and materials typical of pre-Columbian cultures of
southern Costa Rica.
"We really don't know why they were made," Hoopes said. "The
people who made them didn't leave any written records. We're left to
archeological data to try to reconstruct the context. The culture of the people
who made them became extinct shortly after the Spanish conquest. So, there are
no myths or legends or other stories that are told by the indigenous people of
Costa Rica about why they made these spheres."
Hoopes has a created a popular Web page to knock down some of the
misconceptions about the spheres. He said the stones' creation, while vague,
certainly had nothing to do with lost cities or space ships.
"We think the main technique that was used was pecking and grinding
and hammering with stones," said Hoopes. "There are some spheres that
have been found that still have the marks of the blows on them from hammer
stones. We think that that's how they were formed, by hammering on big rocks
and sculpting them into a spherical shape."
source : BBC
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