Stone Spheres
There is a
stone Sphere of Costa Rica
near the Peabody museum at Harvard: the 4800 pound stone ball is believed to be from the year 600.
The local name "Las Bolas (the balls) is a better description as the sphere is mathematically
the surface of the ball. These stone sculptures are the icons of
Coast Rica's cultural identity. The ball had been placed to the current location in 2014
Article: Secrets of the Diquis Ball
after it had to make place to the new library in 2012.
- How did it get to Harvard?
This Harvard Magazine story from 2001
tells it: the National Museum of Costa Rica had sent in 1964 two of these balls to the
Central American Pavilion at the New York World's Fair. One of them then went to the
National Geographic Society, the other to the Peabody Museum. At that time the Director of the
Costa Rica's National Museum was Doris Zemurray Stone, a distinguished archaelogist and ethnographer
prompting that the ball was at some time jokingly be called the ``Doris Stone".
- What is it made of? Also from that article:
The balls are perfectly round and usually have polished surfaces. They are of a hard igneous rock called granodiorite. "This material has a fracture pattern somewhat like that of an onion," says Hoopes. "By successive use of heat (building a fire on the stone) and cold (dashing it with cold water), a person could reduce an irregular boulder to a sphere. The greater amount of labor appears to have gone into grinding and polishing."
- Why were these stones made? Also from that article:
The original purpose of the balls--and more than 300 of them exist, from a few inches in size to a whopper more than eight feet in diameter--is a mystery. and
Scholars might have been able to see that the positions had significance, perhaps in astronomical observations. Hoopes believes that "the making and moving of the balls was probably an important social activity, perhaps more important than possession of the finished product." The people who made them lived in conical houses with thatched walls and foundations of rounded river cobbles. "We believe that the balls may have sat in front of the houses of prominent people, perhaps as a display of power, of esoteric knowledge, or of control over labor," says Hoopes. Thus, Harvard's ball, in a courtyard by the Peabody Museum, may even now be fulfilling its original function as lawn ornament.
Click on the picture to see a larger version:
From this book:
Hidden History: Lost Civilizations, Secret Knowledge, and Ancient Mysteries
By Brian Haughton:
