Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Costa Rica's Mysterious Stone Spheres





Wow! This has been one doozy of a cold. I'm still sick! (And I rarely get ill.) I hope none of you have managed to contract this dreaded disease. If we're all hobbled (like poor International Mastermind) or ailing, who's going to keep an eye on the neighbors?

Despite the fact that I feel like crud, I didn't want to leave you without anything strange to ponder, so I offer for your consideration the Mysterious Spheres of Costa Rica . . .

Back in the 1930s, when banana farms popped up all over Costa Rica, workers started finding hundreds (if not thousands) of strange stone spheres scattered throughout the forest. Some were as big as a hut, others no larger than a coconut, but they were all perfectly round and cut from extremely hard rock.

Today the bizarre spheres decorate lawns and parks. (As well as Costa Rica's currency.) Though they're clearly ancient, no one knows exactly when the spheres were made, who made them, or what purpose they were meant to serve. They're a good example of what's known as "Out of Place Objects." These are objects (also known as ancient anomalies) that are discovered in unexpected locations.

Two good examples of "Out of Place Objects" are the Iron Pillar of Delhi (which hasn't rusted in 1600 years) and the Antikythera Mechanism (a computer-like device that was found inside an ancient shipwreck).

Interested in learning more about the mysterious spheres? Click here.



15 comments:

Maddi said...

Ananka,
have you ever heard of the Voynich Manuscript? it's my fav. unsolved mystery and i even dechiphered a line of it in sixth grade.

Maddi said...

oh, you should also check this website out if you haven't already
www.world-mysteries.com

Spring said...

Thats very, um... weird. I want to know why whoever made them - made them!

Ananka said...

Hi Maddi,

Yes, I have heard of the Voynich Manuscript--and it's one of my favorite mysteries, too. Maybe I should write a post on it soon. And you really deciphered a line? I'm so impressed. What did it say?

And I'm checking out the site now.

Hazel said...

That is WEIRD! Kind of like those sailing stones in Death Valley you posted about a while ago.

Maddi said...

it said "below" in Italian, but that was it. and i had to view it upside down in a mirror and then look it up in three languages to get it. not the most impressive discovery, but i was a proud eleven year-old

theatre said...

freaky post and I like the way Spring phraised it on whoever made them??? the mysertious lurks all around us, as Ananka so ingeniouslly continues to point out :)

infamous said...

WIERD!

Lena said...

Don't worry, Ananka. There will always be Irregulars ro watch the neighbours (Especially mine, i've noticed a suspicious smell of caramel coming from their Kitchen whenever I sell them chocolates).
But the spheres? They look like beads that have fallen off a Goddess' necklace.
My favorite mystery is trying to make a perpectual motion machine. I made a design in fourth grade (I was a strange child. . . Still am). But it was taken up by the teacher. -sighs- It was powered by a waterwheel anyways, so it'd never really be perpectual and motioning.

udon'tneed2knowmyname said...

yeah totally freaky. That really is something to ponder. If i didn't have so much flippin homework, i'd do it myself. don't fret, ananka, i will do my best.

Ananka said...

You guys are very cool. Deciphering coded manuscripts, making perpetual motion machines, etc. We could take over the world! (I'm starting to sound like the Brain from Pinky & the Brain.)

If anyone else has any favorite mysteries, tell me! I want to have a post on everything weird and wonderful in the universe.

udon't need2knowmyname said...

I really don't know anything about it, but the mystery of Abe Lincoln's assasin? The diary and all that? Well, whatever.
Maybe they just made that up 4 National Treasure 2., I mean i know there was an assasin, i am dubious of the diary though. I guess thatsa mystery?

International Mastermind said...

There's a National Treasure 2???
That is one of my fave mysteries.
But I love, and soon after outgrow each of them.

6yrs.-8, Encyclopedia Browns

9-10, Nancy Drew

11-today, Agatha Christies, and NUMB3RS, the tv show.

Wow, I have also been dreaming of a perpetual motion machine. Ever since my first visit to the Museum of Science in Boston, I have been hooked. They also have a small one in the hospital I went to for my ankle. I find amusement in the strangest places. At this blog, for example.

Patsee said...

Perpetual motion machines are almost as cool as those nifty rock spheres. Maybe the rocks are the
(exo?)skeletons of ancient creatures from the deep.

ginnyweasley007 said...

a really fun machine to design, and if you're lucky, make is a rube goldberg machine, an increadibly difficult way to do something amazingly simple. mine involved books, trapdoors, rubber bands and cheese!