The stone spheres shown here are not scenes from a science fiction movie; they are real and found in a remote area of Costa Rica. Some are perfect spheres. The mystery lies in who made them and why. Like the pyramids and the Sphinx, these spheres cannot be dated using the C14 radiocarbon method, which only dates organic material found in the stones. If the spheres had been washed, any datable traces would have been erased.
Archaeologists have linked these spheres to the Diquís culture, which existed around 600 A.D. However, this does not explain how a supposedly primitive population could have carved several hundred perfect spheres, the largest of which was 2.66 meters in diameter. Creating a perfect sphere without advanced tools is incredibly difficult.
Questions arise: Were other ancient populations capable of doing this work? Until recently, the original culture of the Americas was thought to be the Clovis culture, dating back 14,000 years. However, research published around 2020 suggests that humans lived in central Mexico at least 30,000 years ago. Genetic studies indicate that these populations had ancestors from Sundaland and Siberia, not North America, suggesting a more complex history.
Let us reflect on how rare sphere-shaped sculptures are in history. What inspired these ancients to create hundreds of them in a small region? The mystery endures, challenging our understanding of ancient civilizations.
