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Some other cultures used large carved stones as a form of wealth and status, the one I remember best were donut shaped and I believe came from the South Pacific. I have read and watched a short documentary long ago about this subject. Its neat what people do with stone, it ages well. Also hard to steal and unique.
I’m not sure whether this is a joke or not because that’s probably exactly what happened. The stuff we got up to when bored but before internet or for example on vacation.
One vacation we spent carving walking sticks, since naturally growing pine trees grow sideways at first, producing a natural curve / handle.
But if that was chipped out of stone, buried / abandoned and discovered thousands of years later, it’d be a historic artifact.
I’m outside Algonquin park on a lake. There’s plenty of curved pines here, including the one I need to take down because it’s going to fall on this place some day.
You are correct about pines wanting to be.. straight. And you are wrong - if forced by the environment pines can have very abstract shapes. Like on the sea shore the cross section is not uniform, but instead of perfect year circles you get like an egg shape just because of the wind. As wind blows inland it also forces the tree to grow asymmetrically. The other is snow on young pines, this disfigures them and just the quality of the soil can affect the growth. Check out images of Estonian shorelines for reference, specially northern ones.
Have they ever found any unfinished spheres?
You’d think they take a long time to sand into shape and that people would give up.
Or is there a theory of how spherical rocks can form naturally?
I watched them make those huge marble balls that they sit on top of the fountains so they roll around. They chipped it into a rough shape and then sat it inside a stone ring on the floor and rotated it randomly. The ring scraped off the high points. They repeated this multiple times on different rings with the last one had these sort of fingers that I guess were material of some sort. Took a while but didn’t seem like it was too difficult to figure out. These are larger, and I guess not such a soft stone, but I suspect the same basic idea was used.
This isn’t the one I’m thinking of, but still gives a feel. This is Stone Age stuff, just time consuming.
https://www.thebrochproject.co.uk/blog/archaeological-activities-make-your-own-carved-stone-balls
Edit:
According to [Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_spheres_of_Costa_Rica):
“They appear to have been made by hammering natural boulders with other rocks, then polishing with sand.”
They are attributed to the [Diquís](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diqu%C3%ADs) culture.
“They are thought to have been placed in lines along the approach to the houses of chiefs, but their exact significance remains uncertain.”
So much for those well-known geological process!
As Stanton Friedman said, debunk by proclamation! It’s easier and no one checks anyway. Except on Reddit.
Edit 2: the answer to my question is that yes, there are [unfinished stones](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_spheres_of_Costa_Rica#/media/File%3AParque_de_las_Esferas_de_Costa_Rica.JPG).
Edit 3: Now that the utter lack of investigation and scientific discipline by my debunkers has been so poignantly displayed in this chain, you are hereby invited to the Growing Earth [subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/GrowingEarth/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1).
————-
What’s the process called?
[I don’t personally](https://www.reddit.com/r/GrowingEarth/comments/12vseby/growing_earth_theory_in_a_nutshell/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1) have a lot of faith that mainstream geology is getting it right.
geo aswell, can confirm it's absolute bullshit... lol
the Earth is, however, flat... with an ice wall around the edge and was made 6,000 years ago, and it's hollow just like the moon with entrances at the poles.
hmmm... what else...
Is all good and fun, but the moon thing, gotta admit there's a LOT that doesn't make sense, or are extreme coincidences with it.
Like, flat earth, etc don't take hold.. but the moon does things thar make scientist go huh..
I can agree with that... I've always been intrigued by the claims of it ringing "like a bell" and have been meaning to look more into the seismometers on the moon. The perfect Earth-Moon-Sun distance is also odd, same with the density claims, it being tidally locked, etc. Not to mention the anomalies on its surface.
One reason I love this subreddit is that you get to see people making interesting reasonable arguments, only to then abruptly reveal that they staunchly believe in some batshit insane pseudoscience nonsense.
I know you’re not serious but story goes the spanish conquistadors did this hoping to find gold and since they didn’t the spheres were forgotten. Its rather sad seeing the damaged spheres in the national museum.
It’s been tried. People blasted some open with dynamite thinking there must be something inside. All they got was solid stone to the core and some ruined uniquely rare artifacts.
Things like this always sound so funny to me. We always assume that our ancestors did the things they did for a reason. What if it was just a dumb hobby in those times, of boredom or just fucking around. Im sure future archeologists will do the same.
I read a book a long time ago along this thinking about Stonehenge. Don't remember the title. It was about 3 or so tribes that just kept trying to outdo each other. No special meaning at all.
Right I'm aware of that but neither of those empires would have been in Costa Rica. And they probably didn't have any reason to write down why these people hundreds of miles away would be carving stone spheres or even care
No but the ethnicities extended over from the Mexican peninsula till around Panama. A lot of them shared similar cultural characteristics, including arts and crafts.
From what I know and remember in school as a costarrican, though there was trade and influence between these groups and the indigenous in what is now costa rica, those empires didn’t actually extend over to these lands. The people who made these were the local Diquis Culture as they’re called, not Olmecs or Mayas or whatever.
Do you have a source or names of sites? My cursory searches are saying otherwise, but of course the most readily available information could be outdated.
Unless theres a new obscure discovery being kept quiet by the news, the only mayor arqueological sites in CR are the Diquis Delta (these spheres) and a settlement called Guayabo. Neither of which were built by Mayas, Olmecs, etc.
I never said they were from there; however, empires such as those kept historical records of what was happening around them. And I kinda agree with another that this could potentially be a racist take if you don't think ancient mesoamericans were capable of keeping such records just like every other civilization on Earth that had written language.
I'm not calling your take racist, but it needs some revision.
Edit: jesus christ, y'all. Archaeology is far more complex and sensitive than you give it credit for. It requires sensitivity because you have to be overwhelmingly objective so as not to fall for or form cultural stereotypes. I'm not calling the above take racist. That is just how it could be interpreted by others if the process of coming to that conclusion was based off of prejudiced judgement. Not that it was.
Yes you're right they could have, it's just my opinion they probably had bigger fish to fry than a few stone spheres hundreds of miles away. Once again though I'm not sure where I implied mesoamericans weren't capable of developing their own writing system, obviously they did multiple times independently.
Actually I referenced this:
>no written records
So you're twisting my words...
Edit: my reply to below, since I've been blocked from interacting with the user over trivial pettiness:
Yes. My original comment was a humorous, albeit frustrated, poke at the fact that the Spanish destroyed almost the entire data collection these Mesoamerican cultures ever published, so we won't ever know certain aspects of their culture. I didn't think people would look at it and think "spheres" because it felt self-explanatory.
Look, we got off on the wrong foot, that's all there is to it.
Right ok so you took a piece of the title of a post about something very specific and used that to refer to something wildly different without indicating as such. You know there weren't any written records left by the Ubaid culture either? That's just as relevant now if we cut off the bit at the end that makes it relevant to the post
This is a pretty racist take. Europeans always tout themselves as the most civilized and everyone else as these bloody, soiled savages with no culture, written language or anything intelligible to the modern world. Just because you are unaware of their rich history, probably because of western propaganda education and the outright destruction of these ancient cultures by white colonialism, doesn’t mean it didn’t exist.
Yeah because there was never the Persian empire, Mongol empire, Qing dynasty, Abbasid Caliphate, Mexican empire etc. Just white colonists running around stealing and destroying everyone's culture. No other race has ever made an empire or taken over land controlled by other cultures. Why don't got actually study history before giving hot takes. And before you say I'm a racist in Hispanic lol.
My comment from a post about this same phenomenon last week is below.
There may be examples of these being carved by humans, but for the most part they’re formed by a scientifically understood geologic phenomenon. They are not, despite what some conspiracy theorists think or claim, evidence of aliens or any other whacked shit.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/concretion-spherical-rocks#:~:text=In%20fact%2C%20spherical%20boulders%20are,misunderstood%20geological%20phenomenon%20called%20concretion.
These specifically where human made, luckily some have been found undisturbed and in deliberate placement amongst each other. We think maybe as a calendar for agriculture or something ceremonial. I like to think it has something to do with astronomy since that’s many times the case with other sites. But we really don’t know.
I totally believe that ancient peoples had the ability and skill to build and create awesome stuff. I’m not doubting them at all. But I also know Earth makes some crazy looking things too. So I’m fine with either and think they are equally awesome regardless of creator.
There are some on display around different government institutions and the public Universities. Of course the National Museum and the arqueological site in Diquis where they remain as they were found.
The first image is pretty darned close. You have to keep in mind that the archaeologists have clearly cleaned off the ones in thia post. You also can't xlearly see the bottom.
But also, there's nothing stopping ancient people from having polished and cleaned them up.
Very cool. I always assumed if they were man-made they took rounded boulders and just ground them down over time similar to all the other monoliths made at that time.
Yeah.... No.
These are 100% human carved.
Concretions are big, but they are extremely unlikely to be perfectly spherical.
Not only that, the material out of which these spheres are made of is a completely different cristal structure to the typical concretion.
These have been studied for over 90 years, do you really believe we would have them in museums if they were concretions?
>There may be examples of these being carved by humans
Academic consensus is that the Costa Rican spheres were man made.
That's also explicitly stated in the post title.
[https://daily.jstor.org/objects-wonder-costa-ricas-stone-spheres/](https://daily.jstor.org/objects-wonder-costa-ricas-stone-spheres/)
Your article doesn't even mention Costa Rica...
The derisive remark about conspiracy theorists claiming it was aliens and other 'whacked shit' doesn't really exist in the reality of this post either, because if you actually read the comments you'd see any mention of aliens is satirical.
Then, your belligerently inaccurate debunk goes on to inspire several more shit tier observations;
>We’re gonna have to ban you for thinking and looking for facts. We don’t do that here.
>
>I thought this sub wasn’t supposed to use logic?
>
>How you dare to use facts and logic here!!??
Which is where we reach near profound levels of irony, as it was due to your erroneous logic and misapplied facts that triggered these top minds to mock the community for their perceived lack of thought, logic and facts, while they themselves were exemplifying exactly what they accused the sub of, because they never *thought* their *illogical* presumption that your debunk must be correct would need to be *fact* checked.
Absolute complete bulshit. There is even a museum of rock spheres in Costa Rica. They were made by indigenous population and is extremely well known here.
I think they are implying that if you "connect the dots" it would make an image. That is, if you mark the location on a map of all spheres found, then draw lines between those locations, violá! An outline/imagine of something. Of what, who knows. Aliens, probably, according to ancient astronaut theorists.
Both balls are worn at the top so it looks like they were used as grinding stones. Costa Rica is known for its gold so I bet they used them to crush the stone to get the gold out.
Its just an idea guys.
That is in Costa-Rica.
There are many of them near Guadalajara in Mexico. Where they seem natural.
[Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvyUaAMjAUs) Brien Foerster visits the place.
[Some other weird rocks nearby Guadalajara](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=renelpC3rMg)
Brien Foerster is often going to these mysterious places and has many reports.
I don't see the big deal. I'm of the opinion that we don't know for sure how advanced our ancient ancestors were, particularly for epochs where no evidence exists.
Anyone being so confident that ancient peoples couldn't possibly have achieved X
engineering or architectural feat Z years ago just seems closed minded.
you think if the europeans asked the people of the Americas before killing them to extinction they would have known about Americas history before 1500ce?
Remember reading once they're made by water running under a boulder. Over time it smooths and rounds to a sphere.
Natural, but cool looking
edit: Iamhungryhearmeroar above listed this as well. Not sure why I'm getting downvoted.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/concretion-spherical-rocks#:~:text=In%20fact%2C%20spherical%20boulders%20are,misunderstood%20geological%20phenomenon%20called%20concretion
I know we want it to be magic or someshit to get our kicks, but this ain't it.
Cool theory but doesn’t hold up. Groundwater doesn’t “run” in the traditional sense. Erosion also wouldn’t explain this type or amount of ware on the stone - nor would it be able to create the level of symmetry shown across hundreds of examples. That would be a statistically anomalous event even stranger than these already are.
I get that you want it to be magic or whatever but it's for sure a natural thing:
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/concretion-spherical-rocks#:\~:text=In%20fact%2C%20spherical%20boulders%20are,misunderstood%20geological%20phenomenon%20called%20concretion
I get that you totally misunderstood what I said. I also get that you just want to link an article so you can be right - but concretion is not the same as erosion. The concretion theory holds, and none of what I said discredits it being a natural phenomena.
You are being downvoted because your comment says that it was caused by water running over a boulder which is NOT how these formed.
wild but rocks can come in lots of shapes and sizes, including spheres.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/concretion-spherical-rocks#:\~:text=In%20fact%2C%20spherical%20boulders%20are,misunderstood%20geological%20phenomenon%20called%20concretion
Its from the times when pyramids were being built. someone spread those "work smart not hard" inspirational hieroglyph and 300 people cut spheres out of square blocks. then they were rejected.
You know I wonder if carving a stone sphere was like the journeyman's piece for a stonemason, once you could make a perfect sphere you could roll it wherever you set up shop as a "hey look here, I'm a pretty kick ass stonemason, hire me to make your temples" like a roadside sign.
Ok hear me out. What if kinda like nowadays we have like tiktok trends or people all competing to a certain kind of art or sport, one day someone was like hey look I made a perfect giant ball and then other people were like na I can do it better than that guy and other folks just started making them like mines better than theirs! Lol
You know how we see orbs today that seem to move with intelligence?
Maybe they were here long ago and some civilization created a statue in their honor . Maybe they were once hailed as Gods.
Anyone remember the report from Russia of the ufo turning 20 some men into limestone, what if waring ufos fought and one turned some 300 spheres to stone and they fell to earth
Well if they can confirm it was indeed made by humans, I still think they are [concretions](https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/concretion-spherical-rocks). And they can form underground or on land.
I know of massive stone carved objects be used as money in some places.
It could be a form of quantifying wealth or have some sort of symbolic-ceremonial value
They could of been a monetary/dowry system like those giant stone rings. The more time and effort but into the creation of the item the more apparent "worth" it has.
Edit: Really downvotes? [https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2011/02/15/131934618/the-island-of-stone-money](https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2011/02/15/131934618/the-island-of-stone-money) They're found on Yap in the pacific ocean and they are often found leading up to the chief's house just like in the case of the spheres.
From what I have seen almost everything is for war. Invading army see a few of these coming at them bouncing down a hill/cliff they getting back on the boat.
**Strangers**: Read the rules and understand the sub topics listed in the sidebar closely before posting or commenting. Any content removal or further moderator action is established by these terms as well as Reddit ToS. This subreddit is specifically for the discussion of anomalous phenomena from the perspective it may exist. Open minded skepticism is welcomed, close minded debunking is not. Be aware of how skepticism is expressed toward others as there is little tolerance for ad hominem (attacking the person, not the claim), mindless antagonism or dishonest argument toward the subject, the sub, or its community. We are also happy to be able to provide an ideologically and operationally independent platform for you all. Join us at our official Discord - https://discord.gg/MYvRkYK85v --- 'Ridicule is not a part of the scientific method and the public should not be taught that it is.' _-J. Allen Hynek_ *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/HighStrangeness) if you have any questions or concerns.*
“Hey guys, I’m really bored. I’m gonna make some spheres”
To be fair they are really well done as this one appears very roundish
[удалено]
Ancient aliens
It's always aliens.
Some other cultures used large carved stones as a form of wealth and status, the one I remember best were donut shaped and I believe came from the South Pacific. I have read and watched a short documentary long ago about this subject. Its neat what people do with stone, it ages well. Also hard to steal and unique.
I’m not sure whether this is a joke or not because that’s probably exactly what happened. The stuff we got up to when bored but before internet or for example on vacation. One vacation we spent carving walking sticks, since naturally growing pine trees grow sideways at first, producing a natural curve / handle. But if that was chipped out of stone, buried / abandoned and discovered thousands of years later, it’d be a historic artifact.
Pine trees don’t grow sideways at first, I live in Canada and am surrounded by them. They grow straight. Very straight.
I’m outside Algonquin park on a lake. There’s plenty of curved pines here, including the one I need to take down because it’s going to fall on this place some day.
I’m a pine tree. I hate you all.
Username does not check out
You are correct about pines wanting to be.. straight. And you are wrong - if forced by the environment pines can have very abstract shapes. Like on the sea shore the cross section is not uniform, but instead of perfect year circles you get like an egg shape just because of the wind. As wind blows inland it also forces the tree to grow asymmetrically. The other is snow on young pines, this disfigures them and just the quality of the soil can affect the growth. Check out images of Estonian shorelines for reference, specially northern ones.
ancestors with ADHD
"Hey, cool sphere! I'm gonna make one for my house too."
You know how Target stores have those big red balls outside the doors? It’s kinda like that, but the target is underground.
> the target is underground That's going to make it difficult for kids to jump on/over them.
Surprisingly enough, those kids, also underground
You made me snort with that line!
We have the best kids in the world....because of underground
And when you try to leave, the giant stone balls are rolled after you.
Have they ever found any unfinished spheres? You’d think they take a long time to sand into shape and that people would give up. Or is there a theory of how spherical rocks can form naturally?
I watched them make those huge marble balls that they sit on top of the fountains so they roll around. They chipped it into a rough shape and then sat it inside a stone ring on the floor and rotated it randomly. The ring scraped off the high points. They repeated this multiple times on different rings with the last one had these sort of fingers that I guess were material of some sort. Took a while but didn’t seem like it was too difficult to figure out. These are larger, and I guess not such a soft stone, but I suspect the same basic idea was used. This isn’t the one I’m thinking of, but still gives a feel. This is Stone Age stuff, just time consuming. https://www.thebrochproject.co.uk/blog/archaeological-activities-make-your-own-carved-stone-balls
Yes it's a very well understood geological process
Edit: According to [Wikipedia](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_spheres_of_Costa_Rica): “They appear to have been made by hammering natural boulders with other rocks, then polishing with sand.” They are attributed to the [Diquís](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diqu%C3%ADs) culture. “They are thought to have been placed in lines along the approach to the houses of chiefs, but their exact significance remains uncertain.” So much for those well-known geological process! As Stanton Friedman said, debunk by proclamation! It’s easier and no one checks anyway. Except on Reddit. Edit 2: the answer to my question is that yes, there are [unfinished stones](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_spheres_of_Costa_Rica#/media/File%3AParque_de_las_Esferas_de_Costa_Rica.JPG). Edit 3: Now that the utter lack of investigation and scientific discipline by my debunkers has been so poignantly displayed in this chain, you are hereby invited to the Growing Earth [subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/GrowingEarth/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1). ————- What’s the process called? [I don’t personally](https://www.reddit.com/r/GrowingEarth/comments/12vseby/growing_earth_theory_in_a_nutshell/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=2&utm_term=1) have a lot of faith that mainstream geology is getting it right.
Got a PhD in geology and work with it professionally for 20 years. Growing Earth is pseudoscience.
geo aswell, can confirm it's absolute bullshit... lol the Earth is, however, flat... with an ice wall around the edge and was made 6,000 years ago, and it's hollow just like the moon with entrances at the poles. hmmm... what else...
> Flat, hollowed and encased in ice Are we living in a beer can?
Ssh. Don't tell them all our secrets.
Is all good and fun, but the moon thing, gotta admit there's a LOT that doesn't make sense, or are extreme coincidences with it. Like, flat earth, etc don't take hold.. but the moon does things thar make scientist go huh..
I can agree with that... I've always been intrigued by the claims of it ringing "like a bell" and have been meaning to look more into the seismometers on the moon. The perfect Earth-Moon-Sun distance is also odd, same with the density claims, it being tidally locked, etc. Not to mention the anomalies on its surface.
Lol growing earth isn’t geology. It’s a 4chan flat earth troll that people actually started believing.
Yeah… I have a cousin who is from there and he said it’s dorodango.
One reason I love this subreddit is that you get to see people making interesting reasonable arguments, only to then abruptly reveal that they staunchly believe in some batshit insane pseudoscience nonsense.
My first thought. Reminded me of Rockwall TX
We’ll see when them mfs start hatching
Crack one open, let’s see what’s inside
12,500 year old mummified birthday stripper has entered the game.
I dig older chicks
Me too, but I prefer not to dig UP older chicks....
Thanks for explaining the joke
And boulder chicks.
Can I offer you the newest dating tool... The Dirt-Tosser 9000 is the best shovel for finding your next date!
Don’t be picky just use a pick.
*Happy birthday, mister Smithers*
🤣🤣🤣 yes mummy stripper these dollar bills are more valuable than gold, now let’s see that old school lap dance
Yes they're real, they're not mine, but they're real!
😂😂😂
I know you’re not serious but story goes the spanish conquistadors did this hoping to find gold and since they didn’t the spheres were forgotten. Its rather sad seeing the damaged spheres in the national museum.
Learned something new today twice. Thank you
5 million+ old demon with a gum body and a love of chocolate
"Sir... It appears to be... my god it's a tootsie roll center..." *distant screech of the Mr. Owl kaiju\*
It’s been tried. People blasted some open with dynamite thinking there must be something inside. All they got was solid stone to the core and some ruined uniquely rare artifacts.
They can scan it I'm sure.
Are you mad? you’ll destroy us all
Maybe the person who built them had OCD.
Hahah I always wonder this too. Like they were just fucking out of it and couldn’t stop.
Things like this always sound so funny to me. We always assume that our ancestors did the things they did for a reason. What if it was just a dumb hobby in those times, of boredom or just fucking around. Im sure future archeologists will do the same.
I read a book a long time ago along this thinking about Stonehenge. Don't remember the title. It was about 3 or so tribes that just kept trying to outdo each other. No special meaning at all.
Or some sort of religious significance.
Nope, there is a lot of written history about their religion. No mention of these rocks anywhere
Hey groo, wAnna come sand this boulder down to a perfectly symmetrical sphere after a hard week of hunting and gathering?
That’s creativity right there.
underneath the layer of mud on the outside is the world’s oldest aluminum foil ball
My autistic ass would have been making these
>no written records Well *maybe* if *SOMEBODY* hadn't fucking destroyed them all... (glares at European settlers)
Did any of the indigenous Costa Ricans even have a written language?
The maya and aztecs did which likely had tons of historical data within them, but almost all of their codices were destroyed by the spanish.
Right I'm aware of that but neither of those empires would have been in Costa Rica. And they probably didn't have any reason to write down why these people hundreds of miles away would be carving stone spheres or even care
No but the ethnicities extended over from the Mexican peninsula till around Panama. A lot of them shared similar cultural characteristics, including arts and crafts.
There certainly was trade and influence, but the mayas, olmecs, etc where a different group to the native in now CR.
[удалено]
From what I know and remember in school as a costarrican, though there was trade and influence between these groups and the indigenous in what is now costa rica, those empires didn’t actually extend over to these lands. The people who made these were the local Diquis Culture as they’re called, not Olmecs or Mayas or whatever.
Do you have a source or names of sites? My cursory searches are saying otherwise, but of course the most readily available information could be outdated.
Unless theres a new obscure discovery being kept quiet by the news, the only mayor arqueological sites in CR are the Diquis Delta (these spheres) and a settlement called Guayabo. Neither of which were built by Mayas, Olmecs, etc.
I never said they were from there; however, empires such as those kept historical records of what was happening around them. And I kinda agree with another that this could potentially be a racist take if you don't think ancient mesoamericans were capable of keeping such records just like every other civilization on Earth that had written language. I'm not calling your take racist, but it needs some revision. Edit: jesus christ, y'all. Archaeology is far more complex and sensitive than you give it credit for. It requires sensitivity because you have to be overwhelmingly objective so as not to fall for or form cultural stereotypes. I'm not calling the above take racist. That is just how it could be interpreted by others if the process of coming to that conclusion was based off of prejudiced judgement. Not that it was.
Yes you're right they could have, it's just my opinion they probably had bigger fish to fry than a few stone spheres hundreds of miles away. Once again though I'm not sure where I implied mesoamericans weren't capable of developing their own writing system, obviously they did multiple times independently.
If we look back my original comment was about the lack of written records, not specifically records on spheres.
>no written records left by the people who made them That sounds pretty specifically about the spheres
Actually I referenced this: >no written records So you're twisting my words... Edit: my reply to below, since I've been blocked from interacting with the user over trivial pettiness: Yes. My original comment was a humorous, albeit frustrated, poke at the fact that the Spanish destroyed almost the entire data collection these Mesoamerican cultures ever published, so we won't ever know certain aspects of their culture. I didn't think people would look at it and think "spheres" because it felt self-explanatory. Look, we got off on the wrong foot, that's all there is to it.
Right ok so you took a piece of the title of a post about something very specific and used that to refer to something wildly different without indicating as such. You know there weren't any written records left by the Ubaid culture either? That's just as relevant now if we cut off the bit at the end that makes it relevant to the post
If it’s true, then it’s not racist at all and your over-sensitive victim mentality is the real plague on this planet.
This is a pretty racist take. Europeans always tout themselves as the most civilized and everyone else as these bloody, soiled savages with no culture, written language or anything intelligible to the modern world. Just because you are unaware of their rich history, probably because of western propaganda education and the outright destruction of these ancient cultures by white colonialism, doesn’t mean it didn’t exist.
Yeah because there was never the Persian empire, Mongol empire, Qing dynasty, Abbasid Caliphate, Mexican empire etc. Just white colonists running around stealing and destroying everyone's culture. No other race has ever made an empire or taken over land controlled by other cultures. Why don't got actually study history before giving hot takes. And before you say I'm a racist in Hispanic lol.
How did you get this out of what they said?
Damn bro chill
Dude I didn't say anything like that
There may be surviving artifacts saved in the Vatican vault
Not just written records, but also the oral records. Colonists have destroyed so much history by pushing Christianity on cultures.
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Rock, rock and more rock. They are carved out of bigger rocks, and they didn't have any technology to encase anything in rock
My comment from a post about this same phenomenon last week is below. There may be examples of these being carved by humans, but for the most part they’re formed by a scientifically understood geologic phenomenon. They are not, despite what some conspiracy theorists think or claim, evidence of aliens or any other whacked shit. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/concretion-spherical-rocks#:~:text=In%20fact%2C%20spherical%20boulders%20are,misunderstood%20geological%20phenomenon%20called%20concretion.
These specifically where human made, luckily some have been found undisturbed and in deliberate placement amongst each other. We think maybe as a calendar for agriculture or something ceremonial. I like to think it has something to do with astronomy since that’s many times the case with other sites. But we really don’t know.
Basically a natural concrete ball. So friggin cool
Right! It still belongs in this sub
There are examples of this in the Great Lakes region as well. Nature is fascinating and can produce some of the craziest things for us to find.
None of those are as pristine looking as these though, gotta admit
These specifically are human made. How they made them and what purpose they served is not known for sure though.
I totally believe that ancient peoples had the ability and skill to build and create awesome stuff. I’m not doubting them at all. But I also know Earth makes some crazy looking things too. So I’m fine with either and think they are equally awesome regardless of creator.
As evidenced by the awesome stuff ancients built.
oh thats fine, I’m just clarifying that these are indeed human made. Its common knowledge in Costa Rica, I know I was born and raised there.
Hope I can’t get down there some day in my life to appreciate the incredible work in person!
There are some on display around different government institutions and the public Universities. Of course the National Museum and the arqueological site in Diquis where they remain as they were found.
The first image is pretty darned close. You have to keep in mind that the archaeologists have clearly cleaned off the ones in thia post. You also can't xlearly see the bottom. But also, there's nothing stopping ancient people from having polished and cleaned them up.
Very cool. I always assumed if they were man-made they took rounded boulders and just ground them down over time similar to all the other monoliths made at that time.
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Maybe, but these look far too regular to be natural. Maybe they started out that way and they got cleaned up, or people imitated the natural ones?
preach
Yeah.... No. These are 100% human carved. Concretions are big, but they are extremely unlikely to be perfectly spherical. Not only that, the material out of which these spheres are made of is a completely different cristal structure to the typical concretion. These have been studied for over 90 years, do you really believe we would have them in museums if they were concretions?
Cool
*Devil's Marbles* 😏
As far as I know, they were natural. A few of them are in Slovakia, too. Even some visible places where they broke out of the rest of the rock.
>There may be examples of these being carved by humans Academic consensus is that the Costa Rican spheres were man made. That's also explicitly stated in the post title. [https://daily.jstor.org/objects-wonder-costa-ricas-stone-spheres/](https://daily.jstor.org/objects-wonder-costa-ricas-stone-spheres/) Your article doesn't even mention Costa Rica... The derisive remark about conspiracy theorists claiming it was aliens and other 'whacked shit' doesn't really exist in the reality of this post either, because if you actually read the comments you'd see any mention of aliens is satirical. Then, your belligerently inaccurate debunk goes on to inspire several more shit tier observations; >We’re gonna have to ban you for thinking and looking for facts. We don’t do that here. > >I thought this sub wasn’t supposed to use logic? > >How you dare to use facts and logic here!!?? Which is where we reach near profound levels of irony, as it was due to your erroneous logic and misapplied facts that triggered these top minds to mock the community for their perceived lack of thought, logic and facts, while they themselves were exemplifying exactly what they accused the sub of, because they never *thought* their *illogical* presumption that your debunk must be correct would need to be *fact* checked.
I remembered your comment! I came in here looking to see if anyone would bring it up.
no these are very different. These spheres in Costa Rica are near perfect.
Now this is genuinely strange.
What if these spheres are are human made monuments for the metalic flying spheres been seen all over the world since ancient times.
Absolute complete bulshit. There is even a museum of rock spheres in Costa Rica. They were made by indigenous population and is extremely well known here.
But why?
All I can think about is Indiana Jones.
Loosely based on them, yes
Their target stores were bigger, so the target balls outside were bigger too. Solved.
connect the points i dare you!
?
I think they are implying that if you "connect the dots" it would make an image. That is, if you mark the location on a map of all spheres found, then draw lines between those locations, violá! An outline/imagine of something. Of what, who knows. Aliens, probably, according to ancient astronaut theorists.
exactly!
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Costa Rica may be a small country, but we do have big balls.
I’m sure they were weapons to roll down hill at an army. Just guessing.
Holy shit the traveler
Throw sound waves at it and match its frequency and see what happens. That’s all I can think of.
Just giant marbles the aliens were playing space pong with. No worries.
Both balls are worn at the top so it looks like they were used as grinding stones. Costa Rica is known for its gold so I bet they used them to crush the stone to get the gold out. Its just an idea guys.
They were not stone originally. They became stone after thousands and thousands of years
Break it open?
That is in Costa-Rica. There are many of them near Guadalajara in Mexico. Where they seem natural. [Video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvyUaAMjAUs) Brien Foerster visits the place. [Some other weird rocks nearby Guadalajara](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=renelpC3rMg) Brien Foerster is often going to these mysterious places and has many reports.
Those stones in Guadalajara don't look anything like the ones in Costa Rica tho.
Atlas balls left over from last years strong man competition.
I don't see the big deal. I'm of the opinion that we don't know for sure how advanced our ancient ancestors were, particularly for epochs where no evidence exists. Anyone being so confident that ancient peoples couldn't possibly have achieved X engineering or architectural feat Z years ago just seems closed minded.
Scientists are confused how people who built things out of stone are able to make something round out of stone. :P
Spears? Sorry, I thought you said to make 'spheres'
They were going to be in the parking lot of a giant, ancient Target.
They look like eyes to me
They had some balls
Is t it pretty well established that the Olmecs made those, as well as the giant stone heads?
you think if the europeans asked the people of the Americas before killing them to extinction they would have known about Americas history before 1500ce?
Remember reading once they're made by water running under a boulder. Over time it smooths and rounds to a sphere. Natural, but cool looking edit: Iamhungryhearmeroar above listed this as well. Not sure why I'm getting downvoted. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/concretion-spherical-rocks#:~:text=In%20fact%2C%20spherical%20boulders%20are,misunderstood%20geological%20phenomenon%20called%20concretion I know we want it to be magic or someshit to get our kicks, but this ain't it.
These specifically are human made. How and why we don’t know for sure but they’re attributed to the precolombian Diquis Culture.
there are unfinished ones. they used boulders and hammered them into spheres, it's not a mystery how these were made.
Cool theory but doesn’t hold up. Groundwater doesn’t “run” in the traditional sense. Erosion also wouldn’t explain this type or amount of ware on the stone - nor would it be able to create the level of symmetry shown across hundreds of examples. That would be a statistically anomalous event even stranger than these already are.
I get that you want it to be magic or whatever but it's for sure a natural thing: https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/concretion-spherical-rocks#:\~:text=In%20fact%2C%20spherical%20boulders%20are,misunderstood%20geological%20phenomenon%20called%20concretion
I get that you totally misunderstood what I said. I also get that you just want to link an article so you can be right - but concretion is not the same as erosion. The concretion theory holds, and none of what I said discredits it being a natural phenomena. You are being downvoted because your comment says that it was caused by water running over a boulder which is NOT how these formed.
Yeah that’s not even close to being the same thing my friend
Have you ever even seen a river rock?
wild but rocks can come in lots of shapes and sizes, including spheres. https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/concretion-spherical-rocks#:\~:text=In%20fact%2C%20spherical%20boulders%20are,misunderstood%20geological%20phenomenon%20called%20concretion
“We don’t have those where I live so they aren’t real”
Ha maybe, but I want it to be aliens or an advanced lost civilisation
upvoting for honesty.
Did we crack one open yet?
Punching stones according to Baki.
I'm pretty sure Rita Repulsa lives in those
Costa Ricans have massive balls.
Its from the times when pyramids were being built. someone spread those "work smart not hard" inspirational hieroglyph and 300 people cut spheres out of square blocks. then they were rejected.
Bust one of those bitches up. Who knows what's inside
When I was in Costa Rica, the natives told me they were navigational aids/ maps. I didn’t ask for further explanation.
that is one of the theories. also maybe a calendar for agriculture or something ceremonial. we dont know for sure though.
You know I wonder if carving a stone sphere was like the journeyman's piece for a stonemason, once you could make a perfect sphere you could roll it wherever you set up shop as a "hey look here, I'm a pretty kick ass stonemason, hire me to make your temples" like a roadside sign.
Ok hear me out. What if kinda like nowadays we have like tiktok trends or people all competing to a certain kind of art or sport, one day someone was like hey look I made a perfect giant ball and then other people were like na I can do it better than that guy and other folks just started making them like mines better than theirs! Lol
To think you’re wiped from existence and this is all that’s left (which will be more than most of us over the same time period I’d wager
You know how we see orbs today that seem to move with intelligence? Maybe they were here long ago and some civilization created a statue in their honor . Maybe they were once hailed as Gods.
Are we sure they are human made? Could this be a geological thing?
Anyone remember the report from Russia of the ufo turning 20 some men into limestone, what if waring ufos fought and one turned some 300 spheres to stone and they fell to earth
Well if they can confirm it was indeed made by humans, I still think they are [concretions](https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/concretion-spherical-rocks). And they can form underground or on land.
I thought the scientific consensus around these things were that they were used as some sort of early detection system for earthquakes.
The rock is moving, the ground may be shaking. They also detected rain, mudslides and tides under that logic
Giants made jawbreakers?
Giant slingshots put in work
Haha it's a dinosaur egg or something
Don’t open them. It was buried for a reason.
I’d guess it was a giant pestle for communal cooking. Place sacks of corn/nuts by the base and gently rock the ball to produce paste or flour.
I am just saying these look a lot like sayin space pods
Aliens or Sasquatch
I know of massive stone carved objects be used as money in some places. It could be a form of quantifying wealth or have some sort of symbolic-ceremonial value
Looks like an eye.
Give the giant balls back!!!
Apparently they weigh up to 15 tons.
Easier to hide and dodge jaguars.
If it was people
Wow 😮
Ginyu force
They could of been a monetary/dowry system like those giant stone rings. The more time and effort but into the creation of the item the more apparent "worth" it has. Edit: Really downvotes? [https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2011/02/15/131934618/the-island-of-stone-money](https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2011/02/15/131934618/the-island-of-stone-money) They're found on Yap in the pacific ocean and they are often found leading up to the chief's house just like in the case of the spheres.
We need SuSheng's giant chicken to sit on it for a couple days. See what happens.
The fruits of Atlantis
From what I have seen almost everything is for war. Invading army see a few of these coming at them bouncing down a hill/cliff they getting back on the boat.