The Stone Spheres
of Costa Rica, 1
of Costa Rica, 1
Vocabulary
| globe | designate | treasure (2) |
| place | heritage | consulate |
| perfect | mystery | appear (2) |
| world | sphere (2) | archaeology |
| select | protect | committee |
| unique | maintain | choose/chose/chosen |
| delta | collection | significance |
| hope | mestizo | generation |
| solve | range (2) | archaeologist |
| half | purpose | to come (2) |
| veil | being (2) | rise/rose/risen |
| unveil | midday | zenith (2) |
| mid | long time | record (3) |
| sheer | rest (3) | hide/hid/hidden |
| size | date (3) | large/larger/largest |
| weigh | strange | speculation |
| origin | location | bury/buried |
| alien | pottery | pre-Columbian |
| lost | point (2) | settlement |
| arrive | preserve | approximately |
| hand | sculpture | complexity |
| wheel | move (2) | handmade |
| invest | lever (2) | indigenous |
| effort | bridge (2) | find/found/found |
| push | clear (2) | grow/grew/grown (2) |
| swath | percent | search (2) |
| jungle | remain | line up (2)line up (2) |
| tribe | embassy | descendant |
| create | site (2) | strange/stranger/strangest |
| pre- | recognize | UNESCO World Heritage Site |
Video
Transcript
News Anchor, Female: The world’s global treasures: There are more than a thousand places designated as UNESCO World Heritage Sites.
News Anchor, Male: “Today, we visit one of the strangest mysteries in all of archaeology: the stone spheres of Costa Rica. Here’s Jonathan Mann.
Since 1972, the UN’s World Heritage Committee has been selecting unique sites, hoping to protect and maintain them for generations to come.
UNESCO unveiled its latest World Heritage list. Last year, with 26 new sites around the globe chosen for their cultural significance and natural beauty.
In the Diquis Delta of southern Costa Rica lies a unique collection of stone spheres. Archaeologist Ifigenia Quintanilla has been trying to solve the stone spheres mystery for nearly half her life.
One of Quintanilla’s most important discoveries was here at a site called Finca 6, where twice a year, a set of buried spheres line up perfectly with the rising sun.
Ifigenia Quintanilla, Archaeologist: “On the same day they line up with the sun at midday, the sun is at its zenith. This is very important because it appears that they were recording the dates using the spheres.”
Hidden away in forests or resting on mountaintops are more than 300 spheres. They come in all sizes: the largest at two and a half meters and weighing almost 20 tons.
Although speculation on the origin of these strange stones has ranged from alien beings to the lost city of Atlantis, pottery dug up near the spheres points to an early settlement dating to approximately 800 A.D., long before the Spanish arrived in the Americas.
Despite the sheer size and complexity of these handmade sculptures, the people who created them did not have wheels or animals to move them.
Ifigenia Quintanilla, Archaeologist: “What’s significant is how these indigenous people were able to invest so much effort not only in pushing but in creating levers and roads, bridges, and boats, and finding all the ways possible to transport them to their intended places.”
The stone spheres were first discovered in 1939 when the United Fruit Company started clearing large swaths of jungle to grow bananas in Costa Rica.
Today, only about 10 percent of the stones remain in their original location. Some have been moved to government buildings or public parks; there’s even one in front of the Costa Rican embassy in Washington.
While many questions remain about the original purpose of the stones, archaeologists know they are not searching for a lost tribe. The indigenous communities still living near the spheres are the direct descendants of the people who created them.
Francisco Corrales, Director, National Museum of Costa Rica: “It has taken a long time to recognize the importance of the pre-Columbian past, to recognize that we are a mestizo culture, and this process is helping to preserve and to understand the archaeological sites.”
Questions
The Pyramids of Egypt. The Stone Spheres of Costa Rica are largely unknown to the outside world. True or false?
Machu Picchu. Are there only a few UNESCO World Heritage Sites?
Pyramid of the Sun, Mexico. Are the stone spheres of Costa Rica strictly a geological and aesthetic phenomena?
Moai, Easter Island. All the stone spheres are exactly the same size and weight. Is this right or wrong? Do they vary in geometric shape?
Stonehenge, England. Do scholars know exactly why and how the stone spheres were made?
Chichen Itza, Mexico. Is the only mystery how and why the stone spheres were constructed?
Baalbek, Lebanon. Do Costa Ricans only care about their Hispanice heritage?
Sacsayhuaman, Peru. I have heard of the Stone Spheres of Costa Rica. Yes or no?
Angkor Wat, Cambodia. How and why do you think the stone spheres were made?
Kailasa Temple at Ellora, India . What megalithic or monumental places do you know of?
Borodudur, Indonesia. Have you visited or seen any great or mysterious sites? What great or phenomenal places would you like to visit?
Ġgantija Temples, Malta. What might happen in the future?
Gobekli Tepe, Turkey. What could or should people, businesses and governments do?
