Another mystery of nature, which was named the balls that the gods played.
In the 40s of the last century, an amazing discovery was made in the dense thickets of Costa Rica. The peasants who worked in the clearing of the wild tropical jungle for planting banana plantations, suddenly accidentally came across colossal boulders of absolutely regular spherical shape. Found stone balls were of various sizes from very small to gigantic. The largest dimensions reached three meters in diameter and weighed almost 16 tons. The small ones were only about ten centimeters in diameter. In addition, the arrangement of the balls was also varied - from single specimens to whole groups of three to fifty pieces. The balls in groups formed certain geometric shapes.
But such a find was made not only in America. Already in the 60s, the same balls were found in the mines in the Mexican silver mines, but they were much larger than the American ones. After some time, in Guatemala, at an altitude of 2000 m, archaeologists found hundreds of such mysterious stone balls.
Since then, similar unusual balls have also been discovered in Los Alamos and New Mexico, New Zealand, Germany, Romania, Brazil, Egypt, Kazakhstan and Franz Josef Land.
And for almost seventy years now, archaeologists have wanted to find out the origin of these mysterious stone balls.
Doris Stone was the first to try to investigate the mysterious balls during their discovery back in 1943.
Promotional video:
In 1948. archaeologist Samuel Lothrop has done major field exploration of the balls. Based on the results of his research, he published a work that contained maps of all the places in which the balls were found, detailed descriptions of all objects around the balls, the results of all measurements, as well as a lot of photographs and drawings of the balls.
In the 1980s, research and excavation was continued by Robert Drolet.
But the most famous study of stone balls was the field work carried out by the archaeologist Iphigenia Quintanilla 1990-1995. She managed to unearth some of the balls in their original intact state.
One of the main questions of scientific discussions is the question of whether these are natural objects or man-made ones. Some geologists believe that the balls are of natural origin. They attribute their appearance to volcanic activity. This theory says that after a volcanic eruption, volcanic magma rises into the air, and then settles in the form of balls on hot ash, which, after cooling, form spheres.
The following theory says that the balls were made of granite blocks, which were piled on the bottom of special holes dug under the waterfall. And thus, a huge stream of falling water gradually polished the boulders to an ideal spherical shape.
However, in contrast to these theories, geologists say that a ball can acquire an ideal shape only if the magma crystallizes evenly in all directions. They assume that the balls could have come to the surface on their own as a result of weathering.
However, no matter what hypotheses and assumptions geologists put forward, this miracle of nature has not yet received a final clue.
First, no one can explain the origin of these stone balls. Secondly, it is not clear who and for what purpose arranged them in the form of correct figures. Third, although most of these balls are probably of natural origin, some of them still have distinct traces of grinding and leveling.
Archaeologists, in contrast to geologists, suggest that the stone balls are of artificial origin.
Almost all spheres are made from the hard lava rock of the local foothills. Some are made of a hard, limestone-like material that is formed from sand and shells in coastal sediments.
Archaeologists believe that the balls were made in several stages by processing round stone blocks. The first stage in the treatment of boulders was alternating strong heating and cooling, after which the outer part of the boulder fell off itself, like cabbage leaves. The material from which the balls were made still shows remnants of extreme temperature changes. And the second stage was processing with solid stone tools in order to give the balls a perfect spherical shape. And the final step was polishing the balls to a shine.
Eyewitnesses say that the mysterious balls have an almost perfect spherical shape. The error is almost a few millimeters.
However, it is difficult to believe in this, since no one has ever made measurements with such a degree of accuracy. Possible measurements showed that small balls, 60cm to 1 meter in diameter, had an error of 2.5cm to 5cm. However, the large balls amazed the researchers with their perfect form. Measurements of their diameters showed practically no difference. The error was really millimeter.
Another unsolved mystery is the sculptors who sculpted these balls. Who created these strange spheres and why. Archaeologists suggest that the balls were carved in two periods. Several balls were made in the first period 100-500. B. C. But most of them were created in the second period - 800-1500. AD
But all the same, these assumptions do not explain in any way the purpose of these balls.
According to one of the extraordinary theories, the balls were created by representatives of some very ancient highly developed culture. They were used as antennas for the worldwide power grid. But such a theory does not have any concrete evidence and therefore is rather a fairy tale or myth.
And in principle, until now, no one knows for sure what exactly the stone balls were made for. During the first Spanish conquests, no one was interested in these balls and did not make them, and only in the 1940s they were rediscovered. According to some assumptions of archaeologists, the mysterious balls were a symbol of the power and secret knowledge of some noble people. Others believe that they were some kind of boundary marks. There is also an opinion that the very difficult and exhausting production and movement of these balls in itself was already some kind of important religious ritual or process.
Most likely, in its entire history of existence, and this is said about 12 thousand years, stone balls were used for a variety of purposes that have changed over time.
It was already noted above that most of the mysterious balls were located in some incomprehensible groups. Some groups were straight or curved lines, others were triangles, and others were parallelograms. One group of four balls was a straight line pointing to magnetic north. This fact immediately gave rise to the assumption that the balls were made and located by people who knew how to use magnetic compasses and knew astronomy. Another hypothesis was born, according to which the groups of balls were navigation devices that indicated directions to Stonehenge and Easter Island.
There is a version that the stone spheres in groups are located in the form of celestial constellations, so some see in these balls some kind of observatory or planetarium. But all of these versions look more fantastic than real.
Researchers found some groups of balls on the tops of any mounds. This gave rise to the hypothesis that the balls were kept inside some kind of buildings built on top of the embankments.
But in our time, most of these groups are almost completely destroyed. Almost all of the balls found were moved from their original locations during agricultural work. And this ruined all data on their archaeological ties and groups. Some of the balloons were blown up by local residents in the process of searching for treasures. According to ancient legends, gold is hidden in the balls. Some balls were thrown into ravines and gorges and even into the sea.
Nowadays, almost all balls are used as decorations on lawns. Or maybe in ancient times people also used some spheres for the same purposes? Unknown!
It is incomprehensible to modern researchers and how the ancient people moved these balls and blocks for their manufacture for more than a dozen kilometers through swamps and impenetrable tropical forests.
In short, there are a lot of questions, but there are no answers yet.