Lore Lindu, a vast forested area on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, hides many secrets. In these places there are birds that laugh like people, and primates are only 20 cm tall. And there are also ancient granite sculptures, the origin of which is still a mystery. Nobody knows who cut them, when and for what purpose.
For a long time, the existence and location of stone structures was not formally registered. It was only in 2001 that an expedition from the American Geographical Society helped Indonesians discover and register architectural creations of antiquity.
So far, more than 400 statues with a height of 10 cm to 4.5 m have been found in the park and in the immediate vicinity. Among them, about 30 have the outlines of a human figure. Some of them are thrown into the river, their massive faces and unblinking eyes covered with mud and leaves blown by the wind. Others stand forgotten in rice fields, hidden by tall grasses.
Locals believe that one of the statues, nicknamed Tokalae, is believed to be a rapist turned into stone. Another statue, named Tadulako, is the headman of the village, who became an idol after stealing public rice.
Megalith "Palindo"
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Megaliths range in size from a few centimeters to 4.5 meters. Various archaeological studies date these finds between 3000 BC and 1300 AD.
All the statues have large heads, round eyes, straight bodies, and no legs. A separate line marks the eyebrows, cheeks and chin at the same time. Some statues have enlarged genitals. Many stand alone, some huddled in pairs or even small groups.
Megalith "Tadulako"
Among the figures were found large urns, the so-called Kalamba, which could have been used as artfully made coffins or water cisterns.
Unused for centuries, many of the broken kalamba are now filled with delicate white flowers. Nearby are cracked stone fragments, which may have been used to grind food, and low stone tables that were once altars.
The original purpose of creating idols is still a mystery. They may be associated with a culture that existed 2,000 years ago in Laos, Cambodia and the islands of Indonesia, but no tools or other traces of the society that built them have been found here.
“We cannot explain,” says the American archaeologist Edward Pollard, “why these statues were carved, because we cannot find any other analogs for them on our planet. We cannot determine which culture these stone sculptures belong to. At least they were created a very long time ago, long before the first chronicles appeared."