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Tag: Stone spheres

Diquís spheres to be declared UNESCO World Heritage site

Diquís spheres to be declared UNESCO World Heritage site — The Tico Times.

Pre-Columbian spheres of Costa Rica

Finca 6 in Palmar Norte is one of the four archeological sites in the Osa municipality in Costa Rica’s south Pacific that will be added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The decision was finalized early this Pre Columbian stone spheres costa ricamorning during a meeting of the World Heritage Comittee in Qatar. The four spots — Finca 6, Grijalba 2, Batambal and El Silencio — are home to Costa Rica’s largest collections of pre-Colombian stone spheres, knows as the Diquís spheres. Discovered in the 1930s by the United Fruit Company, the spheres orgins and purpose have remained a mystery to archealogists for decades.

Lindsay Fendt/The Tico Times

From The Developer:

For anyone who has visited Costa Rica’s Osa region (Southern Pacific) it is likely that they saw at least a couple of pre-Columbian spheres of Costa Rica. What is less known, is that these spheres are only originally found in the Osa region. If you see a Pre-Columbian spheres of Costa Rica outside of the Osa region, it is completely out of place and has obviously been moved.

When these spheres were first discovered many were destroyed by those who found them as they were rumored to have gold in the center of them. There are fewer than twenty known spheres that have not been moved or disturbed from their original placement by some long gone indigenous group.

Finca 6 is only twenty minutes from Las Villas de San Buenas. We provide directions to our guests and clients. Contact us for more information.

More Info on Costa Rican Mystery Spheres

Original: http://www.ticotimes.net/daily_paid/dailynewsarchive/2010_08/081810.htm#story5

Ifigenia Quintanilla will shine some light on one of Costa Rica’s oddest mysteries Wednesday.

In the 1940s, hundreds of pre-Columbian stone spheres were discovered throughout the Southern region of Costa Rica and in the north of Panama. The creation of these almost perfectly round spheres and their purpose remains a mystery to archaeologists.

Quintanilla, a Costa Rican archaeologist who has studied the mysterious monoliths for 17 years, will explain what researchers know about these artifacts and what makes them so impressive at 3 p.m. on Wednesday at the Hotel Casa Roland in Rohrmoser, in western San José. The presentation is sponsored by the Costa Rican Association of Tourism Professionals (Acoprot).

“We have known about the existence of the spheres for many years,” said Patricia Duar, executive director of Acoprot. “But very few of us really know why they are there or their meaning.”

Quintanilla is one of the most knowledgeable experts on these stones. She’s researched for them for two decades and even wrote a book on the mystery called “Esferas Precolombinas de Costa Rica” (Pre-Columbian spheres of Costa Rica ).

The spheres can be as small several centimeters in diameter to massive 15-ton boulders. But all of them have an uncanny spherical shape. Some of the spheres have symbols sculpted on them.

Costa Rica stone sphere
Brent W. "tries" to push an ancient sphere in Palmar Sur's Central Park

In March, Costa Rica presented a bid to have the spheres included by th e United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on the list of World Heritage sites. Cultural or natural sites or monuments can make the list if UNESCO deems them to have “outstanding universal value,” according to the Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (TT, March 15 ).

To reserve a seat at the conference send an e-mail to Mónica Monge at[email protected] or call Acoprot at 2280-5375. Admission is free.

What: Ifigenia Quintanilla on the Mystery of Costa Rica’s pre-Colombian stone spheres
Where: Hotel Casa Roland, Rohmoser
When: 3 p.m.
Cost: Free

NOTE from Nick Halverson

Costa Rica stone sphere
Nick H. at Osa Municipality Building

These spheres are found throughout the entire southern pacific region of Costa Rica – especially in Palmar Sur. Palmar Sur’s “Central Park” has approximately 30 of the spheres – all at least one meter in diameter. It is not unusual to see these spheres in front of homes and restaurants in  Uvita, Ojochal, San Isidro del General and Palmar Sur/Palmar Norte.

The closest spheres to residents of The Village of San Buenas is at the municipality building in Cortez. Simply take a right at the fork in the road at the hospital turn off. Go straight approximately 2 km and the Osa Municipality building will be on your right.