The Artifact: Costa Rica’s Stone Spheres
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Peace to the planet. I go by the name of Charlemagne Tha God. And guess what? I can't wait to see y'all at the third annual Black Effect Podcast Festival. That's right. We're coming back to Atlanta, Georgia, Saturday, April 26th at Pullman Yards. And it's hosted by none other than Decisions Decisions, Mandy B, and Weezy. Okay, we got...

The R&B Money Podcast with Tank and J. Valentine. We got the Woman Evolved Podcast with Sarah J. Roberts. The Funky Friday Podcast with Cam Newton. The Naked Sports Podcast with Carrie Champion. Good Mom's Bad Choices Podcast. The Trap Nerd Podcast. And many more will be on that stage live. And of course, it's bigger than podcasts. We're bringing the Black Effect Marketplace with Black-owned businesses. Plus...

the food truck court to keep you fed while you visit us, all right? Listen, you don't want to miss this. Tap in and grab your tickets now at blackeffect.com slash podcast festival. Proudly sponsored by Nissan. Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio. Hi, my name is Robert Lamb, and this is The Artifact, a short-form series from Stuff to Blow Your Mind focusing on particular objects, ideas, and moments in time.

During the 1930s, the United Fruit Company worked to clear additional Costa Rican jungle for new banana crops. And in doing so, they stumbled upon an enduring mystery: stone spheres. Ultimately ranging in diameter from six inches to eight feet,

reaching weights of up to 15 tons. In time, more than 300 of these petrospheres were discovered, all pre-Columbian in origin, the work of the Dicas people, and found primarily in the Dicas Delta of southwestern Costa Rica. The Dicas people flourished in this region from roughly 700 to 1530 CE.

As pointed out by Mark Milligan in a 2021 article for Heritage Daily, The Mysterious Stone Spheres of Costa Rica, 16th century Spanish invaders seemingly made no mention of the artifacts. The cascading devastation, disease, colonization, and war brought on by Europeans seemingly erased any knowledge of their purpose, and the artifacts were forgotten for centuries, hidden under thick layers of sediment, but also protected.

Since their rediscovery, the spheres have become iconic artifacts of pre-Columbian Costa Rica, with examples found in the country's own National Museum, which I've had the privilege of visiting, and other museums around the world. As explored in James Doyle's A Stone Sphere from Costa Rica for the Met, as well as the Denver Art Museum's online catalog, the spheres are composed of igneous rocks common to the area, carefully and painstakingly worked into spheres and polished with sand.

Furthermore, we know the stones were often positioned in places rather far from the suspected source stone sites, though no quarries or workshops have ever been found. Exact arrangements of the stones vary, from straight lines to geometric patterns, some seeming to stand as works of public art or boundary markers of some sort.

Without any surviving myths or narratives about the stones, we're left to speculate possible astronomical or celestial importance, perhaps related to solar or lunar observations. But Doyle stresses that such is the artistry of their construction, they surely served as prestige objects for the Deca's people, perhaps signifying the dwellings of the social elite.

Beyond that, the stones might have served varying purposes for the conveyance of religious information or even as a way to keep track of the agricultural calendar in some manner.

The ancient Dekas people left other artifacts behind as well, elaborate metal objects such as decorative pendants and stone platforms. They were hunters and fishermen, in addition to expert stone and metal workers. But again, perhaps already in decline before the arrival of Europeans, the secret of their spheres was truly lost in the ensuing destruction. In 2014, UNESCO named four sites featuring the stones to its World Heritage List.

Tune in for additional episodes of The Artifact, The Monster Fact, or Animalia Stupendium each week. As always, you can email us at contact at stufftoblowyourmind.com. Stuff to Blow Your Mind is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app. Apple Podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

Peace to the planet. I go by the name of Charlemagne Tha God. And guess what? I can't wait to see y'all at the third annual Black Effect Podcast Festival. That's right. We're coming back to Atlanta, Georgia, Saturday, April 26th at Pullman Yards. And it's hosted by none other than Decisions Decisions, Mandy B and Wheezy. Okay, we got the R&B Money Podcast with Tank and J. Valentine.

We got the Woman of All podcast with Sarah Jake Roberts, the Funky Friday podcast with Cam Newton, the Naked Sports podcast with Carrie Champion, Good Mom's Bad Choices podcast, the Trap Nerd podcast, and many more will be on that stage live. And of course, it's bigger than podcasts. We're bringing the Black Effect marketplace with Black-owned businesses, plus...

the food truck court to keep you fed while you visit us. All right, listen, you don't want to miss this. Tap in and grab your tickets now at black effect.com slash podcast festival. Proudly sponsored by Nissan.