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... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 52: Jul-Aug 1987 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Costa rica's neglected stone spheres Books and articles on Stonehenge, the Easter Island statues, and the Egyptian pyramids are legion. Granted that these structures are important and intriguing, we still ask why Costa Rica's meticulously wrought stone spheres are languishing in the wings of science. They epitomize exquisite workmanship. Such geometric perfection rendered in granite is remarkable-- -for any ancient culture. Lastly, the stones' purpose completely escapes us. Why strew such masterpieces of stoneworking around and even buried under the dark jungle floors? M.T . Shoemaker also wonders about these things in a nice recapitulation of the stone-sphere mystery ... His compilation of facts and figures only impels us to learn more about the spheres and what their shapers had in mind. The spheres are found on the Diquis River delta, near the Pacific coast of southern Costa Rica. Stone-sphere sizes range from an inch to 8 feet in diameter. At least 186 spheres have been recorded in the literature. Surely many more were destroyed and other remain undiscovered. No local source exists for the granite; and no stone-working tools have been found near the spheres. "The best spheres are perhaps the finest examples of precision stonecarving in the ancient world." The maximum circumference error in a 6-foot, 7-inch diametre sphere in only 0.5 inch, or 0.2 %. The spheres are often grouped, ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 1116 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf052/sf052a01.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 127: Jan-Feb 2000 Issue Contents Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Natural Stone Spheres Whenever we see nearly perfectly wrought stone spheres in natural settings, we usually jump to the conclusion that they have been shaped by human hands. We assume that natural forces are too erratic to sculpt such neat geometrical solids. This stance is sometimes justified, as confirmed by the hundreds of precisely executed stone spheres found in the jungles of Costa Rica. Nature herself, however, is often an expert craftswoman. Some concretions are beautifically spherical, so are some spheres fashioned in volcanic calderas. In Utah, though, southeast of Cleveland, in a formation called the Molen Reef, there are literally millions of stone spheres of more ... origin. E. Hansen described these in a recent issue of the Ancient American. "The spheres range in size from as small as a baseball to over 10 feet in diameter. The bigger ones are more perfectly round than smaller examples. After a lifetime of trying to form a theory of how these were formed, I can only throw up my hands in surrender! They are clearly formed as mud on a lake bottom, because when two touch, one will indent the other, or both will be equally distorted. The mud simply hardened over time into sandstone." (Hansen, Evan; "Stone Spheres of the American West," Ancient American, no. 29, p. 31, 1999.) Comment. Smaller lithified "mudballs" (usually under 1- ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 735 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf127/sf127p13.htm
... World Dwarfs Samurai Origin Whites in Polynesia Melungeon Origin Maoiri Origin Pre-Maori New Zealanders Polynesians in South America Long-Ears on Easter Island, the Maldives, and Elsewhere Whites in the Maldives Beothucks: Norse in Newfoundland? White Inca Aristocracy Toltecs: Carthaginian Origin? Basque Origin Sea Peoples Origin Berbers with Blond Hair, Blue Eyes White Pygmies in Paraguay Guanche Origin Blacks in America [MGT, Olmec Stone Heads] Titans: Who Were They? MAC CUSTOMS, GAMES Similarity of Jewish and Zulu Customs Asian Customs in Central and North America Polynesia (Maori) Customs in South and Central America Neanderthal Burials Money-Cowrie in New World Chinese Customs of the Maya Aztec Backgammon Africans in South America Board-Game diffusion MAD BIOCHEMISTRY Maori Blood-Group Anomalies Blood Types and Diffusion: Global Anomalies Zuni Blood ... Symbols Hindu Motifs in America Hindu Motifs in Indonesia Chinese Motifs in America [MGP] Mexican Sellos Kekip Sesonator Apparent Symbols on Ancient Strata [MGW] Fingerprint Markings Freemason Signs in Anomalous Places Lakin Tablets Spirals African Motifs Worldwide Japanese Symbols Worldwide Inscribed Tokens Pedra Pintada Symbols Old World Motifs in Northeastern North America (Eskimos, etc.) MGT STATUES, CARVINGS, SEALS Crystal Skulls Sphinx Easter Island Statues Carved Spheres [MSO] Chinese Carvings in America Egyptian Carvings in Australia Acambaro Figurines Mastadon and Elephant Carvings in Anomalous Places Nampa Image Olmec Heads Chinese Seals in Ireland Jade Objects in America Fossil Man of Onodaga (Hoax) Gorilla Carvings in Mesoamerica Ape Carvings in North America Unexpected Faces in America Burrows Cave Artifacts Maize Carvings in India Hooded Snake in America Serpent Sculpture Worldwide Australian Head Carving in cave Crespi Collection Engraved ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 511 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /cat-arch.htm
... literature. Typical subjects covered: Ancient Florida canals * The Maltese "cart tracks" * New England earthworks * Ancient coins in America * Ancient Greek analog computer * Inscriptions and tablets in unexpected places * The great ruins at Tiahuanaco * Zimbabwe and Dhlo-dhlo * Huge spheres in Costa Rica * The Great Wall of Peru * Ancient batteries and lenses * Mysterious walls everywhere * Pacific megalithicsites * European stone circles and forts * [Picture caption: Scottish carved stones from circa 1000 B.C . Comments from reviews ". .. a useful reference in undergraduate, public, and high school libraries", Booklist. 792 pages, hardcover, $23.95, 240 illustrations, index. 1978 references. LC 77-99243, ISBN 915554-03-8 , 6x9forrnat. Ancient ... longer available. Now in its third printiing, our archeology Handbook reproduces hundreds of items from the difficult-to-obtain archeological literature. Typical subjects covered: Ancient Florida canals * The Maltese "cart tracks" * New England earthworks * Ancient coins in America * Ancient Greek analog computer * Inscriptions and tablets in unexpected places * The great ruins at Tiahuanaco * Zimbabwe and Dhlo-dhlo * Huge spheres in Costa Rica * The Great Wall of Peru * Ancient batteries and lenses * Mysterious walls everywhere * Pacific megalithicsites * European stone circles and forts * [Picture caption: Scottish carved stones from circa 1000 B.C . Comments from reviews ". .. a useful reference in undergraduate, public, and high school libraries", Booklist. 792 pages, hardcover, $23.95 ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 386 - 10 Oct 2021 - URL: /sourcebk.htm
... No. 127: Jan-Feb 2000 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology The great hopewell road Paradigm quake: the solutreans were here first! A FAR-WANDERING TRIBE? Astronomy Nuclear bombs will not save the earth! Aristarchus blushes for clementine Shadow dance of the gnats What's cooking on europa? Biology Ants like microwaves Stoned dogs Some funny things happened on the way around the world Throat-singing Traitors within Geology Do continents really drift? Natural stone spheres Geophysics The strange case of angled lines in the atmosphere Black auroras Psychology Our filtered brains Mathematics Some magic squares are more magical than others ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 328 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf127/index.htm
... Frost, sinks the Land of Fu Sang legend by relating how Gustaaf Schlegel showed in 1892 that the ancient Chinese mapmakers knew perfectly well that Fusan was actually an island just off the northeast Asian coast. Next, Frost tells how a recent attempt to duplicate the voyage from China to America in a Chinese junk riding the Kuroshio Current was a dismal failure. If so, then, how about those stone anchors found in shallow waters off Palos Verdes, California? They are legitimate Chinese anchors all right, but they are modern, having been lost by local California fishermen of Chinese extraction. History tells how Chinese immigrants quickly applied the techniques of their native land to the California Coast. Finally, Frost does identify some genuine unsolved mysteries off Palos Verdes. It seems that some of the stones found ... are most curious indeed. Near where the stone anchors were found are two grooved columnar stones over a meter long with drilled holes. There is also a ton-sized stone sphere with a groove around its circumference. (Frost, Frank J.; "The Palos Verdes Chinese Anchor Mystery," Archaeology, 35:23, January/February 1982.) From Science Frontiers #21, MAY-JUN 1982 . 1982-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 312 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf021/sf021p03.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 52: Jul-Aug 1987 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Costa rica's neglected stone spheres The calico debate, plus a little editorializing Astronomy Small icy comets and cosmic gaia Carbon in a new comet Meteorites also transport organic payloads Supernova confusion and mysteries "COMPACT STRUCTURES": WHAT NEXT? Biology Nose news Checklist of apparently unknown animals New vertebrate depth record Aggressive mimicry Parasites control snail behavior Geology Do large meteors/comets come in cycles? Complexities of the inner earth Geophysics Concentrated source of lightning in cloud More carolina waterguns More moodus sounds Inside a texas tornado Ship enveloped by false radar echo Psychology Dowsing skeptics converted Do dreams reflect a biological state? ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 294 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf052/index.htm
... This Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Heads Down!S. Breiner wields a magnetometer when he searches for Olmec artifacts. This instrument allows him to detect buried objects, and he has made some surprising discoveries. The Olmecs flourished circa 1,500-400 B.C . in Mexican states of Vera Cruz, Oaxaca, and surrounding areas. This enigmatic culture is probably best known for the giant stone heads they carved out of hard rock. These massive heads, 8-15 feet high, seem to display African features. Breiner has found two of the 17 known heads. The most interesting one weighed 10 tons and was buried 18 feet deep! Why would a thriving culture bury the product of so much intensive labor? (Robinson, Dave; NEARA Transit, 11:12, ... equinox 1999. Item attributed to New York Times, May 26, 1998.) Comment. The burial of the Olmec head might have had ritual significance, like the ritual smashing of pottery or the sacrificing of animals. Be this as it may, we wish to connect the Olmec heads with the large stone spheres found in Costa Rica, just a few hundred miles down the Pacific Coast. The Costa Rican spheres are also beautifully and laboriously crafted from hard rock. Many are several feet in diameter. The curious part is that many of them were also buried in the jungle soil like the Olmec heads. They were exhumed only when banana plantations were established. Giant Olmec head (San Lorenzo I) From Science Frontiers #123, MAY-JUN 1999 . 1999-2000 William R ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 294 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf123/sf123p02.htm
... to sea. Pottery found near the figure has been carbondated at 200 BC and is assignable to the Paracas Culture. Separated by 130 miles from the Nazca Plain, with its famed giant figures, the Candelabra apparently is not the work of the Nazca people. It is puzzling why that such a figure would be placed where it could be seen best by sailors. As with Costa Rica's stone spheres, the Candelabra's makers, purpose, and symbology are in doubt. The Pisco geoglyph really doesn't match the motifs in our books on South American archeology. Some archeologists say it is only a trident, but who ever saw a trident like this? F. Joseph, the author of the present article, thinks it looks like a Jimson weed! Furthermore, he ... that there is a miniature version of the Candelabra drawn on a rock in California's Cleveland National Forest. Joseph associates the two candelabras in this way: The ancient inhabitants of Peru voyaged to California to collect Jimson weed and other hallucinatory drugs. When they sailed back to Peru with their cargo, they used the Pisco geoglyph as a navigational aid! (Joseph, Frank; "The Candelabra of the Andes," The Ancient American , 2:10, no. 10, 1995.) From Science Frontiers #102 Nov-Dec 1995 . 1995-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 283 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf102/sf102a02.htm
... were apparently sealed in hollow clay spheres to make bills of lading as early as 8,500 B.C . This is 5,000 years before two-dimensional clay tablets were introduced for writing. (Anonymous; "From Reckoning to Writing," Scientific American, p. 58, August 1977.) Comment. These clay symbols might be related to the painted pebbles and small carved stone balls found in Europe. From Science Frontiers #1 , September 1977 . 1977-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 282 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf001/sf001p01.htm
... than when inside a hollow sphere, contrary to what Einstein maintained in his General Relativity. (Seife, Charles; "Einstein in Free Fall," New Scientist, p. 11, June 13, 1998.) Comment. Like the princess who felt the pea beneath her pile of matresses, this tiny quantum mechanical effect, if experimentally verified, could undercut Relativity, which is a foundation stone of our modern philosophical outlook. Bizarre as many predictions of quantum mechanics are, they are usually verified experimentally. From Science Frontiers #119, SEP-OCT 1998 . 1998-2000 William R. Corliss ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 273 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf119/sf119p03.htm
... Science Frontiers ONLINE No. 32: Mar-Apr 1984 Other pages Home Page Science Frontiers Online All Issues Last Issue Next Issue Sourcebook Project Sourcebook Subjects Contents Archaeology Two Remarkable Inscribed Stones Astronomy Thou Canst Not Stir A Flower, Without Troubling of A Star Natural Laser Beacons A Mysterious Object Biology Subtle is the Virus An Ocean Full of Viruses An Even Larger Ocean of Life Spores Still Viable After 7,000 Years Animals As Nutrient Carriers Geology Terranes Continue to Pile Up Grand Canyon Shamed Again When the Earth Shifted Gears The Oklo Phenomenon and Evolution Earth's Magnetic Field Jerks Osmium Isotopes Support Meteoric Impact Geophysics Incredible Phosphorescent Display on the China Sea Ball Lightning Splits and Recombines Inside Soviet Airliner Booms Startle Arkansas Psychology Mental Deflection of Cascading Spheres What Makes A Calculating Prodigy? False Pregnancies in Males Unclassified The ... Great Silence'; Or Why Aren't Aliens Landing on the White House Lawn? ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 272 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf032/index.htm
... geoglyphs, however, remain mysterious. (McClintock, Jack; "The Nasca Lines Solution," Discover, 21:74, December 2000.) Comments. The Nazca lines have not been neglected in past newsletters. See SF#47 and SF#63. Ritual processions like those hypothesized for the Nazca Plain resemble thosethought to have taken place along Avebury's avenue, Carnac's stone rows, and Chaco Canyon's mysterious converging system of "roads." Ritual processions seem to be built into the human genome. From Science Frontiers #134, MAR-APR 2001 . 2001 William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Lobster . The journal of intelligence and political conspiracy (CIA, FBI, JFK ... doodles on this 400-square-mile canvas that don't fit on any of the three pages. We'll have to ignore them for now. The archeoastronomers first tried to read something meaningful into the Nazca lines, but they were disappointed. Computer analyses revealed no significant connections with the rising and settings of heavenly bodies. Next, some tried to relate the biomorphs to the celestial sphere. Did a terrestrial bird figure point toward a bird-like grouping of stars? A few earth-sky bird connections are interesting in this regard, but generally the idea that the Nazca lines are a terrestrial zodiac has not panned out well. The geo-speculators have had more success. There are many "water" connections. The geoglyphs were drawn at the time of a great ...
Terms matched: 2 - Score: 272 - 15 May 2017 - URL: /sf134/sf134p00.htm
