by Rod Hughes

One of the great archaeological mysteries of this country are the pre-Columbian stone spheres, some basketball size, others 15-ton monsters. One was found on its original site last month, on an archaeological dig in Palmar Sur, in southern Costa Rica near the Pacific Ocean.

Many have been found since the 1940s but they often were moved from their original sites to adorn the front yard of the wealthy. One existed in the yard of a mansion on Paseo Colon in San Jose before being moved, hopefully, to the National Museum. Why ancient Costa Rican tribesmen made them with primiative tools from grandiorite, a hard igneous stone like gray granite is not known, nor how they managed such perfect spheres. Some archeologists think they were status symbols.

Naturally, the more extreme mythmongers had a field day with the mystery. Erich von Daniken, in his 1971 space alien book,written for the semi-literate, “Chariots of the Gods,” suggested cosmic visiters either made them or supervised. (Naturally this book was a bestseller.) This is not much less imaginative than The Tico Times editorial cartoonist Nestor Gonzales’s theory that an extraordinarily large hen laid them.

Of course, Costa Rica’s indiginous peoples possessed a quite sophistocated society and their works in stone, jade and gold can be found in museiums in the capital. These museums are well worth the time. Also, several companies produce gold jewelry replicas. (We do not suggest buying anything touted as original pre-Columbian pottery, jade, gold or stone. If it is, it will be confiscated by customs as illegal contraband when the tourist leaves the country. If it isn’t, you got gypped.)