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During 1999 I was the guide and fixer for a British Documentary about Costa Rica known as Trailblazers. For that purpose, we had to travel around Costa Rica twice, one for reorganization and the other for filming; it was for sure an interesting but tiring experience.

Part of the script was about the pre-Columbian stone spheres that are found only in Costa Rica and nowhere else. In order to get the information possible we contacted the person who knows more in the world about this stone spheres; Ifigenia Quintanilla, and I was then delighted with this great opportunity to learn about this interesting topic and as soon as she was ready I started with the interview:

Javier Martín:
Who made these spheres and in what year?

Ifigenia Quintanilla:
These spheres were done by the indigenous ethnic group, known as Boruca between 600 BD and 1500 AD.

Javier Martín:
What were they used for?

Ifigenia Quintanilla:
We don’t know much, we actually may just speculate considering the possibility of them being used as a sign representing a family name, as a landmark for their territory, and or as social status as well.

Javier Martín:
The spheres look perfect; this perfection makes me wonder if it’s not true that they could have been done by aliens? How difficult is to make them?

Ifigenia Quintanilla:
It’s really not that difficult to make them, the material that they were made of, behaves in a certain manner whenever taken from hot to cold suddenly; it breaks in layers like an onion, next, with a wooden frame, a chisel and other abrasive technique,s they polished them to the stage they present now days.

Javier Martín:
So, from your point of view as an archeologist, what’s the biggest importance of these spheres?  

Ifigenia Quintanilla:
What we feel or believe –as archeologists- may be the that; the most important fact of these spheres, is that they represent the first manifestation of abstraction of these humans, the sphere represents a star, the moon, the sun, or it could be representing a planet, nevertheless they are similar to the golden discs we may observe at the Gold Museum of Costa Rica.

Javier Martin:
Considering that they roll, they could have been used for landmark of different types, among other uses, for marking an airstrip; this proposal is just part of a big tendency world wide that tries to explain worldwide mysteries through the possible participation of aliens, what is your opinion about this?

Ifigenia Quintanilla:
I’m not against any particular theory as long as it is scientifically established; the problem is that less than 5% of the spheres remain in their original position and there’s no record of their original position, once lost their original position, we lost any possibility of formulating any demonstrable theory that could have been based on aliens or not.

A quite interesting detail is the fact that the Boruca ethnic group has a completely different genetic code from the rest of indigenous groups, making them unique in a way because their origins haven’t been found yet. They have some contact with the Terraba group, but both groups actually don’t like much each other.

I would like to add for your information, that the sizes of spheres found go from 10 centimeters, up to 2.57 meters in diameter, that they were made during a periods of around one thousand years, that they were originated in different places of the Golfito area and other have been found in Colombia and Veracruz, but their size is small with no more than 15 centimeters.

Javier Martin:
About the protection and conservation of the spheres which is your major concern?

Ifigenia Quintanilla:
The low budget we have in the National Museum to take care of three that are in their original place, these are private lands, agricultural land, burning the filed is a common method of weed control here, this puts in high risks the spheres in these places.

There are different parts of Costa Rica where to observe this spheres, some are the National Museum of Costa Rica, others may be found in different parts of the city of San Jose where they have been used for garden’s decoration.

If you want to personally see these spheres click next where you can Find more…