Las Esferas: Mystery Spheres of Costa Rica

By Robert A. Normand

In the 1930s, Companía Bananera, the Banana Company and a pre-cursor to Chiquita, was preparing a plot of land for new cultivation in the Diquis Region of southern Costa Rica when they unearthed a sizable stone sphere. That incident began a series of similar discoveries that has, up to now, resulted in finding over three hundred of these unique and extraordinary rock balls of stone.

From the moment they were first found, Costa Rica's stone spheres (Las Esferas in Spanish) have been a subject of speculation. Who formed them? When exactly had they been formed? How was it that many of them were nearly perfect spheres of precision far beyond pre-Colombian technical capability? And also, how were these very heavy rocks widely distributed about the countryside where they were found?

Many explanations proposed by knowledgeable people fall short of answering these mysteries, including a suggestion that space aliens helped the natives. Perhaps in the future we will find the answers to these mysteries, or then again, maybe we won't. In the meantime the spheres remain a Costa Rican historic national treasure.

Las Esferas is the story of a fictional tribe called the Kaberkirwaks, meaning keepers and protectors of the Quetzal, a sacred bird. The tribe was formed from two migrant indigenous groups of Amerindians that came from up from South America and settled in the Diquis region or southern zone of Costa Rica. This happened some five hundred years before the Spanish arrived in the new world or over 1,000 years ago.

This book offers another, more spiritual possibility. As part of the tribe's development, an early Cacique, or Chief, institutes a coming of age ceremony called a Vision Quest that includes an herb enhanced spiritual exercise. For over one hundred years, a period called the Golden Age of Spheres, this ceremony results in accumulation of the spheres. The book also offers a rational explanation of why the spheres were not found for over 500 years.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: May 20, 2020
• ISBN: 9780976947585

Book preview

Kaberkirwaks.

Prologue

After my first visit to Costa Rica in 2003 I came back seven more times in the following five years until I moved here permanently in 2008. I was hooked by the natural beauty of a land that exudes mystery and spirituality in every mountain trail and rocky shore. For twelve years now I have had the privilege and pleasure of living on the edge of the rainforest on the Central Pacific Coast in the town of Quepos in the province of Puntarenas. Puntarenas is the same province in which this story takes place.

During my time here I have come to admire the warmth and friendliness of the Ticos (the definition of this nickname is given in the Glossary). I learned about their lifestyle, their history and their contemporary culture. I have also come to appreciate that the early, pre-Columbian past of Costa Rica has often been best expressed by a rich amalgam of legends that preceded the written word. These legends were sometimes mythical, sometimes mystical and sometimes historical. This story combines a bit of all of those characteristics.

Almost a thousand years ago the native population of Central America was thriving and prospering in the rich, fertile mountain valleys, rainforests and coastal areas of Central America including Costa Rica. One of these areas was the southern part of Puntarenas province encompassing territory as far north as the town of Quepos, as far east as Buenos Aires and as far south as Golfito and the border with Panama. This is the rainforest area where the Las Esferas story takes place and is shown on the map below.

Puntarenas and the Southern Zone of Costa Rica

The setting of the story is a period when indigenous peoples frequently migrated up and down the American continent. Some simply settled here and took a new name while others split off from their local groups and formed new tribes. As an example, consider the tribe known as the Quepoans, a splinter group of the Chiriquis, who settled in the central Pacific coast and after which the modern town of Quepos in the South Central Pacific Coast is named.

In this story we go back to a time around the end of the first millennium. Over a period of a few centuries a number of Native American groups of South American, such as the Chiriquis of Colombia and Bolivia, migrated north. From the opposite direction other groups migrated from Aztec and Mayan areas of Mexico. They did this for a number of reasons; one being to escape onerous practices like ritual killings (a Mayan practice).

Other migrants sought more fertile lands or an independent existence from their tribes of origin. Some came simply for better game and food opportunities. A number of these migrants, particularly the Chiriquis, settled in southern Costa Rica where they could start a new and independent tribe. Here they found forests rich with game, fruits and herbs and coastal areas teeming with many varieties of fish and crustaceans.

As a resident here I quickly discovered Costa Rica’s rich heritage includes many legends. Some are pre-Columbian while others are relatively modern. I was moved in 2011 to write about one of these legends, a parody on what is named the Legend of Zurqui. The book is called "Mariposa, A Love Story of Costa Rica" and features two fictional young Native Americans who came from different tribes in Costa Rica around the end of the first millennium. I believe the Mariposa story reflects the beauty, mystery and spirituality of Costa Rica and the Legend of Zurqui.

In my view the theme and story behind the legend in Mariposa is similar to that of some of the classics, particularly Romeo and Juliet, with a little Hatfield-McCoy thrown in. I felt compelled to write the legend as a love story knowing very well that the story behind the legend had a tragic ending but at the same time believing that it had a spiritual message.

One might consider Las Esferas as a sequel to Mariposa as the story exists at a time only a few generations after the Mariposa story ended. The characters in Las Esferas are tied to the end of the Mariposa story. The generations that survived the legend of Mariposa went on to start their lives in new tribes in different regions of the country.

The Las Esferas story as told here includes the appearance of the first mysterious stone spheres which are now known to have several mysteries about them. These mysteries have yet to be adequately explained.

The period, from 800 to 1500 AD, has often been referred to as the golden age of the American Native. During this time farming techniques and yields improved dramatically which in turn spurred significant population growth. Specialization and division of labor became the norm and assured the survival and prosperity of these increasing populations.

Also during this period social structures progressed from family-run enclaves to a more organized governmental hierarchy that favored chieftains and councils for governance. The term for a chieftain, one that is still used in Costa Rica, is Cacique (see the Glossary for how to pronounce this name). Caciques were the final authority on most matters, small and large.

Shamans who had learned the use of natural herbs for both medicinal use and for enhancing awareness and perception assumed important positions in the tribal council. They became experts on physical healing powers as well as the use of herbs that caused awareness in the search for a spiritual connection.

The story of Las Esferas is set in the valleys and mountains of Southern Costa Rica near the Rio Grande de Térraba, a river that drains the rainfall from much of the western part of the southern central mountain range. The Térraba exits into the Pacific in the Osa Peninsula.

In this part of Costa Rica smaller streams slowly form as they wander downward from the mountains, combine into larger streams and eventually reinforce the mighty Térraba. In the Boruca language the river is known as the Diquis, a name still used to describe the region. Along with its tributaries, the Térraba runs 160 kilometers (99 mi) and its basin covers 5,085 square kilometers (1,963 square miles) or over 10% of the entire country. This whole area is bathed in a tropical climate with lush dense forest and substantial rainfall that promotes rich undergrowth that contains many healing and medicinal herbs as well as fragrant spices.

The Diquis Region is also where the stone spheres were first discovered by accident. Back in the 1930’s the Companía Bananera, or Banana Company, a precursor to the United Fruit and Chiquita companies, unearthed the first spheres in a field near Sierpe when they attempted to excavate a new plantation for bananas. Originally thought of as just curiosities, the daughter of one of the Banana Company managers had the good sense to realize that these unusual rocks might be of archaeological significance and reported them to the authorities in the capital, San José.

In the early days many of these spheres were abused, even destroyed because a rumor fueled speculation that there might be gold hidden in the center of the spheres. That speculation was enhanced by the discovery of gold ornaments hidden in buried pottery. The thought that there could be gold inside the spheres prompted some locals to drill into or smash the spheres. Unfortunately for the looters nothing precious was ever found inside them. The spheres are now protected from abuse by law and are considered a national treasure.

To this day several hundred spheres have been discovered. A number of them are preserved for display at the National Museum in San José. Recently a new museum dedicated specifically to the spheres, the Museo de Esferas, opened near the original site where they were first found. That location is known as Finca 6, a farm between the towns of Palma Sur and Sierpe in Southern Puntarenas province not far from the banks of the Rio Térraba.

Readers should take note of the sub-title of this book, Mystery Spheres of Costa Rica. Indeed there are several things mysterious about the spheres starting with when they were produced and within what period of time. The Spanish were here for over 300 years, from the early 1500’s to the early 1800’s, yet they made no recorded reference to the existence of the spheres. It is reasonable to assume that they lay buried and undiscovered during that whole period which suggests they were produced long before the 1500’s.

In the 1940’s pioneering archaeologist Sam Lothrop and his wife Eleanor, placed the time of the spheres at the beginning of the Spanish occupation to match the fact that, during an archeological excavation, they discovered a village whose pottery and tools dated back to that time. That village included some spheres. The Lothrops also determined that a number of these spheres were arranged like celestial constellations while others were grouped in patterns indicating places of ceremonial importance to the village.

The fact that the spheres were found at a village site which dated prior to the Spanish occupation may simply mean they existed at that time. It does not necessarily negate the probability that individual spheres may have been formed many years before or widely apart from each other over an extended period of time.

Even more mysterious is uncanny accuracy of some of the spheres. While some of the spheres are damaged or exhibit a rough-hewn surface (perhaps not finished?) there also are many that have a very narrow sphericity or spherical tolerance. Sphericity is a measure of the circular variability and roundness of a sphere. Spheres with a diameter of 1-2 meters have registered as little as 2 millimeters (0.0079 inches) spherical tolerance (a one meter sphere has a circumference of 3.14 meters or 10.3 feet).

This incredible, near-perfect roundness is particularly mysterious when we recall that the natives of pre-Columbian times had little to work with but tools made of stone. One engineer that I talked to said that kind of precision (+/- 2 mm sphericity) could