Costa Rica's Stone Spheres

Fellow input seekers,

Here's a mystery that isn't far removed from the Mayans. It has been estimated that these stone spheres found in Costa Rica were made by human hands sometime around 600 to 1500 AD. Who was living there then? Were they related to the Mayans? Why did they carve these almost perfect spheres?

The spheres range in size from inches to more than 6 feet in diameter, some weighing up to 16 tons. They have been poorly managed, some even exploded for the mythical gold in the center, and most are no longer in their original locations hindering scientific research.

DataLight

Copán in Honduras -- Wow!

Seekers of input,

There are a lot of Mayan ruins in Honduras, the southernmost Mayan region, including some really cool carvings of kings and glyphs. Apparently they were pretty much overcome by the jungle when they were "discovered". Well, the locals always know they were there. Earthquakes had also taken their toll on them, collapsing most of the roofs and a lot of the stairs.


But the stone carvings are great! Faces with headdresses, figures telling stories, kings, masks, free-standing stone stelae with ornate decorations... it goes on and on. Amazing!

Carvings of macaws decorate the ballcourts, possibly representing the patron of the kings. Or maybe just a mascot? :-)

An image search for Copán is rich.

DataLight

Check out the new link -- MY2K blog

Fellow seekers of input,

I've added a link on the right to a blog I found that has lots of information about the Mayans. This blog has images of glyphs and artifacts and talks about their probable meanings to the Mayans and Aztecs.

There's a wealth of information. Hope you'll check it out!

DataLight

stone mysteries

Input seekers,

While we're talking about the Olmecs, why did they carve those gigantic heads? Why did they bring the huge stones from so far away?

It reminds me of Stonehenge, of course, which I visited in the 1970's. Back then we could still walk among the stones and we left our daughter in her stroller in the shade of one of the stones while we took pictures. You can't do that now, I guess.

Where did those early peoples get the huge stones for that monument? clock? calendar? astronomical observatory? Why? How did they know to line them up so perfectly? How did they stand them up and bury so much of the stones in the ground?

There are many stone mysteries in the world -- pyramids, Easter Island faces, Costa Rican stone spheres. Any answers to these enigmas?

DataLight

Inventing Zero

The Olmecs have been credited for coming up with the "concept of zero." Well, what does that mean? Surely everyone in every age understood the concept of having "none" or of "all gone", as in "There are no elefants in the room." or "The cookies are all gone."

What's meant is that mathematically, arithmetically, or in a "counting" sense, the Olmecs found the need to use a glyph as a place holder in a number that had nothing in a certain place value. So they had a picture or glyph that was put there. Just like the number, "405" means 4 hundreds, no tens and 5 ones. You can't leave the tens indicator out; it would change the number to 45.

So were they the "first"? Or just the first in their area? Or is it just remarkable that they had such a concept in their system of numbers?

DataLight

Books -- lots to read

Input seekers,

There are lots of books to read about the calendar and I am especially intrigued by those that tell how the research has led to the conclusions we've made about the Mayans and their knowledge.

But when will I have time to read them? So much to do, so little time to do it.

My public library has a few that I will look into before I buy any. Here are two I'd like to start with:

Breaking the Maya Code, by Michael D. Coe

The Code of Kings: the language of seven sacred temples and tombs, by Linda Schele and Peter Matthews

DataLight

Just the facts, please

Bloggers,

I've discovered a few blogs that deal with the Aztec or Mayan calendar that are mostly about the superstitious and prophetic side of it.

I'm more interested in the facts. What did these ancient people understand about astronomy and time, how did they know it, and how did they record it? I would like to know more about the research done on the codices to come to the conclusions or suppostitions that we have about the calendar.

DataLight