Costa Rica, Diquis Delta or Isla del Cano, ca. 200 BCE to 1500 CE. Petrospheres known as Las Bolas of Costa Rica are attributed to the extinct Diquis culture. As the best-known stone sculptures of the Isthmo-Colombian area, Diquis spheres range in size from a few centimeters to over 2 meters in diameter. Most are sculpted from gabbro, a coarse-grained type of basalt. First "discovered" in the 1930s when the United Fruit Company was clearing the jungle to establish banana plantations, many were damaged in the process. What's more, legends of hidden gold motivated workers to drill holes in the spheres and blow them up with sticks of dynamite. By the 1940s, legitimate investigation was conducted by Samuel Kirkland Lothrop of the Peabody Museum of Harvard University. As recently as 2010, University of Kansas researcher John Hoopes visited the site with the intention of evaluating the area's eligibility for protection as a Unesco World Heritage Site. Countless legends surround Las Bolas including the myth that they come from Atlantis or that the indigenous possessed a poison that was able to soften the rock. According to the cosmogony of the Bribri, these stone spheres are in fact Tara's cannon balls. Tara or Tlatchque, god of thunder, according to the native's legend, used a giant blowpipe to shoot the balls at the Serkes, gods of winds and hurricanes, to force them out of these regions. Marvels of near perfect roundness, these Bolas are rich in aesthetic appeal as well as wonder! 2 5/6"D

Provenance: Ex-Stacy Collection, acquired from Costa Rica in the 1960s.

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