Ica stones
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The Ica stones are a collection of andesite stones alleged to include ancient depictions of dinosaurs and advanced technology. They were allegedly discovered in a cave near Ica, Peru. The Ica stones were popularized by Dr. Javier Cabrera, a Peruvian medical doctor who received an engraved stone as a birthday gift. Cabrera identified the engraving as a stylized depiction of an "extinct fish" that had, to the best of anyone's knowledge become extinct millions of years before. The discovery caught the attention of Carlos and Pablo Soldi, two collectors of artifacts who had failed to interest the archaeological community with their findings, but found an interested party in Cabrera. They sold him 341 similar stones. Cabrera soon found another supplier, named Basilio Uschuya. From these and other sources over the next thirty-five years, he would collect over 15,000 engraved stones.
The stones depicted a wide variety of scenes: dinosaurs(attacking or helping humans), advanced technology, advanced medical operations, maps, and even pornography. While there is a degree of ambiguity to them, they display definite knowledge of things that are (according to modern science) wholly anachronistic. This has caught the attention of many people who are inclined to doubt modern science. Creationists and others have used the Ica stones to argue against the prevailing scientific theories.
Cabrera attempted to resolve the many scenes into a narrative, and from there to decipher a history of the civilization he believed to have made the stones. He believed that the ancient technology belonged to what he called Gliptolithic Man, an extraterrestrial race. They allegedly arrived a sufficiently long time ago to coexist with the dinosaurs, and genetically engineered modern man. Some time afterward, they left to another planet (utilizing the nearby Nazca lines as a spaceport) before some catastrophe occurred.
[edit] Authenticity?
Allegedly, these stones were found in caves and stream beds. Because they are rocks and contain no organic material, Carbon-14 dating cannot be used. Because these locations have not been disclosed, it is impossible to judge with certainty their age based on the geological stratum. Further, finding that the rocks are themselves significantly old would not prove the engravings themselves are. Neil Steede, an archaeologist who was investigating the Ica stones for The Mysterious Origins of Man (a film attempting to make the case humans existed far earlier than previously thought), found no patina on the engravings although the rocks had patina on them, suggesting that the engravings are indeed younger than the rocks.
In 1977, during the BBC documentary Pathway to the Gods there was an interview of Basilio Uschuya, who produced a "genuine" Ica stone with a dentist's drill and claimed to produce the patina by baking a stone in cow dung. This was for a period of time overlooked. However, in 1996, another BBC documentary was released with a skeptical analysis of the stones. The newfound attention to the phenomenon prompted the authorities of Peru to arrest Basilio Uschuya. Under Peruvian law, it is illegal to sell archaeological discoveries. Basilio recanted that he had found them and instead claimed that they were hoaxes he and his wife created. He was not punished, and continued to sell the stones to tourists as trinkets. He confirmed that he had forged them during an interview with Erich von Däniken, but recanted that claim during a later interview with a German journalist.
Despite Basilio's apparent untrustworthiness and economic incentive to hoax the stones, Basilio wasn't the sole source of the many stones, and not all of the stones display the anachronisms that make them so contentious. There is also the possibility that not all of the stones may be hoaxes even if some are.
[edit] Fraud
Spanish investigator Vicente Paris, after 4 years of investigation, offered in 1998 new evidence that supports that the stones are a hoax. Among the proofs presented by this investigator were microphotographs of the stones that showed traces of modern paints and sandpaper.
The most obvious evidence of fraud, of course, is the fact that the shallow engravings are so crisp. If they were as old as claimed, then there should be substantial erosion of the surfaces.
[edit] References
- Fortean Times - Jurassic Library
- Ica Stones The Skeptic's Dictionary article on the Ica stones.
