Lesser Known Mysteries: Unexplained Artifacts

a reply to: theantediluvian
For currency, the locals used beads made from ollivia shells. That practice continued with the chumash into historic times, and ancient 10k years ago, ollivia bead have been found 600 miles away in the deserts of Nevada.

a reply to: punkinworks10

I believe the use of shell money was perhaps several thousand years after the cogged stones disappeared.

Wikipedia - Shell Money

Farther south, in central California and southern California, the shell of the olive snail Olivella biplicata was used to make beads for at least 9,000 years. The small numbers recovered in older archaeological site components suggest that they were initially used as ornamentation, rather than as money.[6] Beginning shortly before 1,000 years ago, Chumash specialists on the islands of California's Santa Barbara Channel began chipping beads from olive shells in such quantities that they left meter-deep piles of manufacturing residue in their wake; the resulting circular beads were used as money throughout the area that is now southern California.[7] Starting at about AD 1500, and continuing into the late nineteenth century, the Coast Miwok, Ohlone, Patwin, Pomo, and Wappo peoples of central California used the marine bivalve Saxidomus sp. to make shell money.[8]

Also take a look at Before California: An Archaeologist Looks at Our Earliest Inhabitants By Brian M. Fagan (pg. 173-174). From the looks of it, Olivella shells probably weren't being used as a currency until sometime around 1000 AD.

a reply to: theantediluvian
The 'cogs'? If they were mechanical in nature...you'd expect a hole in them, right??

originally posted by: JohnnyCanuck
a reply to: theantediluvian
The 'cogs'? If they were mechanical in nature...you'd expect a hole in them, right??

Yes. They'd have holes in them, they'd be consistently made of more durable material, show wear marks, come in a wider variety of sizes, etc. There's absolutely no conceivable reason to think there was any type of machinery utilizing stone cogs in use in southern California 7,500 years ago.

a reply to: theantediluvian

I live near to the Ashmolean museum - and it's free entry, maybe I could photograph the display at some point in the near future.

Maybe I should do a Ashmolean thread?

I love mysteries pertaining to the medieval period - when magic and mystery really still existed.

The black ops 2 game has a zombie story which climaxes in France , relating to the Knights Templar and ancient secret technology - it is a very interesting story.

a reply to: Soapusmaximus

You might want to go for a visit even if you don't make a thread of it since it's nearby and free admission.

The stone cogs are fossilized sea creatures. The Hole being present in only some of them is the giveaway.

Never heard of Gozel, very cool reading.

I like the Bocce Ball theory, but they could also be prjectiles.

Thanks for the thread! Interesting read, and I'm going to check your others out now. My personal opinion is that the balls were used for some sort of gaming. Maybe like giant marbles

Ranging in size from just a few centimeters to nearly seven feet in diameter, the largest of these spheres has been estimated to weigh in the range of 15 tons. Although no specific date for their creation has been determined, most of the archeologists and paleontologists who have studied these balls of stone agree that they were carved somewhere between 200 B.C. and 1500 A.D. Who carved them and for what purpose remains a mystery-no trace of the people or the culture that created these sculptures has yet been discovered.

thecostaricanews.com...
Anyone here ever found out what the hell these spheres were used for??

originally posted by: Spider879

Ranging in size from just a few centimeters to nearly seven feet in diameter, the largest of these spheres has been estimated to weigh in the range of 15 tons. Although no specific date for their creation has been determined, most of the archeologists and paleontologists who have studied these balls of stone agree that they were carved somewhere between 200 B.C. and 1500 A.D. Who carved them and for what purpose remains a mystery-no trace of the people or the culture that created these sculptures has yet been discovered.

thecostaricanews.com...
Anyone here ever found out what the hell these spheres were used for??

It is thought that they were used to mark social status within the community. The larger the stone at you house the higher your standing m the community. Some of the smaller stones that are in larger numbers, may have been used as a celestial representation.

a reply to: punkinworks10

Yep they may have played the same roll as Yap money (large circular pieces of stone used as braggin pieces and money in Polynesia).

Of course there were both natural and man made ones.

a reply to: Hanslune
That was kind of what I was thinking, the larger or more numerous the balls, show how much influence a family or individual had in the community, as they could gather more workers together to complete and transport the balls.

a reply to: theantediluvian

It could be that those were practice tablets or that there was no language to write so they are a collection of random meaningless characters. At least that's what it seems to me.

Hmmm Good explanation guys,I liked the money/family status theory ,so no chance in hell they were just decorative serving the same function as they do now to look kool in your garden.

originally posted by: Spider879
Hmmm Good explanation guys,I liked the money/family status theory ,so no chance in hell they were just decorative serving the same function as they do now to look kool in your garden.

I dunno, if I had a garden I wouldn't mind adorning it with a few. They do look pretty cool!

originally posted by: Spider879
Hmmm Good explanation guys,I liked the money/family status theory ,so no chance in hell they were just decorative serving the same function as they do now to look kool in your garden.

Spider,
I met someone at an exhibit of meso American stone balls, a couple of days ago, who had actually worked at a site in Guatemala, and he told me about the status thing. He also said that they also found some small balls on a hilltop and that their group that they might have had a celestial connection, in that context. As there was no habitation on the hill.

originally posted by: punkinworks10

originally posted by: Spider879
Hmmm Good explanation guys,I liked the money/family status theory ,so no chance in hell they were just decorative serving the same function as they do now to look kool in your garden.

Spider,
I met someone at an exhibit of meso American stone balls, a couple of days ago, who had actually worked at a site in Guatemala, and he told me about the status thing. He also said that they also found some small balls on a hilltop and that their group that they might have had a celestial connection, in that context. As there was no habitation on the hill.

So these stone are found in Guatemala also??..kool learnt something today mapping the stars is also a good explanation,too bad those found in Costa Rica had been long disturbed..sigh

If flat bread was made perhaps the cogged stones were used to mark the edges. So each person that made one had their mark on the finished product. Each mark being distinctive might make easier to judge a winner in a contest. Without writing they needed something to separate entries.

Awesome thread! I love reading about mysterious artifacts. I think it's safe to say that there was a universal language worldwide. The origins of this language stretches I don't know how far back. Too many artifacts and carvings throughout the world throughout history all have one thing in common...the same paleo-sanksrit writings.

a reply to: datasdream

The Indians of the milling stone horizon did make a sort of flat bread, from ground roots of tule reeds and other sedges. It's not the most appealing thing in the world.
If the stones were used for such a thing there will be identifiable traces on them, just as with the Manos and metates, that they used to grind the roots with.