Ica stones
The Ica Piedras are a collection of stones of the Andesite type from Peru and were classified as Oopart after their discovery. Some have been dated by Spanish scientific institutions.
<pVarious subsequent investigations point to a fraudulent origin.
DESCRIPTION
The stones are formed by Andesita del Mesozoic. They vary in size from 3x2.5x1.5 cm to 40 cm. As a result of erosion, they have developed a fine patina. It consists of a corrosion layer where the inclemencies have transformed the feldspar into clay, originating a softer material, categorized in a hardness 3 or 4 on the Mohs mineral hardness scale, which can be scratched.
are superficially recorded with a variety of images, some directly incised, others by subtracting the background, keeping the image in relief. The images vary from simple drawings on one side of the pea, to designs of great complexity. Some of the designs appear in styles that can be associated as belonging to Paracas, Nazca, Tiwanaku, Ica or Inca cultures.
Some of the images are flowers, fish, or live animals of different kinds. Others seem to illustrate scenes that would be anachronistic in pre -Columbian art, such as dinosaurs, advanced medical operations and maps.
Background
Archaeological remains show evidence that Peruvian cultures date back several thousand years ago. In some later periods, all modern Peru was unified in a single political and cultural unit, culminating in the Inca Empire, followed by the Spanish conquest. In other periods, areas such as the Valley of Ica, a loud region separated from others by the desert, developed its own distinctive culture.
In 1613, the indigenous chronicler Juan de Santa Cruz Pachacuti reflected in his work Relationship of antiques weaning Reyno del Piru The existence of recorded stones (" Mancos ") Ica, at the time of the Inca Pachacútec.
excavations occurred in the province of Ica at the end of the century xix XX conducted by scholars such as Max Uhle, Julio C. Tello, Alfred L. Kroeber, William Duncan Strong and John Howland Rowe. None of them reported on the discovery of recorded Andesitas stones. Even so, recorded stones that had been looted by huaqueros , tombs thieves, began to offer for sale to tourists and amateur collectors.
In 1961, the overflow of the Ica River led to light archaeological remains, including ceramic, paleontological fossils and recorded stones.
Santiago Agurto Calvo (1921-2010), an architect by profession, was rector of the National University of Engineering in Lima, and one of the collectors organized by prospects in ancient cemeteries. In August 1966 he found a stone in the sector Take Luz , Callango district, in the Ica Valley. The archaeological context corresponded to the Tiahuanaco culture. Agurto reported his discovery to the Ica Regional Museum, and was accompanied in successive expeditions for his curator, archaeologist Alejandro Pezzia Asseret, Viña Ocucaje, Ocucaje District), found, for the first time, a stone recorded with undeniable origin in a tomb of the Paracas culture. This stone was quite flat and irregular in its form, an approximate size of 7 x 6 x 2 cm. In it a design was carved that could be abstract, or that could be considered as an eight -petal flower. Agurto published its discovery in a newspaper in Lima.
Pezzia continued his research. In the cemetery San Evaristo in Toma Luz, he found a carved stone similar to the previous one, with the realistic image of a fish. The context dated the grave on the middle horizon (600-1000 d. C.). In a grave not far from the same cemetery, he found a stone with a fairly reasonable design of a flame, in a typical context of Ica's culture. In 1968, Pezzia published his findings, including illustrations and descriptions.
Site
The recorded stones supposedly appeared in the Ocucaje desert (Department of Ica), in the hills that are currently known as La Peña, Blanco, Norte and Callango - prosecuted or included in the Ocucaje Paleontological Cemetery; These hills house fossils, sea shells and some supposed Incas tombs. This enclave 35 km south of Ica, about 90 km² of extension, has fossils with an age of between 65.5 and 1.8 million years old, Mainly marine fauna that inhabited a shallow bay, which became a desert approximately 25 million years ago. In 2003 a bill urged to declare of national interest the paleontological areas of Ocucaje, which include fossil remains of Megalodón, crocodiles, birds, fish, turtles, dentistry, seals, dolphins, whales, horses, cervids, mastodon or giant lazy.
Popularization by Cabrera
It was Javier Cabrera Darquea (1924-2001) who made these stones known. This Peruvian doctor said that he received a supposedly strange engraved stone as a birthday gift from his friend Félix Llosa Romero in 1966. Later, Cabrera declared that he had identified the engraving as a drawing of a fish that had been extinct for millions of years.
In the 1950s, the stones caught the attention of Carlos and Pablo Soldi, two collectors of objects of this type who had failed to interest the archaeological community with their findings, but found an ally in Cabrera for their cause. The Soldi sold him 341 similar stones. Likewise, Cabrera also said that he immediately found another supplier, named Basilio Uchuya Mendoza (1935-2003). From these and other sources, and during the following thirty-five years, more than 15,000 stones engraved with different techniques, including high relief and bas relief, would have been obtained.
The stones
The stones represent a wide variety of scenes: dinosaurs, advanced technology, surgeries, maps, and even pornography. While these scenes may be ambiguous, they show knowledge of things that are, according to modern science, totally anachronistic (see oopart). All this has caught the attention of people who tend to doubt modern science, such as some creationists, and those who seek historical justifications for ufology.
Cabrera described many of the scenes in an essay, in order to tell the story of the supposed civilization that he claimed had created the stones. He believed that these ancient technologies belonged to what he called the Gliptolithic Man, an alleged extraterrestrial race. According to the story described by Cabrera, this race would have arrived a long time ago, long enough to coexist with the dinosaurs, and genetically created modern man. Some time later, they would have gone to another planet, before some planetary catastrophe occurred.
Currently, the trade in stones that can be found in Lima, Ica, Ocucaje, Santiago and other municipalities in the department of Ica continues, and internationally through Abraham Veciana.
The largest collection of stones can be seen in Ica, in the city's main square.
Dating
&# 34;cannot determine" but that "the engravings or incisions are not recent."In 2003, the dating and radiochemistry laboratory of the Autonomous University of Madrid carried out an absolute dating by thermoluminescence of depositional carbonates belonging to the Cerro La Peña deposit in Ocucaje, Department of Ica, Peru, resulting in a dating of 100,000 and 60,000 years for some engraved stones covered by caliche. >Cerro Blanco (La Peña), dating it to the VI or VII. an engraving that could well resemble a surgical operation with intubation. The researcher Vicente París admitted that he was surprised by these findings, since it has been verified that many other stones have been faked.
It is said that these stones were found in caves and streams. But since they are rocks and do not contain any organic material, carbon-14 dating cannot be applied to them. In addition, the places where they were supposedly found have not been revealed, so it is not possible to ascertain their age based on their geological stratum. [citation required]
The engravings could have been generated at the time the rocks were formed, so they would be from the same period, which is impossible since the rocks are much older than the facts drawn on them, so they must have been engraved at a later time. The only way to date the age of the engravings is by comparing them with the strata where they were found (measuring the layer of sediments on top, you can know how long they have been in that place), or by measuring their natural alteration over time., although this form of dating is less precise.
Neil Steede, an archaeologist who investigated the Ica stones for "The Mysterious Origins of Man" (a film that tries to prove that man appeared much earlier than is thought currently believes), he did not find any layer of chemical corrosion on the engravings, so he says that the engravings were recent.
Stones were the focus of publications in various languages during this period, such as Robert Charroux's text "L'Enigme des Andes", published in 1974. In 1975 Juan José Benítez wrote the book "There was another Humanity", which is based on the "data" obtained in these stones.In 1976, Javier Cabrera himself published & # 34; The message of the engraved stones of Ica & # 34; , where he exposed his thesis on the stones. Also the books "Miracles of the Gods: A Hard Look at the Supernatural" (1975), "In Search of Ancient Gods: My Pictorial Evidence for the Impossible" (1976) and Erich von Daniken's "According to the Evidence" (1977) covered the case.
In 1977, in the BBC documentaries "Pathway to the Gods" and "The Case of the Ancient Astronauts" an interview was conducted with Basilio Uchuya, who produced an "authentic" Ica stone with a dentist's drill and added the outer layer by firing the stone in a kiln with cow dung, all in record time. However, in 1996, another BBC documentary was released with a skeptical analysis of the stones.
Increased attention to the case led Peruvian authorities to arrest Basilio Uchuya. Under Peruvian law, it is illegal to sell archaeological discoveries. Basilio denied that he had found them and acknowledged that they were forgeries that he and his wife had created. Thus, he was not punished, and he continued to sell the stones to tourists as trinkets. He confirmed that he had forged them during an interview with Erich von Däniken in 1973, but retracted it during a later interview with a German journalist. Believers in the veracity of the stones, however, believe that the explanation of the fraud would not take into account Basilio's age or the time it takes to make one of these stones. The huaquero could have made, in his entire life, about 10,000; but these do not come close in number to the 40,000 that have been cataloged up to now. However, it must be borne in mind that despite the little trust and little financial incentive Basilio might have had to forge the stones, he was not the only supplier, and not all the stones display the anachronisms that make them so questionable.
The believers also indicate that in 1966, Santiago Agurto Calvo, architect and former rector of the National Engineering University (Peru) of Lima would have also collected numerous stones for years, since he would have a collection of engraved stones, extracted, it is said, from various burials belonging to the Paracas, Ica, Nazca and Tiahuanaco cultures; which according to the believers would be a fact that would confirm the sacralization of which the stones were subjected by these cultures. However, since these indications have not been proven, they have not been worth arousing the interest of the scientific community so that these archaeological findings that have already been identified as fraudulent are investigated again.
Fraud
Spanish researcher Vicente Paris, after four years of investigations, offered in 1998 the evidence that showed that the stones are really fraud. Among the tests presented by this researcher are microphotographs of the stones that show current paintings, as well as the use of sandpaper.
Other analysis that support the existence of fraud, is that among the engravings that show these stones, dinosaurs images only represent the best known and popular dinosaurs at the time they were disclosed (triceratops, tyrannosaurus, brantosaur, Styracosaurus, stegosaurus and Pteranodon (the best known representative of the pterosaurs), and the error of gathering dinosaurs from different geological periods and places of the earth is made; in addition to anatomical and physiological errors in these animals. For example, some of these stones represent scenes in which humans practice caesarean sections to dinosaurs and other reptiles, being that these are oviparous, or Sauropodomorphic dinosaurs are shown attacking and devouring human beings, when in reality these were herbivores. Other arguments against these stones expose the incongruity Between the technology represented in the stones and their technical quality, assuming that both come from the same culture.