Diquís Stone Spheres

Record summary

The Diquís stone spheres are carefully shaped monuments associated with Indigenous communities of southern Costa Rica, often dated broadly to the Chiriquí tradition. Their arrangements, social meanings, and original settings remain incompletely understood because many were moved, damaged, or removed from archaeological contexts. Popular accounts have attributed them to astronomical, navigational, or extraterrestrial purposes, but those interpretations are not established archaeological conclusions. The lead is useful for comparing monumental geometry, landscape organization, elite display, and the effects of looting and relocation on interpretation.