Ica stones

One of the Ica stones, featuring depictions of various different dinosaurs

The Ica stones are a collection of andesite stones from the Ica Province in Peru, known for their engraved motifs. Largely regarded to be modern hoaxes,[1][2][3] the stones in some cases utilize art styles from various pre-Columbian Peruvian civilizations and often depict anachronistic scenes or objects, including dinosaurs and advanced technology.

Stones with engraved artwork were first reported in Peru in the middle fifteenth century during the Spanish conquest. Subsequent archaeological finds have been next to non-existent, though huaqueros (grave robbers) at some point prior to the 1960s began selling stones similar to the Ica stones. The modern set of stones were first popularized in the 1960s and 1970s. The most widely known collection of stones, numbering around 20,000 individual objects, belonged to the physician Javier Cabrera Darquea. Cabrera purchased the majority of his stones from the farmer Basilo Uschuya and believed them to represent evidence of an ancient interstellar civilization that once existed in Peru for hundreds of millions of years.[4] Uschuya later admitted to having forged the stones he sold to Cabrera[1] and other farmers have also admitted to making such stones.[5]

Since the stones have never been able to be examined in an archaeological context[2] and no other expected evidence exists of the advanced civilization supposedly depicted on them,[1] it is unlikely that such a society existed. The dinosaurs depicted on the stones reflect outdated ideas of dinosaur life appearance common in the 1960s[6][7] and depict groups not known to have lived in South America,[8] making it unlikely that they are depictions made by people who saw living dinosaurs. Despite by and large being seen as hoaxes, the Ica stones are popular pieces of "evidence" among certain pseudoscientific communities, such as Young Earth creationists and ancient astronaut proponents.[1]

It is possible that some of the Ica stones are genuine pre-Columbian artifacts.[1][4][5][6] This possibility is mainly maintained for stones not part of Cabrera's collection and with more conventional pre-Columbian motifs.[4][5]

  1. ^ a b c d e Carroll, Robert T. (2003). The Skeptic's Dictionary: a collection of strange beliefs, amusing deceptions, and dangerous delusions. New York: Wiley. pp. 169–71. ISBN 0-471-27242-6., also online at skepdic
  2. ^ a b Bruhns, Karen O.; Kelker, Nancy L. (2016). Faking the Ancient Andes. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-315-42855-0.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference :7 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Fortean was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b c Gamez, Luis Alfonso (2003). "El Legado de los Picapiedra". Boletines L.A.R. (in Spanish). pp. 5–12.
  6. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference :5 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference :1 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).