The Real Indiana Jones

The original people who inhabited the Americas left behind treasures beyond our imaginations. Treasures not only in the form of gold and silver jewelry but also treasures in the form of language, mathematics, culture, music and architecture. When we think about the original architects of Latin America, we may conjure images of the pyramids at Chitzen Itza (Mayan) or Machu Picchu (Inca), an ancient civilization found high in the mountains of Peru. But who were the ancient people of Costa Rica and what treasures did they leave behind?

Archaeologists now know that civilization existed in Costa Rica for thousands of years before the arrival of Columbus, and evidence of human occupation in this region dates back 10,000 years. Today when we were invited to explore one of the little known artifacts of this ancient civilization, how could we refuse?

So mid-morning we loaded into Marty's van (you remember Marty, he's the ex-pat chicken farmer who invited us to his super bowl party) and went up to his house. Naturally, any adventure with Marty begins with some chicken-related activity so before we hiked to the artifact, we had to collect the eggs... and play with the puppy. (I'm not sure if real archaeologists collect chicken eggs and play with puppies before their adventures begin, but anyways).



OK, now off to explore the lost civilization. A twenty-minute walk down to the Rio Reventazon through the coffee and sugar cane fields brought us to a large rock that seemed out-of-place in this particular landscape. The rock's placement and size made it immediately clear to us why the ancient people once saw this edifice as a significant and unique structure in their world. The rock was elaborately carved with numerous hieroglyphics, presumably dating back as early as 1000BC. But what do the carvings mean? What messages were the ancient people trying to preserve in this stone?



One thought was that this rock was used in a spiritual ritual, similar to the altar located on the CATIE campus (not its original location). We know that the CATIE rock was a sacrificial altar, but the rock by the river may have been used in other practices. We know that the symbol of the turtle is often found in the religious practices of other early Americans. One image on this rock was definitely that of a sea turtle - especially incredible considering it is at least a two hour drive on modern roads to get to the ocean.


Some of the carvings clearly depicted people. Perhaps this artifact was a library, storing the history of the people who lived here.



Some have said that this rock was an ancient road map, providing information to travelers where to locate the important places in their civilization. But where would people want to go? Were there other places nearby for travelers to find? Glad you asked.



About 20km north of Turrialba is the Guayabo National Archaeological site, the remains of an advanced civilization of perhaps 20,000 people at its height in 800AD. While not as massive as the Inca or Mayan ruins, Guayabo is Costa Rica's most important archeological site. But unfortunately, what remains here is still largely unknown to scientists. It is well understood that Guayabo had a sophisticated aqueduct system and was a significant trade and spiritual center for this area of Central America. We were lucky enough to visit Guayabo on a previous adventure and it was incredible today to begin to make connections between artifacts from different places of the ancient civilization that once thrived in this area.