Ica stones

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.

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.

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.

The earliest known reports of similar artifacts are records by the Jesuit missionary Padre Simón, who travelled Peru during the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire in the early and middle sixteenth century.

[9] Nevertheless, engraved stones which had been looted by huaqueros (grave robbers) at some point began to be offered for sale to tourists and amateur collectors.

[1][6][12] In order to expand his collection Cabrera reached out to the brothers Carlos and Pablo Soldi, collectors of pre-Inca Peruvian artifacts.

[4] The Soldis claimed to have begun collecting the engraved stones in 1961, when a large number of them were supposedly uncovered through a flood of the Ica River.

[4] While serving as a medical professional (including a tenure as the chief of the University of Lima's Department of Medicine) Cabrera initially kept his collection and interest a secret.

[5] Cabrera suggested that Gliptolithic Man left onboard electromagnetic spacecraft from the area that includes the Nazca Lines, which he thought was an "ancient spaceport".

[7] Calvo reported his discovery to the Regional Museum of Ica, and was accompanied on further expeditions by its curator, the archaeologist Alejandro Pezzia Assereto.

[9] In September 1966 in Uhle Hill cemetery, De la Banda sector, Ocucaje District, they reportedly found an engraved stone in a tomb of the Paracas culture.

In the San Evaristo cemetery in Toma Luz, he reported the find of an engraved stone of similar size to the previous one, depicting a fish.

[5] The animals depicted do not correspond to fossil finds in the region surrounding Ica; no dinosaur remains are known from the area and several groups shown (such as ceratopsians) are not known from South America at all.

[6][7] One of the stones for instance show a Tyrannosaurus-like theropod dinosaur with a nearly upright posture and dragging its tail behind it on the ground; this is accurate to depictions of Tyrannosaurus in the 1960s but does not reflect the current scientific understanding of the animal.

[1] Some stones have been suggested to depict anachronistic and highly advanced technology, including medical professionals performing complex surgeries, acupuncture, genetic engineering, humans observing the heavens through telescopes, flying machines,[4] and spaceships.

[1][12] Other expected finds that could corroborate such a civilization having existed would for instance include ruins of advanced structures, garbage, as well as graves and bones, none of which has been found.

[11] The Ica stones are generally considered by historians and archaeologists to have been thoroughly exposed as forgeries[3] and to be hoaxes created for the purpose of earning money off of tourist buyers.

[17] The popularization of the stones made Cabrera famous in pseudoscientific circles but also ruined his professional credibility and family life and brought him ridicule in the press and the contempt of scientists.

[8] If any stone was presented for scientific analysis in situ (at its original site of discovery in the ground) they could conceivably be dated from the surrounding material.

Both a researcher at Bonn and the mining engineer Eric Wolf, a personal friend of Cabrera, supposedly confirmed that the stones are made of andesite and that they seem to be of significant age due to their oxidized patina.

The stone itself was found to possibly be Mesozoic in age but the engravings were determined to be recent since the clean edges of the incisions were unlikely to stay that way for long due to erosion.

[5] In 1993 and 1994, some Ica stones were examined in Barcelona and evidence was found for the engravings having been made recently with tools such as saws, acids, and sandpaper.

[4] Uschuya reportedly produced the dark patina of the stones through baking them in donkey and cow dung and massaging them with boot polish.

Doubt was cast both on his confession, suggested to have been done simply to avoid prison time, and on the idea that a poor farmer without a formal education could have made tens of thousands of stones.

[2][5] In addition to Uschuya and Gutierrez, other self-admitted makers of Ica stones include Pedro Huamán, Aparicio Aparcana, and others.

In a 1995 interview for the NBC documentary The Mysterious Origins of Man, Uschuya again admitted to the hoax but also claimed that Cabrera in his collection had "about 5000 genuine stones", either real artifacts or made by someone else.

[4] There is no evidence that Cabrera colluded with Uschuya to produce fake stones or that his motivation was any other than to preserve what he thought was genuine artifacts and try to generate archaeological interest.

Around the time of the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and 90s, "newly discovered" stones for instance appeared to warn of homosexual promiscuity as a risk factor for weakening the immune system.

The number of stones could for instance be interpreted as evidence against their authenticity since it might indicate large amounts of them having been made for the purposes of selling them to tourists.

[4][5] In contrast to those in Cabrera's collection, Calvo's stones supposedly have shallower cuts, show finer workmanship,[4] and do not depict any extinct animals, unconventional humans, or advanced technology.