How rocks can rewrite history. An introduction to the Ica Stones.

One of the most fascinating enigmas of alternate historic theories revolves around the Ica Stones from Peru. And here's the start of their modern history, and why it so much talked about.

First, what are the Ica stones? These stones are composed of andesite and vary in size from pebbles to boulders. They are shallowly engraved with a variety of images including carvings of humans, advanced medical procedures, advanced technological instruments such as telescopes and flying machines, animals, dinosaurs and even humans living alongside these ancient creatures. You can understand why there's some sceptiscism about the subject. To put it mildly.

Some of the most interesting aspects of them are that the stones are clearly carved with remarkable scenes of medicaltransplants, depictions of people along dinosaurs, telescopes, and mind-boggling accurate shapes of the planet Earth as it was 13,000,000 years ago in pre-stone age.

But let's rewind a little before expanding on the exhilarating world of possibilities these artifacts offer, and let us see how it all started in the 1960s with a local farmer selling rocks he had found in caves and gorges near the city of Ica, and a Peruvian physician who was presented with a stone for his 42nd birthday. Javier Cabrera Darquea got a stone gifted to him that had a carved picture of what he believed to be an extinct fish. Sparking his interest, Cabrera began collecting more and eventually met a farmer named Basilio Uschuya who sold him thousands more for a cheap amount, which he went on to expose in a museum still accessible to this day.

The story was made famous through documentaries and books, and a larger part of the scientific community got involved to assess what the veracity of it all. As you may have guessed, most of the stones are deemed fake, yet there still lingers skepticism regarding this claim as the Ica stones are scarcely the only relics in the world that have us rethink history as we know it in present times.

Why should we reconsider whether they are indeed real or not? Well, here are the bullet points:

• the farmer was threatened to be put in jail if he didn't confess for making a forgery
• the cheer number of stones (in the thousands), their size, shapes and the precision with which they were made, have one scratch his head as to why a simple farmer would waste such time, money and energy to generate so little money
• there are depictions of advanced medical procedure, like the of a heart transplantation done step by step. The problem? Well, the first heart transplantation was done after the stones were bought over, so how could the farmer have forged it at the time?
• maps of the Earth as it was millions of years ago or other intriguing elements which will be expanded on below
• no traces of contemporary carvings
• uniformity of design all the while discoveries have been made in multiple places, including at very different periods (stones were discovered under a house that was built in the 1920's and even more strikingly, engraved stones were first recorded in the region by a Jesuit missionary Padre Simón, who accompanied Pizarro to Perú in 1525 and examples were sent to Spain in 1562)
• layers of chemical residues (some of it tested independently by private investigators with multiple labs) demonstrating antiquated origins

On that last note, some examinations have found carvings of modern origin while others prove that some carvings are definitely from a long period ago. How come? The first type that claim the carvings to be of modern origin, are probably of fake stones as with them becoming famous people have come to take advantage of that in an area striken with poverty. But these show metal flakes left by hacksaw blades, a bright surface in the grooves as well as some artificial aging. On the other hand, the second one that declare that the stones have on the contrary none of the distinguishing characteristics of these modern techniques, show that the stones have a layer of patina, or mineralization, both on the surface of the stones and in their grooves plus layers of biological varnish produced by algae or bacteria. And these very same layers of patina and varnish can be found on other artifacts found from the area.

When you consider that it generally takes many hundreds of years to account for this much buildup in the arid environment of Peru, coupled with the fact that the farmer was arrested and confined by the government of Peru for selling national treasures and upon his release he recanted his testimony and confessed that he had carved them himself, you start to question the official narrative of the authenticity of the wondrous stones.

I hope this short presentation has intrigued some of you to look more into this captivating story and that it was a pleasant read.