These chubby - faced stone sculpture , carved some 2,000 years ago in current - day Guatemala , paint a picture that the ancient Mesoamericans had a sharp agreement of magnetic attraction , perhaps even using the force for esthetic or spiritual effect .
After being bring from ancient land site in the Monte Alto part of Guatemala during the seventies , the carving are now in the town of La Democracia , near Guatemala ’s Pacific coast .
Reporting in theJournal of archeologic Scienceearlier this year , scientists from Havard University explain that the carving contain magnetic anomalies on their surfaces . At least 10 of the 11 sculptures , all of which depict a plump face or a full-bosomed body , have some variety of pregnant magnetic anomaly .
Strangest of all , magnetic chromosome mapping has shown that magnetism can only be find in certain trenchant area of the sculptures , such as their belly orcheeks , as if the artificer had an piercing awareness of the rock and roll ’ unusual property while crafting the figures . This , they argue , is “ challenging yet inconclusive grounds ” thatMesoamerican cultureshad an early cognition , perhaps even practical use , of magnetic attraction .
“ Our direct observation is that there are magnetic anomalies systematically on sure features of these sculptures , ” Roger Fu , Assistant Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences , said in astatement .
“ There ’s some probability it could fall out randomly , but as we find more and more sculpture that are align like this , the little that likelihood is , ” he carry on . “ In this composition , we looked at four , and we found a less than 1 per centum chance that this was n’t intentional . ”
The rock ‘n’ roll most belike receive its magnetism after becoming struck by lightning while still in the ground . All rocks contain charismatic minerals , although most of the time they only generate a minuscule magnetic field . However , rock music can become more magnetized after becoming struck by a bolt of lightning because , after the zapping , the rock begins to cool and minerals like magnetite , hematite , and iron sulfides become align with Earth ’s magnetised field of operations .
The ethnical implication of the stone sculptures and their magnetic belongings stay unclear , however , it ’s muse that the attraction was used to verbalise or represent the power of the ruling elite group ’s ascendant . While we might never unfeignedly understand the import of the stones , they remain a deeply absorbing insight into the depth of knowledge that live in the Americas before European colonialization .
“ In the Old World , there was some documentation of magnetic attraction in the Greek globe by the sixth one C [ BCE ] , and the first usable compass was n’t until century later in China , ” Fu said . “ To me , what ’s really interesting is this is a completely independent discovery . There ’s a percept that the Old World is the advanced world and transferred all this knowledge to the New one , but we are realizing that they knew a lot , and I opine this is one more piece of grounds for that . ”
