book exerpt #7: why stone was used

(this material is an excerpt from the book "The Message of the Stones", by Dr. Javier Cabrera)

The conventional wisdom that man as an intelligent, thinking being only appeared 250,000 years ago leads inevitably to the mistaken notion that before this date, all humanoid or humanlike beings were primitive, pre-human, incapable of intellectuality. It should not surprise, then, that one objection to the contention that in a very remote past a highly advanced humanity existed which recorded its messages for posterity on stone is this: if the civilization was so advanced, why did it leave its mark in such a common, primitive material as stone, rather than in some other medium more appropriate to the society's technological achievements? Modern humanity, after all, threatened by nuclear holocaust, is trying to conserve the most important scientific and technological knowledge on microfilms placed in vacuum tubes which are then buried underground and covered with a layer of concrete. It is on the surface a persuasive objection, since the linking of primitive beings and stone carvings, used to record daily life and to pass time, is strong in the popular imagination.

But this linking, and therefore the objection itself, are not justified. The scientific and technological achievements of the people whose historical documents are the gliptoliths flowed from the constant application of knowledge to the world around them. Their intention was not to leave documents to glorify themselves, but to leave a series of guideposts for future humanity, to show those who would come after them the ways that man can dominate his environment, and to warn that any departure from the pursuit of knowledge could cause regression to the level of animals, a level which could mean the extinction of the human race. If we consider the information contained in some gliptoliths regarding situations in the remote past which endangered human genus (see Chapter Six), the purposes behind the leaving of testimonials become more meaningful: the way in which man can avoid regression to the animal state and avoid extinction is through constant application of knowledge. The question for gliptolithic man became how to ensure the survival of these documents in a future they could not predict. Without spurning the use of other materials (metal, ceramic, wood, textiles, lithic architecture, etc., as we will see), gliptolithic man preferred to use stone. Stone had several advantages. First, it was abundant throughout the world, and therefore would not the likely to be used as a commodity in commerce. Second, stone would not run the risk of being oxidized like metal and would better resist the passage of time with engravings intact. Though they had dominated their environment, they knew it was likely that future men would not know how to control geological upheavals that might destroy the stones. For this reason, and also to protect the stones from the effects of nature (atmospheric gases, rain, heat, cold, radiation, etc.) they decided to protect them in excavated deposits in the most stable regions of the planet. And they took other precautions: they did not modify the nature shaped of the stone, so that it retained its resistance; and they buried the stones in sand so they would not rub up against each other. It is thus that after these remote past, the engraved stones are beautifully preserved.

If we compare the designs on the gliptoliths with those on other ancient objects of porcelain, ceramic, wood, and cloth, scattered throughout the world, there is no doubt that gliptolithic nan also used these materials to leave his messages. There are figures representing fabulous animals which closely resemble many of those the paleontologists tell as lived in the remote past, such as the dragons on Chinese porcelain, a mythical animal but at the same time quite like the pterodactyl (winged dinosaur). Another example is the figure of a stegasaurus on a ceramic found in a tomb pertaining to the Pachacanac culture (a Pre-Incaic society) to the south of Lima (Fig. 25). Similarly, we have the carved wood objects found in the desert to the south of Ocucaje, lea, in which various prehistoric animals are depicted, one of which shows dinosaurs (Fig. 26) as well as human figures. In others the figures and designs reveal aspects of the scientific and technological achievements of gliptolithic man, as for example, the symbolic representation of the technology of space flight in many ceramics found in tombs from the Nasca culture (Pre-Incaic) in the department of Ica (see illustrations in Chapter 9); also the symbolic representations made in numerous Paracas cloths (Pre-Incaic culture) in the department of Ica, which reveal a profound understanding of human microphysical biology (see Chapter Seven, figure of Paracas cloth). In one Mochica (Pre-Incaic) ceramic we can see the different phases through which an animal passed before it was fully developed. There is no doubt that the animal in question is the stegasaurus and that the phases are metamorphic phases. This further documents that man coexisted with the dinosaur, that the latter was not hatched fully developed (unlike paleontology teaches), and that man was a being so far evolved that the possessed knowledge of biology (see figure previous page).

FIGURE 25: Ceramic with figure of stegasaurus. The ceramic was found to the south of the city of Lima in a Pachacamac (Pre-Incaic) tomb.
For this reason archeologists attribute the figure to the imagination of the Pachacamac people, but it belongs in fact to the gliptolithic culture.

FIGURE 26: One of the many wood objects that come from the south of Ocucaje, Ica.
This one reveals an aspect of the reproductive cycle of the dinosaur, knowledge possessed by gliptolithic man.

I also think that gliptolithic man left messages in sheets of metal resistant to time, such as gold and silver. The unusual sheets of gold found in Ecuador whose designs resemble those the gliptoliths, provide evidence for this hypothesis. These sheets form part of the collection of Father Carlo Crespi, and are housed in the Church of Maria Auxiliadora, in Cuenca, Ecuador (Fig. 27).The sheets have not been dated. It is possible that gliptolithic humanity knowing that man might have to avoid the end of his existence by reverting to an animal state in which the instinct of egoism would flourish, may have feared that man would then care less about figures and symbols than about the material in which the figures and symbols appeared. It is also possible that sheets of some unknown material may have been used, but the same fear about the acceptance of the messages would have prevailed. I think that gliptolithic man thought to counteract the acquisitive instinct of future men by inscribing messages not on utilitarian objects but on objects of beauty, as if they were adornments or decorations, so that man would be more likely to value them and conserve them, and they could one day be interpreted and understood for what they are. Thus gliptolithic humanity engraved messages on different types of silver ware, tools, and a variety of objects, preferably of gold and silver, whose shape and designs even today are the subject of ingenious and sometimes arbitrary interpretations. Such is true in the case of the well-known turns of gold with incrustations of precious stones, and the tumis made from a very durable material called champi (a combination of gold, silver and copper, although the bonding technique is unknown), found in Inca and Pre-Inca tombs.

FIGURE 27: One of the unusual sheets of gold found in Ecuador, whose origin has not been determined by archeologists.
It was made by gliptolithic humanity and is today part of a collection which Father Carlo Crespi keeps in the
Church of Maria Auxiliadora in Cuenca, Ecuador. Photo published in The Gold of the Gods by Erich von Daniken.

Archeologists insist that these tumis were made by Inca or Pre-Inca men and they think that they were used in ceremonial rites and as surgical instruments. But the gold tumis with precious stones and the tumis made of charapi were made by gliptolithic humanity, and the designs are nothing but symbols amenable to deciphering (see Chapter Five).