Robot Finds Mysterious Spheres in Ancient Temple

This is a small update to my original thread, which can be found Here

Alt. thread by JakiusFogg

The robot which has explored the tunnel leading to 3 chambers beneath Temple of the Feathered Serpent, has found hundreds of spheres in the two rooms so far named North chamber and South chamber, the info is pretty weak, so my opinion is weak to, but found it interesting enough to post in here, and is excieted to follow the progress of this excavation.
As more info is revealed, i will posibly post more.


Source Pg.1
Source Pg.2

Hundreds of mysterious spheres lie beneath the Temple of the Feathered Serpent, an ancient six-level step pyramid just 30 miles from Mexico City.
The enigmatic spheres were found during an archaeological dig using a camera-equipped robot at one of the most important buildings in the pre-Hispanic city of Teotihuacan.
"They look like yellow spheres, but we do not know their meaning. It's an unprecedented discovery," said Jorge Zavala, an archaeologist at Mexico's National Anthropology and History Institute.

"The robot was able to enter in the part of the tunnel which has not yet been excavated yet and found three chambers between 100 and 110 meters (328 and 360 feet) from the entrance," Gómez Chávez said.
The mysterious spheres lay in both the north and south chambers. Ranging from 1.5 to 5 inches, the objects have a core of clay and are covered with a yellow material called jarosite.

I'll be honest, all i see are a bunch of rocks. The people that wrote that article might want to look up the definition of "sphere" because those are far from it.

Originally posted by Bodhi7
I'll be honest, all i see are a bunch of rocks. The people that wrote that article might want to look up the definition of "sphere" because those are far from it.

To some it's "rock's", to others it's "gold"

Dosn't change the fact it's interesting.

The "spheres" has lost the shape over time as they have been erroded and lost the perfect shape, the pictures might not show a perfect sphere, but the people there are seeing sphere shaped objects.
And i would believe they know better being there, than you looking at a single picture

From your source

"This material is formed by the oxidation of pyrite, which is a metallic ore," Gómez Chávez said. "It means that in pre-hispanic times they appeared as if they were metallic spheres. There are hundreds of these in the south chamber." According to George Cowgill, professor emeritus at Arizona State University and the author of several publications on Teotihuacan, the spheres are a fascinating find. "Pyrite was certainly used by the Teotihuacanos and other ancient Mesoamerican societies," Cowgill told Discovery News. "Originally the spheres would have shown brilliantly. They are indeed unique, but I have no idea what they mean."

Interested to say the least, ancient currency...?

reply to post by Agent008


theres gold in them hills

Don't understand how if this part of the site was only reachable by the robot - how come all the lighting is set up and floor finds numbered ?

Are those the pics of the spheres they are talking about or just some other part of the dig ?

Originally posted by Did you see them
Don't understand how if this part of the site was only reachable by the robot - how come all the lighting is set up and floor finds numbered ?

Are those the pics of the spheres they are talking about or just some other part of the dig ?

The tunnels leading to the rooms have been excavated, and i believe the spheres are in the top soil of the rooms.
But i understand your confusion as the info does seem to be contradicting.

For example this part dosn't coexist with the pic's and story.

Gómez Chávez and his team now look forward to the next phase of the project -- exploring the last part of the tunnel and three chambers which archaeologists have seen through the robot cameras.

Very awesome. And ya I suspect those images are other parts of the dig already investigated, numbered and lined out.

I'd like to see a picture of the spheres, not sure if this pic is that.

BUT great find either way, and thanks for posting.

SnF.

MM

reply to post by Mianeye


Having read your source links and being an armchair archeologist, here's my theory.

Since the temple was obviously an important site for rituals and ceremony, perhaps the 'spheres' represent deceased persons of great standing, office, or status, such as priests or others closely associated with the temple, or family of those persons, perhaps even ruling families, or heroic warriors. It could be seen as being a great honor to have one's sphere entombed beneath the temple after death.

They could also represent sacrificial victims, placed there in either honor or as a means to continue to provide an ongoing source of 'power' after death, much in the way their sacrifice empowered the rite they were slain for.

The reasons to back up this supposition are these:

An interior core of clay representative of the body or spirit of the departed, rather the inner part of a person.

An outer shell of oxidized pyrite representive of the material or visible, the outer part of a person. It may also be representive of worldly assets the departed accumulated in life, but it could also be meant as a symbolic offering to the gods, much in the way coins were laid upon the eyes to pay Charon the Ferryman for the ride across the river Styx. Since actual gold was highly prized and unlikely to be surrendered lightly, as the clay is a stand-in for the body, gold was substituted with something of similar appearance yet of lesser value, again a symbolic representation.

Since the source did not mention any skeletal remains being found, and from what I understand of the culture, they did have interment customs. The physical bodies were buried elsewhere or otherwise disposed of in the preferred manner and the spheres are conveyed within the temple, analogous to being placed in a revered cemterery or mausoleum.

From the numbers discovered in the size of the space, it would not be convenient for several hundreds of actual bodies to be placed within, nor would the effluvia of decomposition exactly be conducive for those working or regularly visiting the site. This is evidenced in other cultures, both modern and ancient, (Indian, Egyptian, Japanese, etc.) by the institution of caste systems wherein persons who dealt with the dead were shunned or considered 'untouchable.'

The varying size of the spheres could be hypothesized to symbolize the age of the deceased person, the smaller ones indicating children while the larger ones would stand for an adult or an elder of advanced years.

Of course, I could be wholly off base and the reflective walls and ceilings and glittering spheres were merely a tricked out basement where the priests after a hard day's work of sacrificing victims would get together, drink cocoa, and trip on jungle fungus.

>[In a Cheech and Chong voice]...Hey, man, look at that cool sparkly rock...whoa dude, did it just move? LOL

S and F for an interesting update! I'll keep checking in to see if they do figure out what they mean.

reply to post by ladyjem
Thats an interesting theory, i like that, something i hadn't thought of, maybe because i lack the knowledge(or fantasy )

Trippy ending

Thanks for your contribution

Maybe they are just spheres.

They don't have to have any religious significance do they? Just always seems to me that archeologists get caught up on that. Some of the temples...I suspect...were more like today's money making museums.

Maybe they were just spheres used to play ball with. Like if we took each football used in the Superbowl and put it in a special room in a foot ball museum...I mean...temple.

Who knows? Maybe it was just a great place for making spheres for some reason. Maybe they used spheres instead of wheels for things. Who knows beyond the best educated guess if you weren't there?

I think I know what these spheres are...they're HORTA EGGS!

The researchers better get out while they can.

I would bet the spheres are related to the mesoamerican ball game. Maybe not even the game specifically, but mor ein reference.

The ball game was a sacred event. it would not be surprising to see baubles commemorating it in one way or another, for one reason or another.

They are a symbolic representation of the sun,
There is evidence of a major volcanic eruption in Mexico around the time that teotihuacan started to decline.
If the sun was obscured by the ash cloud maybe the spheres were placed under the temple as symbolic offering to rekindle the sun orb.


Could they be offerings by common people since they are under the temple and not on the sacred platform.

I've seen pictures of enigmatic spheres before. I don't see any in the photos anywhere.

You know ,
The burial chambers of the ruling class have never been found.
And I have just read of some culture that burned the corpses, crushed the bones, then mixed them with clay into a brick. They were then buried under the floor of the house.
Could this be the case of these spheres.

reply to post by Mianeye


What? They look like rocks!

reply to post by Mianeye


Thank you for posting this, at least there is information from ONE of the many things we have had zero news about all these years I have waited!!

So there would have been rooms filled with shinny metal looking balls with a heart of clay. I sure hope they find something to explain this.

Originally posted by Casualboy100
reply to post by Mianeye

 

What? They look like rocks!

They said they didn't use to look like rocks. They looked like metal balls. it reminds me of all the other odd balls found in the world, the small metalic ones with lines the huge rock ones.

"This material is formed by the oxidation of pyrite, which is a metallic ore," Gómez Chávez said. "It means that in pre-hispanic times they appeared as if they were metallic spheres. There are hundreds of these in the south chamber."

The picture of the spheres close up, the one in the top right hand corner looks like a side view of a skull.