Forbidden Archeology_ The Full Unabridged Edition - Michael A. Cremo [235]
Boman then confirmed the position of the bola stone (Figure 5.2a), which was found in the barranca about a meter (about 3 feet) above the beach sand. Boman (1921, pp. 343–344) stated: “The barranca consists of Ensenadan above and Chapadmalalan below. The boundary between the two levels is undoubtedly a little confused. . . . Be that as it may, it appears to me that there is no doubt that the bola stone was found in the Chapadmalalan layers, which were compact and homogeneous.” It bears repeating that this description invalidates the views of Romero (1918), who had sought to demonstrate that the Chapadmalalan formations at Miramar were recent marine deposits. Boman’s account therefore also discredits Boule, who relied solely upon Romero in his own attempt to dismiss the discovery at Miramar of the toxodon femur and vertebral column, both with stone arrowheads embedded in them (Section 5.2.4).
Boman (1921, p. 344) then told of another discovery: “Later, at my direction, Parodi continued to attack the barranca with a pick at the same point where the bola stone was discovered, when suddenly and unexpectedly, there appeared a second ball ten centimeters lower than the first. . . . It is more like a grinding stone than a bola.” This tool (Figure 5.2b) was found at a depth of 10 centimeters (4 inches) in the face of the cliff. Boman (1921, p. 345) said it was “artificially worn.” Still later Boman and Parodi discovered another stone ball (Figure 5.2c),
200 meters from the first ones, and about half a meter lower in the barranca (Boman 1921, p. 344). Of this last discovery at Miramar, Boman (1921, p. 346) said “there is no doubt that the ball has been rounded by the hand of man.”
Boman then discussed the materials from which the implements had been made. The first bola was of quartzite, which can be found at Mar del Plata, about 15 miles northeast of Miramar. It was more difficult to account for the presence at Miramar of the diabase, from which the other two bolas were made. The nearest place where diabase could be found was near Rio Negro, about 300 miles to the southwest, from where it could have been carried up along the coast. The other possibility was the mountains of the Cordillera, deemed by Boman to be too far away—over 600 miles.
Altogether, the circumstances of discovery greatly favored a Pliocene date for the Miramar bolas. Boman (1921, p. 347) reported: “Dr. Lehmann-Nitsche has said that according to his opinion the stone balls we extracted were found in situ, are contemporary with the Chapadmalalan terrain, and were not introduced at any later time. Dr. von Ihering is less categorical in this regard. Concerning myself, I can declare that I did not observe any sign that indicated a later introduction. The bolas were firmly in place in the very hard terrain that enclosed them, and there was no sign of there having been any disturbance of the earth that covered them.”
Boman (1921, p. 347) then artfully raised, as previously, the suspicion of cheating: “I have exchanged opinions with various colleagues about the possibility there could have been any
kind of fraud involved in the circumstances under consideration, and we came to the conclusion that this possibility cannot be completely excluded. One could drill in the barranca a hole of the required size, introduce the object, and then carefully cover it with some dampened earth, the same removed in making the hole.
Figure 5.2. These stone bolas were extracted from the Late Pliocene Chapadmalalan formation at Miramar, Argentina, in the presence of ethnographer Eric Boman (1924, p. 345).
It could then be left to the waves, which periodically strike the barranca, to smooth and harden the earth, in such a manner that after a few months or a year it would appear as if nothing had touched the barranca. It would be interesting