Are Peru’s Ica Stones Safe?

Dinosaurs and men alive at the same time? I don’t really want to get into that discussion, but I want to alert you to the fact a “piece” of the evidence (pro or con) used by some to support their point of view in the debate, the Ica Stones, may be missing or damaged.

The Peruvian earthquake of August 15, 2007, has resulted in some worry for them. Ica, Peru, was one of the hardest hit areas. I reached people usually in contact with those who keep the Ica Stone safe and/or at the Ica Stone Museum. Here’s the message they created in response:

The Ica Stones are a collection of andesite stones allegedly discovered in a cave near Ica, Peru. The Ica stones were popularized by Dr. Javier Cabrera, a Peruvian medical doctor who received an engraved stone as a birthday gift. In thirty-five years, he has collected over 15,000 engraved stones.

The stones show many things, from attacking dinosaurs to advanced technology, from maps to pornography.

In 1977, during the BBC documentary Pathway to the Gods, Basilio Uschuya produced a “genuine” Ica stone with a dentist’s drill and claimed to produce the patina by baking a stone in cow dung. In 1996, another BBC documentary was released with a skeptical analysis of the stones.

About ten years ago, the new attention to the Ica Stones prompted the authorities of Peru to arrest Basilio Uschuya.

Under Peruvian law, it is illegal to sell archaeological discoveries. Basilio recanted that he had found them and instead claimed that they were hoaxes he and his wife created. He was not punished, and continued to sell the stones to tourists as trinkets. He confirmed that he had forged them during an interview with Erich von Däniken, but recanted that claim during a later interview with a German journalist.

Spanish investigator Vicente Paris, after four years of investigation, offered in 1998 new evidence that supports that the stones are a hoax. Among the proofs presented by this investigator were microphotographs of the stones that showed traces of modern paints and sandpaper.

Whether real or fraud, their safety is important if further, modern analysis of the Ica Stones are to take place.

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

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