The Ica Stone Collection

Neil Steede (President of the Early Sites Research Society)

In the late 1960’s, a stir was caused among people of the world by a book called Chariots of the Gods.  This book stated that many ancient civilizations demonstrated drawings and carvings of people from other planets and that, in fact, Earth had been visited by aliens many times in its past, as was evident by the artifacts.  This book also stated that the Nazca lines in the desert mountains of Peru were landing strips for these alien spacecraft.  The Nazca lines, for the reader who is unaware, is a series of lines that are in the mountainous desert of Peru.

The Nazca lines extend for more than 600 miles.  Some of them are straight as an arrow for up to 30 miles distance over any terrain.  There are also drawings done with the Nazca lines.  The Nazca lines, generally speaking, are 18" wide.  They were created by moving darker gravel that is on the desert floor and exposing lighter gravel underneath.  They have no depth.  They haven’t been analyzed to possibly represent an ancient calendar.  However, none of this has a direct bearing on the Ica Collection.

With the advent of the book mentioned above, a man by the name of Cabrera claims to have found some inscriptions made by these aliens.  He began producing a large amount of river stones that he claimed had healing capabilities and other mystical abilities and began selling them throughout South America.  The stones became known more and more worldwide as an enigma.  The stones themselves range from stones that are four feet across to stones that are only a few inches across.  All of the stones have the same characteristics.

All of the stones have incisions on them that are approximately ¹/₃₂" deep.  The incisions carry no inscriptions of script of any kind.  All of the incisions demonstrate dinosaurs and people in relationships with dinosaurs.  In some cases, people are riding dinosaurs or leading dinosaurs, or there are dinosaurs in the background.  Many of the stones only have people on them.  In fact, by far and large, most of the stones only have people on them.  All of the stones are dark in color and are somewhat of a flat rounded river stone.  They are black in color with light beige or light gray incising on them.  The only symbols that can be found on the stones are symbols of leaves.  Apparently there was some type of magical plant that these people used that had great healing capabilities.

All of this is according to Mr. Cabrera.  Cabrera claims that he can understand all of the inscribed stones and their meanings.  Stones appeared to come in series at times.

One of the series that exists, for example, is a series of stones that show a brain operation.  The first stone is a person lying down on a table; the second stone shows the “doctor” appearing.  The third stone may show the doctor producing a scalpel and a leaf, while the fourth stone will show him opening the skull of the person lying down.  After observing the whole series of stones, which may be ten to 12 stones, one sees that the patient has a total recovery.  Much of this is how Cabrera understands the stones to read.

He claims to have found the stones in a large series of caves close to the Nazca lines.  He also claims that there is much to be discovered yet in the caves.

A new series of stones began to appear from the caves in the 1970’s.  These stones showed drawings of flying saucers.  Now there was much more evidence, as far as Cabrera was concerned, to demonstrate his claim that aliens had created these stones.  This explained why the stones had a healing property, he claimed.  By the 1980’s, the stones had gained enough attention internationally; the BBC went to examine the Cabrera collection.  They came away believing they were modern forgeries.  In the 1990’s, the Early Sites Research Society was contracted to examine the collection.  The same conclusion was reached.  However, the collection still brings many people to visit Ica, Peru each year.

In the 1970’s and 1980’s, a group of people from Mensa became involved.  They have written reports on the stones that are not completely conclusive.  Now, at the present time in the year 2001, Boston University was planning to do a study on the stones.  As time goes on, more and more stones are brought to Cabrera’s museum.  At present time, the collection must number close to five or six thousand stones.  The collection is extremely unique and seems to cause much passion whenever discussed.  It is another unsolved mystery of modern times.