Magnetic rock sculpture (nonfiction)

Archaeologists have identified sculpted rocks with localized magnetic features, suggesting that the rocks were magnetized by lightning strikes, and that ancient peoples sculpted the rock with key features emphasizing the magnetic areas.

Lightning strikes probably magnetized sections of boulders that were later carved into stylized, rotund figures — known as potbellies — at the Guatemalan site of Monte Alto, say Harvard University geoscientist Roger Fu and his colleagues. Artisans may have held naturally magnetized mineral chunks near iron-rich, basalt boulders to find areas in the rock where magnetic forces pushed back, the scientists say in the June Journal of Archaeological Science. Predesignated parts of potbelly figures — which can stand more than 2 meters tall and weigh 10,000 kilograms or more — were then carved at those spots.

Ancient sculptors made magnetic figures from rocks struck by lightning

In the News

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  May 9, 2019: A new computational analysis by the Hamangia figurines confirms the existence of magnetic rock sculptures at Monte Alto in Guatemala.

Fiction cross-reference

• Gnomon algorithm
• Gnomon Chronicles

Nonfiction cross-reference

• Magnetism (nonfiction)

External links:

• Ancient sculptors made magnetic figures from rocks struck by lightning by Bruce Bower @ Science News: April 22, 2019 - "Guatemalan ‘potbelly’ sculptures suggest people knew about magnetism more than 2,000 years ago"