Posted on 06/18/2018 10:56:29 AM PDT by BBell
Some of the most enigmatic human-made objects from Europe's late Stone Age — intricately carved balls of stone, each about the size of a baseball — continue to baffle archaeologists more than 200 years after they were first discovered.
More than 500 of the enigmatic objects have now been found, most of them in northeast Scotland, but also in the Orkney Islands, England, Ireland and one in Norway.
Archaeologists still don't know the original purpose or meaning of the Neolithic stone balls, which are recognized as some of the finest examples of Neolithic art found anywhere in the world. But now, they've created virtual 3D models of the gorgeous balls, primarily to share with the public. In addition, the models have revealed some new details, including once-hidden patterns in the carvings on the balls
Hugo Anderson-Whymark, a curator at National Museums Scotland who created the online models, explained that many functions have been proposed for the stone balls over the years.
Such proposals have included the possibility that they were made as the stone heads for crushing weapons, or standardized weights for Neolithic traders, or rollers for the transport of the giant stones used in megalithic monuments.
One theory is that the knobs on many of the carved stone balls were wound with twine or sinew, which allowed them to be thrown like slings or South American bolas. Other theories describe the balls as objects of religious devotion or symbols of social status.
"Many of the ideas you have to take with a pinch of salt, while there are others that may be plausible," Anderson-Whymark told Live Science. "What's interesting is that people really get their imaginations captured by them — they still hold a lot of secrets."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Costa Rica’s balls are bigger.
I saw a video about these recently. Some think they may have been a kind of throwing weapon, but nobody really knows. Many of them aren’t made in a way that a rope or string could be fitted around them.
At least our President has a pair.
Wrap some rope around one and sling it and the archaeologist who gets hit with it will realize real quick what they were used for.
My first thought? Carved projectiles for a catapult.
Papyrus weights....They appear to have one flat side.
Niels Bohr, please pick up the white courtesy phone.
Article about the mathematics represented in the spheres:
http://archive.bridgesmathart.org/2014/bridges2014-441.pdf
I think those might be his ancestors balls.
Early golf ball prototypes. Took them a while to figure it out.
Aliens. Always aliens. Sheesh.
Nephilim balls. Makes perfect sense. :-)
Easy...
They were AMMO.
And bored military guys carved them into neat shapes.
Wonder if they could have been used as weights for something in the stone age household...
Well they certainly are not any state Republican’s balls...
ping
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