Posted on 06/19/2018 11:52:09 AM PDT by ETL
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. [In Photos: Amazing Ruins of the Ancient World]
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 ...
Over on YouTube search for Randall Carlson. He is a scientist who incorporates pre-written archeology into climate catastrophe, such as the onset of an ice age.
He says that since 95% of human existence is not recorded, objects like these are the only link we have to what humans were experiencing and their knowledge can enhance earth / climate science.
I think they are models of molecular bonding orbitals, left from a long-lost physics, perhaps of Atlantis.
Really elegant, symmetrical carvings, aren’t they?
Those balls are the mark of a cereal killer??!?
Close. These were all made by the same artist over his lifetime. He sold them as toys/collector items. It took 3 months of hard work to engrave these rocks after making them round. His work was celebrated by mud hut dwellers all over the isles. Status was attached to owning one. In time all were lost. Now they are found.
Getty image, sorry.
Easy: Artifacts from a paleolithic shop class.
Those are the heads of weapons mounted on wooden shafts, clubs.The bindings, likely sinew, would be tied on the groves of the heads.
LOL!
Probably Trump’s ancestors.
"That was a great idea of yours to make those totally random designs on the stone balls. The archaeologists will go nuts trying to figure out what we meant!"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6954562.stm
That beats my gumball! LOLLOL!!!
Custom handloaded trebuchet ammunition?
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