Posted on 05/07/2018 8:36:02 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Only about 400 of Scotland’s 4,000-year-old carved stone balls have been found. They are of fairly uniform size, with the diameters of most measuring around 2.75 inches. Fitting nicely within the cupped hand, they are made from a variety of stone -- from soft sandstones to hard granitics. The numbers of projections or knobs range from between three and 160, with six knobs being by far the most common. They display varying degrees of workmanship. A few, like the remarkable Towie Stone, display beautifully intricate carvings, while others are unadorned. All but five of the stones have been found in Scotland, with the majority discovered in the Aberdeenshire area.
Along with its vitrified forts and Loch NessMonster, these carved stone balls take their place as one of Scotland’s most enduring mysteries, and never fail to excite the inquisitive mind. Although many theories have been presented, no one is sure who made them or why. In her exhaustive study of the balls, published in the 1976-77 Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries in Scotland
Dorothy N. Marshall reports their distribution “is much the same as that of the Pictish symbol stones which led to the original idea that the balls were of Pictish origin,” but goes on to say that the small collection found while excavating Skara Brae, a stone-built settlement in the Orkney Islands, place them firmly in the later Neolithic or New Stone Age period, which is too early for the Iron-Age Picts. Marshall also says, however, that the area where the majority of the balls were found “is also the area of good land which today, as well as in antiquity, can support the largest population,” an observation we’ll get back to later.
First... let’s look at the various theories about how the balls were used....
(Excerpt) Read more at academia.edu ...
Sure it wasn’t used for beaning?
Towie and owie sound a lot alike.
Scottish ball’s are made of stone! Who knew?
They have to be stone because kilts.
Trump’s balls are bigger.
OK, let’s start.
“Dorothy, what do you do for a living?”
“I did an exhaustive study of balls.”
Publish or perish.
...and I study abroad...
Whatever the call Cultural Marxist over there they don’t have balls, just surrender poles.
Shotput
Ancient, huge, Stone Balls of Scotland?
Am I here before the Sean Connery jokes? “Your mother liked them just fine, Alex.”
Warclub heads.
Stone crazy bump
That is true of modern flintknappers, and it was spectacularly true of the ancient Maya, et al.
Even artisans who consider themselves to be highly-competent in the wielding of soft hammer thinning, pressure flaking and indirect percussion (punch) techniques cannot escape a sense of awe at the superb skillset required to create something like the above object. And they will readily admit to two truths about such objects:
The same holds true of "showpieces" by master bladesmiths -- past and present...
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IMO, the stone balls and all the rest of these objects are "Badges of Mastery"...
I suspect that, despite the three “classic Mayan” profiles on it, the pictured object was the work of a modern artisan...
Interesting
Or yowie, eeevunnn. Oh those clever Scotsmen. But did you know how bagpipes came to be? An Irishman rigged up a bagpipe and gave it to a Scottish friend as a joke. But the Scot didn’t “get” the joke. And Scots never throw anything away. So now you know the rest of the story.
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