In Stone Age sites all over the world, archaeologists have found rounded stone “spheroids” that fit in the palms of their hands. A bit too heavy for tossing around, the balls have cropped up in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Levant, the countries gathered near the eastern shore of the Mediterranean. No one knows what purpose the balls served, be it practical, personal, aesthetic or something yet unimagined.
Scientists have also disagreed on whether early humans made the objects intentionally – through a painstaking process – or unintentionally.
A new study from researchers in Israel and Spain claims to have settled the matter using sophisticated geometrical analysis. Yes, they say, these balls sometimes labeled polyhedrons, sub-spheroids and bolas were created intentionally, and this realization could have major consequences for our understanding of early human technology.
For the paper, the team analyzed 150 limestone spheroids of various shapes taken from an ...
