Mysterious Stone Balls Found in Deteriorating Scottish Tomb

Archaeologists working within the Orkney Islands of Scotland have uncovered two polished stone balls relationship again to the Neolithic.

The stone balls have been discovered contained in the Tresness stalled cairn, an early Neolithic tomb situated on Sanday, one in all dozens of islands in Scotland’s Orkney archipelago. It’s a major discovery, as solely a small handful of those prehistoric balls have ever been present in a burial context.

“A cracking find from the tomb!,” tweeted crew co-leader Hugo Anderson-Whymark, an archaeologist with National Museums Scotland (NMS), on August 18 after his crew discovered the primary of the 2 balls. “Only 20 or so Neolithic polished stone balls have been found in Orkney and few have been recovered from secure contexts,” he added.

Five days later, Anderson-Whymark introduced the invention of the second stone ball.

“This one is the size of a cricket ball, perfectly spherical and beautifully finished,” he tweeted on August 24. “It’s split along bedding in the banded sandstone but will be amazing when conserved.”

At roughly 5,500 years outdated, Tresness Tomb is amongst Scotland’s oldest monuments. Inhabitants of the close by settlement of Cata Sands have been possible liable for the chambered tomb.

The web site was explored within the Nineteen Eighties, however archaeologists have been investigating the chambered tomb in earnest since 2017. There’s an added sense of urgency now, as the positioning is being eaten away by the ocean and a collapsing cliff on which the tomb stands. As the excavation crew notes on its dig diary and blog, it’s “desirable to explore specific research questions” at a web site beneath menace, relatively than spending time on a web site that’s not threatened. The crew is working to gather as many artifacts as doable and doc the Tresness web site earlier than it disappears. Archaeologist Vicki Cummings from the University of Central Lancashire (UCLAN) co-leads the excavation.

The first week of the 2021 excavation resulted within the discovery of shells, animal bones, and pottery fragments, however the “largest gasp from the team” got here when Cummings discovered the primary polished stone ball, in keeping with the crew’s diary.

Around 500 stone balls have been present in Scotland, and, as famous, solely a choose few have been discovered inside a burial web site. The function of the balls isn’t identified, however the finely carved objects might symbolize energy. It’s additionally doable that the balls have been used as weapons, thrown at or introduced down onto individuals’s heads. Indeed, skulls discovered elsewhere in Orkney present “signs of such injury,” as The Scotsman reports.

Excavations are ongoing at Tresness Tomb, so extra discoveries await. The crew has additionally created 3D fashions of the stalled cairn (here and here), documenting adjustments to the positioning as excavations proceed.

More: Prehistoric stone monument in Scotland might have been deliberately constructed to draw lightning.