The puzzle of the 500 carved stone balls found in Scotland
It could be that these stones started off as a weapon and after many years developed into something more ceremonial, but no-one knows for sure, writes Alison Campsie
They may have been used as a weapon to inflict blunt force on their victims or created to reflect the status of those who held them close.
Scotland’s collection of Neolithic carved stone balls, some of which are 5,000 years old, continues to stir debate with the mystery enduring around the purpose of these often beautiful and tactile objects.
What is known is the stone balls are distinctly Scottish with just over 500 of the objects found, mainly in Aberdeenshire but also in Orkney and the Highlands and Islands too.
Recently, one of the most southerly finds was made on Sheriffmuir in South Perthshire.
A small number have been found in Ireland with one discovered in Norway, but the balls – which date from 3,200 to 2,400 BC – are very much part of Scotland’s story.
Dr Hugo Anderson-whymark, curator of Neolithic Pre-history at National Museum of Scotland, said: “One of the things about the carved stone balls is that they are peculiarly Scottish. They have nearly all been found in Scotland.
“There are so many theories out there as to what they were used for. There are almost as many theories as there are carved stone balls.”
In 1951, archaeologists Stuart Piggott and Glyn Daniel described the purpose of the carved stones as “wholly unknown” with little consensus emerging since then.
Dr Anderson-whymark said it has long been suggested that the stone balls were used as weapons and mounted or bound with sinew or twine and thrown like South American bolas.
Others believe they were mounted on sticks like mace heads or perhaps used as weights, measures or devices to help memory.
Perhaps one of the most evocative theories is the stones were passed around meetings and held by the chiefs as they addressed their people.
Dr Anderson-whymark said the stones may have been held and rotated in the hands as a way of helping to retell oral histories.
He also suggested the stones, some which are made from granite and feature three to six knobs, were passed down through families over time.
Dr Anderson-whymark said: “When you look at the surfaces of the stone balls, you can see that they are made over time. The decoration may have been added later. When you look very carefully at these lines, you can often see that some have been made by a different hand. In some of the stones you can see where they have been reworked and the design has been changed. The objects have changed throughout their life.”
“I think the key thing is the stones are often said to be mysterious or enigmatic but actually the thing is that there are lots of possibilities of how they are used. Many of them are more ceremonial than practical. It could be that the stone starts off as a weapon and after 500 years develop into something more ceremonial.
“The stones hold the biographies of those who owned them.”
Dranderson-whymarkdrewapossiblecomparisonwiththemace,once a medieval weapon but now used as a ceremonial object, including in the Houses of Parliament.
Most of the stone balls have been pulled from ploughed fields in Aberdeenshire, such as the Towie Stone, considered to be the finest example of them all.
The Aberdeenshire finds have been made with little archaeological context to help address the puzzle of the stones.
However, the 2013 discovery of a carved stone ball at the Neolithic ‘cathedral’ of Ness of Brodgar in Orkney offered new understanding of the objects. The stone was found lying undisturbed in one of the buttresses, with a suggestion it was left there on completion of the building as a show of status.
Dr Anderson-whymark added: “We need to find more Aberdeenshire stones in context. So many are chance finds. When they started coming into museums in the 1850s, many had been in people’s hands for years or just sitting on the mantelpiece at the farm.”