1.4 MILLION YEAR OLD STONE SPHERES?

Limestone spheroids, Ubeidiya, Israel. Illustration from phys.org.

This column is not about rock art, per se, but a fascinating phenomenon found at early hominin sites. Carefully manufactured stone balls or spheres. These discoveries come from a number of Acheulean sites spread over much of the world.

“Acheulean tools were produced during the Lower Paleolithic era across Afriica and much of West Asia, South Asia, East Asia and Europe, and are typically found with Homo erectus remains. It is though that Acheulean technologies first developed about 2 million years ago, derived from the more primitive Oldowan technology associated with Homo Habilis. The Acheulean includes at least the early part of the Middle Paleolithic. Its end is not well defined, depending on whether Sangoan (also known as “Epi-Acheulean”) is included, it may be taken to last until as late as 130,000 years ago. In Europe and Western Asia, early Neanderthals adopted Acheulean technology, transitioning to Mousterian by about 160,000 years ago.” (Wikipedia)

Spheroid sites in Israel including Ubeidiya. Illustration from royalsocietypublishing.org.

A publication authored by Antoine Muller of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem recently presents his team’s analysis of a number of limestone spheroids retrieved from an Early Acheulean site in Israel known as Ubeidiya dating to ca. 1.4 million years ago. “Excavations at the Early Acheulean site of ‘Ubeidiya have yielded a large number of stone balls offering a unique opportunity to conduce quantitative and objective three-dimensionsl (3D) analyses to explore how and why these curious artifacts were made. ‘Ubeidiya is situated in the Dead Sea Rift Valley, at the northern margin of the Red Sea – East African Rift System. Dated to ca 1.4 Ma, the site presently constitutes the oldest evidence of the Acheulean outside of Africa. Its geographical position in the southern Levant makes it a key site for exploring the first Acheulean hominin forays out of Africa.” (Muller et al. 2023)

Known spheroid sites worldwide. Illustration from royalsocietypublishing.org.

Muller and team performed a detailed analysis of the stone spheres to investigate whether they were intentionally created stone balls, or if this was essentially an accidental result of their being used as hammerstones.

Limestone spheroids, Ubeidiya, Israel. Illustration from phys.org.

“If spheroids represent hammerstones or percussors, then they should become both smoother and more spherical. If spheroids represent expedient cores, then we expect to see some pattern in the removal of scars. This pattern could take the form of scars of regular size, orientation or distribution over the surface. The spheroids may even become smoother during a final stage of battering attempts to remove flakes. However, we do not expect them to become more spherical. While even random flaking can mimic intentional artifact shaping, this strategy is unlikely to approach anything as unnatural as a true sphere. Due to the limits on the fracture mechanics of flaking that govern detachable platform angles, the high-angled flake removals necessitated by a spherical form would require much more effort and shaping than is involved in expedient flaking.” (Muller et al. 2023) In the end the Muller paper does not give a conclusion as to why these (or any other) stone spheroids were laboriously created.

A large number of stone spheres were also recovered from Qesem Cave, of roughly the same age as the Ubeidiya site, also in Israel.

Fremont figure at Balanced Rock, Nine Mile Canyon, Utah. Photograph Peter Faris, 1993.

On 4 April 2021 I published a column on RockArtBlog titled “The Enigmatic Figure at Balanced Rock, Utah – Bolas, Juggling or Rattles” in which I mentioned that some have interpreted the stone balls found in Fremont cultural contexts might have been used to create bola or boleadero, the implement commonly associated with South American gauchos. The Fremont culture is roughly dated to a span the ran from AD 1 to AD 1301 and has no connection to the Acheulean period at all so this is just a coincidence.

Fremont stone sphere. Illustration from Madsen, 1989.

“For a long time stone balls commonly found at Fremont village sites were thought to be part of a game, but recent work suggests that they may have been used with metates.” (Madsen 1989:33) and “Some stone balls, such as this highly polished specimen from the Old Woman site, suggest a use other than as a grinding tool.” (Madsen 1989:66) I also concluded that the Balanced Rock petroglyph was likely carrying a rattle, not a boleadero so this throws no light on the frequent occurrence of stone balls at Fremont sites at all. As I said above, this is just a coincidence, but a very interesting one.

NOTE: Some images in this posting were retrieved from the internet with a search for public domain photographs. If any of these images are not intended to be public domain, I apologize, and will happily provide the picture credits if the owner will contact me with them. For further information on these reports you should read the original reports at the sites listed below.

REFERENCES:

Faris, Peter, 2021, The Enigmatic Figure at Balanced Rock, Utah – Bolas, Juggling or Rattles, 4 April 2021, RockArtBlog, https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/7760124847746733855/1434956800556132596.

Madsen, David B., 1989, Exploring the Fremont, University of Utah Occasional Publications No. 8, Utah Museum of Natural History, Salt Lake City.     

Muller, Antoine et al., 2023, The limestone spheroids of ‘Ubeidiya: intentional imposition of symmetric geometry by early hominins?, Royal Society Open Science, Volume 10, issue 9, September 2023. Accessed online 6 September 2023.

Wikipedia, Acheulean, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acheulean. Accessed online 10 Sept. 2024.

 

Wikipedia, Qesem Cave, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qesem_cave. Accessed online 14 October 2024.