https://www.science.org/content/article/were-these-stone-balls-made-ancient-human-relatives-trying-perfect-sphere
Spherical stones are found among ancient stone tool sets, but we don't
know what they were used for. This news article claims that they were
worked into shape by human hands. They think that chipping around the
less round sections indicate work to round out the sphere. This is a scientific endeavor that the ID perps could be helping out if they were actually trying to do any ID science.
My guess is that the edges that show chipping could indicate that these
stones were roughly shaped and smoothed for hammer work on other stone
tools. They were made of limestone so they wouldn't be expected to hold
a useful edge, but they might have been used to work blade tech tools.
They are a little smaller in diameter than a baseball, so they would fit
easily into the palm of your hand, and the flat surfaces that show work chipping around the edges could be the working edges of this tool.
It could be that they made them just for amusement, but they are the
right size to easily fit into a human hand. Maybe there was an ancient
game of 9 pins?
There seems to be evidence that ancient Homo did make things for their
esthetic value. Some of the huge stone hand axes seem to be too large
and ornate to have been used to dig tubers. They might have been a
symbol of the expertise of the makers, and used to demonstrate how good
that individual was in working stone.
We probably won't ever know for sure unless we have time travel.
Ron Okimoto
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