Mysterious Million-Year-Old Stone Spheres
Archaeologists identify how these enigmatic tools were made
Nathan Steinmeyer
September 11, 2023
7 Comments
4862 views
The Mysterious Spheroids. Courtesy, Muller et al.
Although archaeologists remain uncertain of the purpose of these million-year-old stone spheres, they have solved one of big mystery—how they were made. Publishing their results in the journal Royal Society Open Science, an international team examined a large collection of these stone orbs, found at the site of ‘Ubeidiya near the Sea of Galilee and dating to 1.4 million years ago. The researchers found the spheres must have been intentionally created, showing the planning and technical abilities of early hominins.
Understanding the Strange Orbs
Found at archaeological sites dating from the Oldowan (c. 2.5 million years ago) to the Middle Paleolithic Age (c. 30,000 years ago), these lithic artifacts are quite common and appear wherever evidence of early hominins is found, although the purpose of the tools remains a mystery. Indeed, until now it was not even certain whether these spheres were intentionally made or simply a byproduct of another activity.
Using cutting-edge 3D analysis, including spherical harmonics and surface curvature, the researchers examined 150 limestone spheres at various stages of shaping uncovered at the site of ‘Ubeidiya, which represents the earliest attestation of the Acheulean culture outside of Africa. The team determined that the limestone objects became consistently more spherical over time, being chipped away in a predetermined and predictable manner. As such, they must have been intentionally crafted, with the final product in mind, and could not have been naturally shaped forms or a type of byproduct. Given the precision required to create such tools, the new findings challenge long-held assumptions about the technical abilities of early hominins.
“We had noted that almost all of the spheroids from ‘Ubeidiya, even the almost perfectly spherical ones, still preserved a flat area somewhere on their surface,” Antoine Muller, lead author of the study and a Ph.D. candidate at the Hebrew University, told The Times of Israel. “The spherical harmonics analysis helped us identify these surfaces and confirm that this was a repeated pattern, not just something in our imaginations. These flat surfaces likely helped them shape the spheroids by serving as a surface that could be struck to remove other parts of the artifact.”
All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library:
Ancient Roman Swords Discovered Near Ein Gedi
Mesha’s Stele and the House of David
Not a BAS Library or All-Access Member yet? Join today.Related Posts
Must-Read Free eBooks
Want more Bible history?
Sign up to receive our email newsletter and never miss an update.
All-Access Pass
All-Access Pass
Dig into the world of the Bible with a BAS All-Access membership. Combine a one-year tablet and print subscription to BAR with membership in the BAS Library to start your journey into the ancient past today!
Subscribe Today
The Bible does not say that the Earth is 6K old from Genesis 1:1. It only says that from the moment God started off reforming the Earth (Genesis 1:3 …), is the Earth about 6,000 years old. In Genesis 1:1, God created the heavens and the earth (and the creation is always perfect if God is at work). See Isiah 45:18 from among pertained references. In Genesis 1:2, we read that the Earth was “tohu wa bohu” which elsewhere in the Scriptures most often refers to the condition after a destruction. However, this is almost redundant after Genesis 1:1. In Genesis 1:4-1:5, the verb used for “making the sun and stars” is not “bara” (to create) but “asa” which can be better translated as “to appropriate.” That science keeps on finding fossils and rock formations millions of years old and that physics determined the age of the universe at some 13.8 billions of years, and the age of the earth some 5.7 billions of years, only supports the above. The young-earthers have a hard work to do to refute lots of stuff in the Scriptures and science.
I’m pretty sure that these are Fred Flintstone brand bowling balls
How can the stones be over a million years old? The earth is only a little over 6000 years old. I notice you do this in many articles, you should know this but continue to make statements like this. You can figure the age of the earth by reading the BIBLE.
Joan, please take a good science course, and forget pseudo-science!
Please participate in a really good Bible study. I read the BIBLE and believe in the word of GOD. If you start with Adam and work your way up with births and deaths, you’ll find out the earth is a little over 6000 years old. Many people have proved this by doing it this way. Science is a bunch of guesses and tests that are usually proved wrong.
Are you really buying the lies of the age of these. The Earth is only 6162 years old. Come on guys . Are your really Biblical?? I think not!!!
I don’t find an age for the Earth in the Bible. How long were Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden? A few months, years? They didn’t age they could have lived there forever if they had not sinned. They may have lived there 10,000 years before they sinned, Maybe 100,000, 200,000, maybe a million. As far as the age of the rocks goes, that is pure speculation and I would imagine many scientists would dispute the age.