2023-09-20 11:00:06
Mysterious stone spheres, dating back around 1.4 million years, have been discovered in the Middle East. A new study suggests that these objects are not the result of chance, but the result of a deliberate effort to create perfectly spherical shapes. This would be the oldest known evidence of planning and of symmetry in human history. Some of the limestone spheres from the Ubeidiya archaeological site in Israel Norddating from around 1.4 million of years.
Credit: Muller et al.
Antoine Muller, an archaeologist at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, is the lead author of this study. According to him, these spheres may have offered a functional advantage over the naturally rounded stones available in the landscape. Their increasingly spherical shape as they are manufactured indicates a preference for symmetry and an appreciation of geometry. The study found that early hominins shaped the spheres in several stages, making them increasingly spherical over time.
Credit: Muller et al/Royal Society Open Science
Hundreds of these spheroids, usually made of limestone or sandstone, have been discovered at archaeological sites in Africa, Asia and in Europe. They vary in size, from the size of a walnut to that of an orange. Some think that they may have been used as “knocking stones” to loosen shards of other stones.
Muller’s team examined 150 of these limestone spheres, found at the Ubeidiya archaeological site in northern Israel. Mathematical analysis confirmed that their spherical shape was deliberate and probably worked in several stages.
More than 150 limestone spheroids and other ancient artifacts have been discovered at the Ubeidiya archaeological site.
Crédit: Column (CCA-SA 3.0)
Previous studies had already noted symmetry in Acheulean bifaces, stone tools. However, these spheres could be even older and serve similar or even different purposes.
Bruce Hardy, a paleoanthropologist at Kenyon College in Ohio who was not involved in the study, speculated that these spheres may have had an unknown practical purpose. However, he acknowledges that Muller’s study shows that these objects become mathematically more spherical as they are worked.
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