Stone ball with metal attachment and [?26] regular spherical protuberances [average diameter 23 mm]. [MN 21/09/2009]

Collection type: Object
Description: Stone ball with metal attachment and [?26] regular spherical protuberances [average diameter 23 mm]. [MN 21/09/2009]
Long description: Stone sphere with metal attachment and [?26] regular spherical protuberances [average diameter 23 mm]. It is not known if the metal attachment is contemporaneous with the carving of the surface. [MN 21/09/2009]
Geographical reference: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Europe > Northern Europe > United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; Scotland
Person: Field collector John Rae; PRM source Dowell's Auction Rooms
Date / Period: Archaeological period: Neolithic Archaeological period: Early Bronze Age
Date collected: By 1892
Acquisition information: Purchased: 1892.
Materials and processes: Material Stone, Process Carved, Process Ground
Dimensions: Diameter 75 mm approx, Weight 478 g
Object numbers: Accession number: 1892.60.13 Other numbers: 677
Research and responses: Over 400 carved stone balls are known in the literature, all remarkably uniform in size (Marshall 1976/77, 1983) and have been dated to the late Neolithic/Bronze Age. Their distribution is concentrated in north-east Scotland, in Aberdeenshire, but their function is unknown. Marshall, D.N. (1976/77) Carved Stone Balls. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, 108. [AS 13/12/2010]