Mysterious Stone Balls Found in Deteriorating Scottish Tomb
Dating back some 5,500 years, the polished stone balls could’ve been used as weapons.

Archaeologists working in the Orkney Islands of Scotland have uncovered two polished stone balls dating back to the Neolithic.

The stone balls were found inside the Tresness stalled cairn, an early Neolithic tomb located on Sanday, one of dozens of islands in Scotland’s Orkney archipelago. It’s a significant discovery, as only a small handful of these prehistoric balls have ever been found in a burial context.

“A cracking find from the tomb!,” tweeted team co-leader Hugo Anderson-Whymark, an archaeologist with National Museums Scotland (NMS), on August 18 after his team found the first of the two balls. “Only 20 or so Neolithic polished stone balls have been found in Orkney and few have been recovered from secure contexts,” he added.