| Caption | "Carved stone balls date from about 3500 to 1500 BC, the later Neolithic into the Bronze Age. More than 425 are known, almost all from Scotland, particularly from the North East. Most balls are decorated with large or small knobs, most commonly six knobs, although some of the finest have only four. Some knobs and, sometimes, the spaces between them are decorated with an incised pattern and occasionally the whole ball is decorated with a single design. Their purpose is unknown but they may have been prestige objects. This ball is made from a fine-grained stone and has six large, well-defined knobs. It is smoothed and finely decorated with high quality carving - with a single spiral carved on one face and on the opposing one, a pattern of four spirals. On the face between are the remains of a fine dotted pattern. There is rougher carving on the other faces, a small spiral and some crude hatching. The other incised lines may be of a later date. The ball was found at Gaucy Hillock, Newmachar, Aberdeenshire."
Author: Feilden,Rosemary Date: 1999 Purpose: SCRAN
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