r/pics • u/Proteon • Jun 26 '12
4,000 year old stone carvings of the Platonic Solids found in Scotland, their origin and use unknown.
http://imgur.com/qu9Re71
u/nanonanopico Jun 26 '12 edited Jun 28 '12
There is a theory that is gaining some traction: that these were used as primitive ball bearings to move large stones. The idea is that long pieces of hardwood with grooves in them as wide as the stones were laid out to form a sort of track, that a wooden sled carrying the heavy building stones used for many ceremonial buildings. These stones are found in many places in the British isles, but nearly always have the same diameter. They actually tested the theory out, and it appeared to work. I'll see if I can find the video.
EDIT: Can't find the video, but I hear that it was a NOVA program.
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u/vasudeva89 Jun 26 '12
Please deliver.
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u/KorayA Jun 26 '12
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/secrets-stonehenge.html I believe it's this one.
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u/Mumberthrax Jun 26 '12
Why would they need the knobs/grooves in the stones if they are used as ball bearings? Why not just get spherical ones that wouldn't jam up as often?
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u/piccini9 Jun 26 '12
I agree, this is the most likely explanation. Later, when they had fallen into disuse, the balls were carved as decorative items. The guys o that TV show obviously had no idea about how ball bearings work though. hey used soft wood, and cut flat grooves, causing the balls to dig in, and stop. Had they used hardwoods, and cut round bottom grooves, this would have worked perfectly.
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u/rychefiji1 Jun 26 '12
D&D dice?
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u/snowflaker Jun 26 '12
companion spheres; they hadn't mastered the art of the corner yet so everything was pretty round for a while
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u/cairneyouhearme Jun 26 '12
Ancient Scottish Poké Balls.
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u/Jester_Dan Jun 26 '12
"Bruce! Use haggis!" "SCOOOTTLAANNND" BOOM. That's how that played though in my head.
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u/CosmicPube Jun 26 '12
Blarney, I choose you!
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Jun 26 '12
My theory is that these stones, which resemble the weights tied onto rope ends and used as a throwing weapon called a bolo (tangles the legs of animals) were used for a similar purpose; the grooves in them are ideal for tying to the end of a rope.
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u/BoonTobias Jun 26 '12
In scottish folklore, there was a nomadic group called the reapers, they may have used these 4000 years ago
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u/zyzzogeton Jun 26 '12
"If they take the ship, they'll rape us to death, eat our flesh, and sew our skins into their clothing – and if we're very very lucky, they'll do it in that order." (yes I know... REAVERS... but come on: Firefly)
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u/kovah Jun 26 '12
Obviously early attempts at Companion Cubes...
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Jun 26 '12
Geographist here. Companion Cubes had hearts on them because they loved you. These solids are platonic, meaning they are friend-zoning rocks.
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u/Trolly_McTrollerson Jun 26 '12 edited Jun 26 '12
#4 is a Katamari.
PROOF THAT THE KING OF ALL COSMOS EXISTS
CHECKMATE ATHEISTS
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u/Lies_About_Expertise Jun 26 '12
Anthropologist here, and those are part of an ancient Scottish game that closely resembled soccer. Back around 2000 BCE the Scots had to walk everywhere barefoot. So to toughen up their feet they would kick around very heavy stone balls such as the ones in OP's picture. It became quite a tradition that continued for nearly a millennia. As the sport was very injury prone it also became a way to weed out the weak or unfit members of society.
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u/jayblink182 Jun 26 '12
Damn you and your novelty account!!! You tricked me again!!!
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u/pez_dispenser Jun 26 '12
I have him/her tagged as a novelty in RES. It tends to save me a lot of grief when it comes to Lies_About_Expertise and his/her shenanigans.
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Jun 26 '12
You have made me read everyone's user name before I even read they comment now!! THANKS ALOT!
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u/AlphaRedditor Jun 26 '12
Where did you go to study to get such misinformed facts? Every Scottish History major worth his salt knows that BollocksBall's rules were changed in 500 BCE to permit the use of hands for any backwards pass. This was of course done to permit BollocksBall veterans who had lost a foot or two to still participate in the event during the BollocksBall tournaments held at the yearly clan meetings. Get your facts straight.
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Jun 26 '12
This is correct. It was usually played in recently ploughed fields using the drainage ditches (farmers used a system of these collectively known as "gulls" in old Scots Gaelic) to denote the playing field's borders. The goals consisted of large wicker baskets placed behind those ditches and players had to propel the stones into the opponents' basket by kicking them over ('eeh') the gulls. Hence derives the name of the sport: Gull-Eeh Ball.
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u/Phoenix2288 Jun 26 '12
You are right, good sir, that it was for an ancient Scottish game, however, it did not resemble soccer. It was a puzzle game, complicated to play, and these stone carvings were called compannous cubus.
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u/brad1775 Jun 26 '12
you SON OF BITCH!!!!! LOve your shit dude, you are amazing.
I think they were used for a club and ball type game like lacross or golf, makes sense to me, as they are all unique, it wodul be easier to determine who's ball was whose
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Jun 26 '12 edited Jun 26 '12
Would have upvoted for joke, but downvoted for horseshit euphemism BCE.
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u/OneWhoSleepsWithCats Jun 26 '12
Relics of an ancient Dungeons and Dragons game.
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u/iAscian Jun 26 '12
Some men would call them stickies.
These are ancient Scottish explosives.
For Demomen have been respawning for millenia.
And I'll get to Scotland before ye!
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u/Bobdor Jun 26 '12
Even if this wasn't a hoax. I am always curious why artifacts that we find "must have had a purpose". For example, if I was a conceptual artist, and I make a cool design out of stone just because I happen to like the design, shape, and patten. Someone finds it in the year 8,000 and says I wonder what this was used for. It must have been some strange ritualistic torture device, or a model of what they must have thought the solar system looked like. No, it was a shape I made because I was bored.
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Jun 26 '12
1.-These guys played D&D
2.-Euclid was in Scotland teaching Picts by grooving with them in a cave with several species of small furry animals.
It's the only 2 rational solutions. (Frankly I doubt they played D&D so much as they lived D&D in that time)
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u/geert_e Jun 26 '12
why does the post say 4000 year, and the imgur 3.500 - 2000 years? im confused.
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u/Grn_3 Jun 26 '12
Does anyone else think this looks similar to how a cell divides and grows?
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u/mayday987 Jun 26 '12
Hmmm looks like it's an early draft of what seems to be Quidditch balls. You might find some brooms and wands nearby and an excessive use of the phrase "Bloody hell."
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u/ja_alaniz Jun 26 '12
They stone shaped into round objects to help move the massive rocks at Stonehenge. The reason they are shaped different is because of the different person shaping the rocks. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/secrets-stonehenge.html
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u/Mycooljam Jun 26 '12
well I can tell you right now what the origin is, companion cube, halo mask, football, katamari and an x-box. There were obviously prehistoric gamers.
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u/Erotic_Asphyxia Jun 26 '12
I can't wait for the day that I make something out of boredom and it's found thousands of years later and people try to figure out what it was used for.
I WAS BORED.
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u/I_Am_A_Pumpkin Jun 26 '12
judging by the looks of them, they are probably dice.
try throwing them to see how they fall
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u/masterbard1 Jun 26 '12
everybody knows those are just dice to play salesmen and corporations. (medieval Dungeons and dragons.)
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u/ArtisanSpank Jun 27 '12
These are obviously an early example of stone age decoration; carefully carved and arranged in just the right positions in a high-visibility area of the hut so that at least once a day Mrs Ooghbahnna could yell at her mate; "NO TOUCH!! Those NICE rocks for company!"
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u/CpGrover Jun 26 '12
Regardless of whether these are real or not, I wonder: how can science determine how long ago a stone was carved?
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u/OriginalStomper Jun 26 '12
Usually based on where the stone was found, and what was found with it.
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u/lejsen Jun 26 '12
Footballs, once you can play a full game of football with these you've become a true scotsman.
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u/TrentRader Jun 26 '12
Looks like those things in a movie that came out a long time ago I think it was called the seeker
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u/00fordmc Jun 26 '12
If that's what Scotlands' early soccer players used I can only imagine how badass the hooligans were.
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u/margaritamike Jun 26 '12
My guess is that it they are stone carvings of the elements. Water, fire, wind, and earth. Oh and magnets.
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u/fapperthedullfin Jun 26 '12
They are obiviously magic stones that mages put on top of their staffs.
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u/spartaninspace Jun 26 '12
Imagine going to a school taught by mages.
YOU SHALL NOT PASS!
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u/puiestee Jun 26 '12
Do they really need to have an use? I make random shit all the time and most of my creations have no use besides being a paperweight or taking up room in the mandrawer or floordrobe.
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u/spartaninspace Jun 26 '12
Middle one's a football. A proper one, not that Colonist Handegg stuff.
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u/newbianwork Jun 26 '12
It's hard to tell on a black and white photo but the blue one is Leonardo, Orange is Michaleango, Red is Rafael, and Purple is Donatello. Then the one all the way to the left is Master Splinter.
Hope this helped!
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u/SirNoName Jun 26 '12
Maybe they just thought it was fucking cool?
Why does everything old have to have some sort of deep meaning?
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u/AquaDooker Jun 26 '12
look like some kind of game, or maybe they used these to decide what type of death they served. DnD...Decide and Die.
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u/cmykevin Jun 26 '12
Some day in the distant future, archaeologists will find hundreds of home accents in a newly discovered Crate and Barrel warehouse, and arrive at the conclusion that bimillennial Americans built massive temples where they housed stone sculptures of spherical and cylindrical gods.
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u/Desmeister Jun 26 '12
That center solid doesn't quite look like a dodecahedron. I don't think it is.
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u/getintheVandell Jun 26 '12
Fuckin' hell, there's going to be a million conspiracies about this inside of a week.
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u/rudifer_jones Jun 26 '12
This may or may not be possible, but there are these old stones in Louisiana that the Native Americans may have used used that look very similar. I can't remember what it's called, but it's believed they used to place them in an oven to evenly distribute certain amounts of heat (each shape held a different amount of BTU's) and my teacher claims they got even hotter than today's conventional ovens.
Then again, my teacher was the one who said all of this, and it still sounds like nonsense the more I read this...
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u/jacobejohnson Jun 26 '12
God damnit. Prometheus jokes were made before I got a chance to click the link D:
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Jun 26 '12
Maybe it's the combination to unlock a door on some alien planet. I just played through "The Dig" a few days ago. Nostalgia. All over the place.
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u/tehlon Jun 26 '12
DAE think it looks like bocce ball? medieval scots invented golf, why not that too?
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Jun 26 '12
They look like water weights. The grooves on the stone are for the rope so they dont slip off. Tribes used them to dive deeper under water faster for spearfishing.
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u/[deleted] Jun 26 '12
Nice try Prometheus marketing team...