New research has offered clues to decoding the secrets of the Mesopotamian clay balls, which were found in Iran and date back 5,500 years. The study, which used CT scanning to look inside the clay balls, revealed that the balls may represent the world’s “very first data storage system”. Their sizes vary from golf ball size to baseball size and to date, only about 150 intact examples have been found in the region. Researchers used high-tech equipment to look inside the balls and found that they contained tokens in a variety of geometric shapes. It is possible that the shapes conveyed numbers used in counting different types of products which were exchanged. Rather strangely, the CT scan also revealed that one ball contained tokens which would have been wrapped in cloth before being put in the ball and then had a bitumen-type liquid poured over them. The reason for this still remains a mystery. The region that once contained the flourishing civilization of Mesopotamia is not the only place where clay or stone balls have been found. More than 400 carved stone balls were found in Scotland dating back to the Neolithic period between 3000 and 2000 BC, and thousands of baseball-sized clay balls were found in the ancient Neolithic city of Çatalhöyük in Turkey. Is it a coincidence that these artefacts have been found in many countries around the world belonging to the same era? Were they used for the same purpose? –
New research has offered clues to decoding the secrets of the Mesopotamian clay balls, which were found in Iran and date back 5,500 years. The study, which used CT scanning to look inside the clay balls, revealed that the balls may represent the world’s “very first data storage system”. Their sizes vary from golf ball size to baseball size and to date, only about 150 intact examples have been found in the region. Researchers used high-tech equipment to look inside the balls and found that they contained tokens in a variety of geometric shapes. It is possible that the shapes conveyed numbers used in counting different types of products which were exchanged. Rather strangely, the CT scan also revealed that one ball contained tokens which would have been wrapped in cloth before being put in the ball and then had a bitumen-type liquid poured over them. The reason for this still remains a mystery. The region that once contained the flourishing civilization of Mesopotamia is not the only place where clay or stone balls have been found. More than 400 carved stone balls were found in Scotland dating back to the Neolithic period between 3000 and 2000 BC, and thousands of baseball-sized clay balls were found in the ancient Neolithic city of Çatalhöyük in Turkey. Is it a coincidence that these artefacts have been found in many countries around the world belonging to the same era? Were they used for the same purpose? – See more at: http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-general/ten-unusual-archaeological-discoveries-2013-001164#sthash.KLQoCJ0M.dpuf
