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Lot 98

A Prehistoric Scottish basalt ball

Antiquities
7 July 2016, 10:30 BST
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £22,500 inc. premium

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A Prehistoric Scottish basalt ball
Neolithic, circa 3rd Millennium B.C.
The sphere carved in the round and composed of six convex knobs in relief, 7.5cm diam

Footnotes

Provenance
UK private collection acquired in 2000.
Bonhams, 3 October 2000, lot 15.
This item has been recorded by the Treasure Trove Advisory Panel of Scotland (Arch.TTNC.1999/24). Accompanied by a copy of a letter from the Treasure Trove Advisory Panel Secretariat, Treasure Trove, Edinburgh, dated 04 November 1999, transferring ownership from the Crown to the finder.

Literature:
These stone balls have been found chiefly in Aberdeenshire and are peculiar to Scotland; their use is believed to have been symbolic. Approximately 350 of these balls are known, although very few have appeared on the market.

For an early listing of these balls, see J. Anderson, Scotland in Pagan Times: The Iron Age, Edinburgh, 1883, pp.162-170, where seventeen stone examples and one in bronze are described with their find spots. For a discussion of stone objects including balls as ceremonial symbols, cf. D. V. Clarke, Symbols of Power at the Time of Stonehenge, Exhibition catalogue, National Museum of Antiquities, Edinburgh, 1985, pp.56-62 and 254, see illustration p. 59, pl. 3.26, for a related example found at Turriff, Aberdeenshire. Also cf. Bonhams, 26 November 1997, lot 235 for another example formerly in the Pitt-Rivers and K. J. Hewett collections.

Additional information

Bid now on these items

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