Honghai Deng

The Co-evolution of Human Culture and Spherical Artifacts:: Exploring Mysteries of Ancient Stone and Pottery Balls Honghai Deng

Of all the present-day artifacts, the spherical artifact is the oldest. Excavated evidence shows that stone balls were made and used in the world at least from 1,000,000 years ago. So far people have discovered various sets of stone and pottery balls at ancient sites in a number of world areas. A series of their samples is selected and their photos and stories are presented in the book. They are full of interest and mystery. Any one of them can be a focus for unconstrained thoughts and imaginings. They are still gaps in modern archaeological science. Because of the lack of worldwide systematized materials on these objects, it is too difficult to solve a mystery of one or a set of balls from an individual ancient site. To explore their mysteries, the author established their genealogy and evolution tree and used them to trace the evolution of human cognitive abilities in the oldest scientific fields - counting and calendric lore. This study is interesting for both public and professionals. Let our universe shares the cross-cultural story of human evolution recorded in ancient stone and pottery balls.