Source One: Carved Stone Balls found at Skara Brae
Archaeologists have found carved stone balls, roughly the size of a child’s hand, at Skara Brae. To carve these balls it took time and hard work because the people of Skara Brae didn’t have metal tools.
Archaeologists aren’t one-hundred percent sure what these balls are used for. Theories about their possible uses include as a throwing weapon, for games or sport, as weights for fishing nets or as symbols of a person’s importance. One theory is that they may have been a ‘speaking ball’, giving the holder the right to speak in village meetings.
Similar stone balls were also found around the Boyne Valley in Ireland, six hundred kilometres away.
The same symbols found carved on the balls, have also been found elsewhere in Skara Brae, carved on door frames and bed posts, pottery and walls.
These symbols, as shown in the diagram above, are a form of runic writing, that is, primitive writing from before the creation of an alphabet. No-one has been able to decipher what these primitive symbols mean.
Source Two: Bone Pins, Necklaces and Amulets from Skara Brae
Three types of jewellery have been found at Skara Brae — beads, pendants and pins. Most of the jewellery was made from bone that came from decent-sized sea animals and also herd animals. The pins were used to fasten their clothes and to keep up their long hair. Some of the hair pins are up to 35 centimetres long.
Some of the jewellery was carved with decorations and there is evidence that the men wore jewellery.