At ZME Science, Tudor Tarita reports on the ancient fondness for the spherical stones of volcanic origin. The rough stone spheres were apparently brought from a distance, which suggests that they were the objects of searches:

In the highlands of Melka Kunture, Ethiopia, archaeologists have found dozens of remarkably round stones—dark, dense balls of volcanic rock. These are not sculpted artifacts; no hands chipped them into shape. They were born of fire and geology, not craftsmanship. And yet, a new study suggests, early hominins may have used them with purpose.

“Early Humans May Have Collected Round Stones for Over 1 Million Years,” March 23, 2025

A study of upwards of thirty of these stones, housed at the National Museum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, showed that they came from sites that offered tens of thousands of artifacts that are clearly tools. Were the stones also used as tools?

“I am convinced that the hard volcanic ones were used to knap or retouch lithic tools,” [author Margherita] Mussi explained. “While the rather soft lapilli ones were used for rubbing vegetables, hides, or other stuff.” “Over 1 Million Years”

From the paper:

The volcanic spheres of Melka Kunture are not manufactured tools but the Pleistocene hominins undeniably noticed those well-rounded, strikingly geometric shapes. The relatively small sample assembled in 60 years of research suggests that they probably occurred in limited numbers in the fluvial plains along the meandering paleo-Awash. This points to recurrent attentive collection for a purpose.

Margherita Mussi, The volcanic rock spheres of Melka Kunture (Upper Awash, Ethiopia) at Gombore IB and later Acheulean sites, Quaternary International (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2025.109681

Tarita riffs on “recurrent attentive collection for a purpose” as “And maybe, just maybe, they saw beauty in a sphere.”

Revisiting the bone tool workshop

This story pairs nicely with one from earlier this month about a bone tool workshop, found in the Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania from 1.5 million years ago. The study authors think that the toolmakers transferred their skills at working with stone to working with bone, which in their view argues for the use of abstract reasoning at that time. The question naturally arises, was the normally developed human mind ever incapable of abstract thought? Finds like these are a challenge to accepted evolution theories.

For example, Tarita offers,

We may never know exactly what our ancestors did with these spheres. They may have served as hammerstones, grinding tools, or even primitive game pieces. But the behavior behind them—the attention to shape, the act of selection, the testing of function—offers an important clue into our ancetors’ evolution. “Over 1 Million Years”

Image Credit: dasom - Adobe Stock

“What evolution?,” one is tempted to ask. If these stones were “primitive game pieces” — which Tarita suggests as a possibility — they are not evidence for human evolution. Rather, they are evidence for human stasis. After all, we use game pieces today. So they are evidence for immense periods — a million years? — during which the human mind did not evolve at all.

There was an evolution — very slow at first — of the technologies by which the mind expresses itself. As I noted in the earlier story, tens of thousands of years ago, an imaginative human might have amused a fireside gathering with a tale about visiting the Moon (and fighting dire Moon monsters of course). The only “technology” needed was a vivid imagination. But actually visiting the Moon requires technologies that only became available in the last century.

Darwinian evolution theory has harmed the study of human history to the extent that any state of affairs that dates to eons ago can be referred to as “evolution” even when, as in this case, the facts imply the opposite,

You may also wish to read: Abstract reasoning in human ancestors: Earlier than thought? Researchers say, bone tools were being mass produced 1.5 million years ago in the in Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. The question naturally arises, was the normally developed human mind ever incapable of abstract thought? That’s a challenge to accepted evolution theories.