Small clay and stone spheres in the late prehistory of the iberian peninsula

Abstract

In the archaeological contexts from the end of the 3rd millennium BC to approximately the middle of the 2nd millennium BC in the Iberian Peninsula, small clay and stone balls have been registered, although having received almost no attention from the research community. In this paper, we aim to gather the findings of these materials to the best of our knowledge, addressing as well the small balls documented for the 1st millennium BC, which have been more abundantly found in archaeological excavations and approached a bit more in scientific works. We discuss as well the interpretations, proposed from different geographical and chronological contexts, of the nature of these balls, their uses and even their symbolic meaning, in order to try to contribute to a broader knowledge of these materials and benefit their future study.