Categories for entry
We invite thinkers, mathematicians, creators, researchers, and enthusiasts from all walks of life to submit their interpretations, hypotheses, or creative responses to one of archaeology’s most intriguing enigmas: Scotland’s Carved Stone Balls (CSBs). With origins in the Neolithic era and no definitive explanation for their purpose, these artifacts open the door to endless speculation, imagination and exploration.
To guide and enrich this process, we have created four distinct categories of entry.
1. Functional
What might they have done?
Entries in this category should explore practical or utilitarian uses of carved stone balls. This might include theories or reconstructions of CSBs as tools, weapons, measurement devices, components in mechanical systems, or aids in daily or ritual activities.
Key focus: Practical function or mechanical use, based on plausible real-world application.
2. Cultural
What might they have meant?
This category seeks interpretations that place CSBs in the context of Neolithic cultural, spiritual, or social life. Consider their symbolic significance, used as part ritual in ceremonies, social status markers, or representations in or of nature.
Key focus: Cultural or symbolic meaning, embedded in human belief, values or social structure.
3. Imaginative
What might they inspire?
Here we invite fiction, art, and speculative storytelling. Participants are encouraged to let their creativity run wild, imagining CSBs as magical objects, artifacts or relics of older civilisations. This category celebrates creative freedom and untrammelled imagination.
Key focus: Creative and speculative interpretation, unconstrained by factual requirements.
4. AI-Enabled / AI-Assisted
What might machine learning make of them?
In this category, AI plays a contributory role in generating insights, designs, or models related to CSBs. We welcome projects where AI is used as a partner in research, art, or conceptual development.
Key focus: Use of artificial intelligence as a tool or collaborator in developing new perspectives.
Summary
By offering these four categories, we hope to create space for rigorous analysis, rich cultural context, playful imagination, and cutting-edge technological insight. Whether you’re a scientist, artist, researcher, dreamer, or developer, we invite you to help illuminate the enduring enigma of Scotland’s carved stone balls.