Carved stone balls: Scotland's strange, scattered sculptures

These abstract sculptures were made in Scotland sometime between 3,000 and 2,000BC. At least, they look abstract to us. We cannot know the context of prehistoric art: the patterns on these stones may be packed with symbolic information about wealth and power. About 400 of these strange objects have been found in Scotland. Some were discovered in the neolithic houses that survive at Skara Brae on Orkney, so the people who used them were certainly living settled, rich lives Illustration: The Trustees of the British Museum