What is the function of pottery balls?

Since the 20th century, archaeologists in China have excavated many widely distributed primitive cultural sites in the Yangtze River valley, among which the most striking is the pottery ball.

It is made of high quality clay. Due to the difference of clay and temperature, ceramic balls show different colors, but they are mainly limited to reddish brown and white. They are all very standard spheres with diameters ranging from 2 to 6 cm. Almost all ceramic balls have decorative patterns on their surfaces, some are simple circular patterns, some are spiral patterns, and some are exquisite fine lines, grass leaves and carved holes. There are also a few smooth balls without decorative patterns. Among the pottery balls decorated with patterns, there are a large number of pottery balls with the "meter" pattern composed of small dots printed by stamps.

These small pottery balls are hollow, and most of them contain pebbles and mud cores, which will make a noise when they are shaken.

What are these small pottery balls for?

People's most direct guess is toys. Will they be children's toys in primitive society? From the analysis of various signs of archaeological discoveries, this statement has no foothold.

They don't look like decorations either. Because these small pottery balls can't be worn on people, there are no holes in them to tie a rope padlock.

It won't be a hominid projectile. Because there is no need to burn the pellets into hollow, solid pellets are more durable.

Is it a tool for the wizard's divination and sacrifice? However, the results of archaeological excavations show that this explanation is useless.

Could it be a symbol of people's wealth at that time? This has to be proved by more archaeological discoveries or verified by various studies.

At present, historians can only describe the number, shape, ornamentation and other external characteristics of the discovered ceramic balls truthfully, and cannot hint at their essential attributes.

But what is certain now is that these small pottery balls were very distinctive in the primitive culture of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River 5000 ~ 8000 years ago. Because in addition to the middle reaches of the Yangtze River in tanghe county, Henan, Jiangling, Yuchun, Jingshan in Hubei, Lixian in Hunan and Qianshan in Anhui, no sites close to primitive culture have been found anywhere else.

Archaeologists have different opinions about what the original pottery balls were used for, and it is still a mystery.