Clay ball

We have moved to the other side of the drawer for the final mysterious object: is this just a random clay ball?

It seems to have been human-made: we can see that there are some holes poked into it, in what appears to be a pattern (fig. 1 ). Moreover, we can see clear signs of handling by humans, like folds and fingerprints where a person would have kneaded this clay ball. It seems to be unbaked.

Often clay balls this size from the ancient Near East have a specific purpose. Such a thing would be called a bulla, and would contain little tokens that stand for numbers (fig. 3). It’s like a round envelope that seals the quantities of a contract so they cannot be tampered with. However, when we showed this to a bulla expert, she was not convinced. The weight is off and it doesn’t rattle when you shake it (though this can be normal). There are some very tiny holes in one side, and we’re not sure if they are in a deliberate pattern or not. Even the possibility of a coprolite (an ancient turd) was briefly considered, but the ball is deliberately formed because of the fingerprints that are partially covered by layers of clay.