Age Unidentified - Lanka
Ruhuna - terracotta ball

A terracotta marble sized ball engraved with lines around it found in Akurugoda in area of Tissamaharama. Age and usage unknown.

SPECIFICATIONS
Materialterracotta
Typeengraved
Diameter18.5 mm
Weight6.66 gms
Shapeball
Surfacesmooth
 ruhuna_ball_Terracotta
Two parallel lines engraved around diameter cross two parallel lines at right angles on the smooth spherical surface of ball.

Many terracotta and red-ware balls of various sizes and weights are frequently found in Ruhuna. They may have been used to play games like marbles or had some other application.

Shown on right is a photograph taken at Ruhuna of a bag full of them from which I picked a representative example shown above.

ruhuna_balls_collection

Terracotta balls are not listed in the 1999 catalog by Osmund Bopearachchi and Rajah Wickramasinhe titled Ruhuna. An Ancient Civilization Re-visited . They were obtained from the same collector who provided most of the items for that book.

If anyone has information on the age and use of items like it please let me know details about it.

The terracotta ball was scanned at 300 dpi and displayed at 300 dpi. It was obtained in 2001 December from Mr A. Ratnayaka a collector in Katharagama, Lanka.