关键词: 石球; 旧石器时代; 石锤; 狩猎工具

Abstract: As one of the interesting and enigmatic artifact forms at some Paleolithic sites and localities, Spheroid have received special attention on its classification, manufacture procedure, and function among the archaeologists in the world. The author presents here a general review of the terminology, archaeological discoveries, and experimental investigation of the Spheroid. To start with the dynamic typology and the roughly exterior shape, the manufacture procedure of spheroid can be classified in to four different stages of manuports, spherical stones, subspheroids, and spheroids. Furthermore, after given a brief consideration of the possible function of the spheroids which proposed by the archaeologists in the past, an approach on the using patterns as the hunting tools of the spheroids is also proposed by the author in the current paper.

Key words: Spheroids; Paleolithic; Stone hammer; Hunting tools