"I needed to categorize the Clayballs in some way. I don't know
if I will stick with these categories as my research progresses
... I'll just have to wait and see. Basically I have lumped the
clay balls into three groups."
The first group I call balloids.
They are very round.
They are very hard.
They are made from a very specific type of clay or fabric.
The clay is mixed with crushed quartz, lots of it.
These Clayballs aren't made from the clay that is found in ample amounts at the site.
The clay the balls are made of appears to be very clean, there is very little organic material in it. To get clay this clean someone would have to sieve the clay to clean it.
These Clayballs were fired in an oven or kiln type oven.
This type of Clayballs come in three basic sizes. Small, medium and large. Some of the balloids have been found with decorations or imprints that appear to have been intentionally placed there. For example, some have simple designs like an "O" or an "X".
Some appear to have rope prints or grass mat impressions in them.
The second group I call miniballs.
These smaller balls are found in groups and often found with the clay balls.
They are made of an organic clay very similar to the clay found at the site today.
The miniballs aren't fired (they were probably just dried in the sun) which makes them harder to study because you can't even clean or wash them as they crumble when you put them in water.
I find a lot of fingerprints all over these smaller balls.
The third group I call weird.
These are clay balls that are formed in weird shapes, some are flying saucer shaped ..some are shaped more like tiny drums.
Although we don't find as many Weird shaped balls as we do balloids, we do find a number of the weird-shaped balls. It seems that they were purposefully shaped in weird shapes not just balloids that accidentally got squished. They are something of a mystery though.