The discovered stone is said to have a radius between four to five feet, as well as an extremely high iron content. It is said the area where the stone was discovered used to be a home of such spherical stone into the 20th century, but many of them were destroyed in the 1970s, due to mythological rumors that there was gold hidden in the middle of them.
Bosnia’s famous archaeologist, Dr Semir Osmanagic said the giant round stone could be the oldest stone sphere made by human hands. Dr Osmanagic is the leader of the team that discovered the giant stone.
He told local media outlets that the sphere proved the existence of an advanced lost civilization, which could date back more than 1,500 years ago.
However, some European archaeologists have dismissed Dr Osmanagic’s claim that the stone was man-made. Critics believed the stone was formed naturally by the precipitation of natural mineral cement within the spaces between sediment grains.
Mandy Edwards, a lecturer at the School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences in the University of Manchester, told MailOnline that the spherical stone may be an example of concretion.
But Dr Osmanagic is still holding on to his claim, saying that access to the rock is granted to researchers who would like to verify that it was made by humans in the past.
Dr Osmanagic is not new to criticisms. In 2005, he made the headlines in the media in Europe for his work on the supposed existence of ancient pyramids in the Visoko Valley, which he said then, that the pyramids are hidden in plain sight as a cluster of hills.
He said then that once his research is completed at the Visoko valley, it will be taller than the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt. He was widely criticized and ridiculed by his fellow academicians for his claims on the pyramids.
But regardless of the criticisms, the Bosnian government has given him financial backing, enabling excavations to be carried out in the region. The United Nations Education Scientific and Cultural Organization has also given the excavation its backing.
Dr Osmanagic is known as Bosnian Indiana Jones. He now lives in Austin in Texas, United States, and travels around the world to investigate ancient sites.
According to Osmanagic, the phenomenon of this new stone discovered could be linked with ancient civilizations around the world, especially the stone spheres of Costa Rica.
The stone spheres of Costa Rica numbering around 300 and weighing up to 15 tonnes, are believed to have been created by the now extinct Diquis culture in the pre-Columbian indigenous culture of Costa Rica. The stones are also believed to be about 1500 years old.
It is unclear how those stones were created, but it is believed they were first sculpted from a local stone before being hammered and polished with sand.
If what Dr Osmanagic and his team have found is proven by an independent body to be man-made, it will be the largest man-made stone ball ever found, twice as heavy as the Costa Rican ones.
Osmanagic is said to have been researching stone balls for the past 15 years. He has said in the past, that the ancient civilization used the stone balls in the belief that it attracted positive energy, and was able to offer healing benefits.
On his new discovery, Osmanagic was quoted as saying “It is once again further proof that there was an advanced civilization here with a high level of technology about which we know very little.”
