Let's do it then. "Meditation Beads" they are!

Actually, I do think there's a good chance that - if the patterns are other than simply aesthetic, and I'm inclined to think they may be - they're likely to be linked to numerological reminders associated with religious rites of some sort.

In a similar kind of way, this rock crystal lingam (pics attached) from the pre-Angkor culture of Southeastern Cambodia, which dates from 300CE to 900, has a four-sided base, an octagonal mid-section, and a circular top. As I understand it, this becomes a symbolic expression of the triple Hindu deities, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. But that doesn't prevent my Buddhist partner from seeing in it the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path of Buddhism and placing it on the family altar. On the base of the lingam is a symbol that, I'm told, represents the idea of transcendence.

I'm not very adept at these numbers games (still imprisoned in a monotheistic upbringing, perhaps!), but I think our meditation beads would be a fruitful study for someone who was.

I really love the surfaces of these beads. They look perfectly smooth at first glance, but they have these little facets that catch the light in complex ways. With the drill holes, there's no research that has been done (akin to Mark Kenoyer's in the Indus Valley) which would help us understand the precise technology, but it's obviously quite advanced. The fine, neat holes are the norm (on both the meditation beads and the animal-shaped beads), though there are many exceptions that are much cruder. Apparently, the fine holes are found both on beads imported from South Asia and those made from locally-mined stone.

Thanks for showing them. I'm still drooling.

Will