The thunderstone is familiar from the folklore of virtually every culture, but plays no ‘roll’ in the serious sciences.

In the eyes of most, the proposition that thunderbolts deposit rocks is an asinine artefact of superstitious belief – an antiquated theme that epitomises an infant stage in the intellectual evolution of the human mammal. But has this neglect of common folk traditions hit rock bottom with such swift dismissal?

The conviction that no stones come down in the lightning hails from the same period when scientists proscribed the fall of meteorites – the 18th century, when Aristotle’s fiction of an immutable and unpolluted sky still commanded sufficient clout to veto the descent of any rocks from the heavens at all. As meteorites have long since gained recognition, the thunderstone deserves renewed attention, too.

Upon inspection, the ‘thunderstone’ appears to be a mixed bag, as no less than five categories of objects have been thus labelled in traditional societies. These are the following, each illustrated with a smattering of examples..............................