An odd little item

[EnvoyToTheMolePeople]

I found this little thing in a brook in W. PA about two weeks ago. I think it is clay, and it doesn't look natural. It isn't bone or plastic. I know there is a bit of a running gag about people thinking ordinary rocks are artifacts because they 'fit in your hand', but this really has that. There are three divets on the side that seem to perfectly match how a person would hold it with a thumb and index finger, sort of like how you would hold a switch blade. It looks to be broken on both ends, and it has a little bump on the side. It is white, but covered in black algae, with a little red spot on the side.

 

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[Icewing]

It almost looks like a crude homemade wax seal stamp, but that's just a WAG

 

[EnvoyToTheMolePeople]

It almost looks like a crude homemade wax seal stamp, but that's just a WAG

You know, now that you say that, I do see how that is possible. I'm not quite convinced yet, though.

 

[Plug N Play]

Looks like a creek tumbled, deer antler shed.

 

[EnvoyToTheMolePeople]

Looks like a creek tumbled, deer antler shed.

I did consider this, and I'm not really sure how to tell if it is an antler. Is there anything I should look for?

 

[ANTIQUARIAN]

It almost looks like the base of a ceramic figurine, probably made of ceramic/pottery.

Dave

 

[ToddsPoint]

To tell if it's antler, heat up a straight pin and touch it to the item. If it's antler, it will smell like burnt hair. Gary

 

[Indian Steve]

It fits your hand because it is clay that was squeezed in a hand into that shape. It was used in a kiln for firing pottery. Unfired pottery was put in the kiln, then several of these "pigs" were stood on there ends in between the pottery to support the shelf for the next layer of pottery and repeated until the kiln is full. I dug hundreds of these many years ago while digging pottery dumps in a town with 29 potteries in the 1800s.