dang!!! thirty7 i was counting on you man to help me out on this one.... you Tnmountains,SRV and Molly have been a huge help to me and a couple of my friends learn what we are finding. only been hunting this year and we are totally hooked, hunt just about every day. glad im the single one because i am sure they hear it every day we go out...hahaha
headhunter - they really are natural. I have a couple from WV myself. I don't know how they're formed, or whether they're actually hematite but they're obvisouly some iron based mineral and too cool not to pick up but I don't believe they're artifacts.
ahh dang!!! well thanks for the help guys...that's one of the reasons i love this site. you guys are a big help and that's better then just wondering about a piece that is not a artifact...but yes gotta pick those cool looking rocks along with the artifacts. thanks again for the feedback!!!
Matt is right, they are natural formations. It's actually a piece of Concretion and they are usually found all over known sites so while they may be a natural occurring stone there are way to many of them found on sites for them not be something. I have one Ft Ancient site were I have found 25 or 30 Concretion Cups and the hollow ones like you have. I have a buddy who has one that is almost cone shaped and it has hole drilled into it along the rim and was probably a Pendant.
Even though it is a natural stone if you found it on a known site where lots of other artifacts came from it could have brought in and used as a Bead. It is very highly polished from what I can see in your pictures.
Here's some pictures of some of my Concretion pieces. These are almost all from the same site. The first one is very similar to yours and is very highly polished and more than likely a Bead. The next 3 pictures has a bunch of Concretion Cups on the shelf right in front of the trays.
thanks for showing me that SRV. i have a piece that looks just like the ones you have. thought maybe it was just a water worn rock. do you think they could have been used for something?