Found on a bluff overlooking the Potomac river

[StoneHunter]

Hello!

I found this artifact in 1998 sitting in a shallow pit of exposed earth on top of a high bluff overlooking the Potomac river. It has a dimple in the center of both sides and the outer edge is rough all the way around the circumference as if it was used as a hammer stone.



Thanks for looking, more posts to follow...

 

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[smokeythecat]

That's nice, best guess is combination hammer stone and nutting stone.

 

[ToddsPoint]

Around here we call those anvil stones. Surprisingly, we find these out on the prairie around kettles where there were no trees at all. I think they were a multi purpose tool. Some of them have a depression on both sides, some only one side. Gary

 

[StoneHunter]

That's nice, best guess is combination hammer stone and nutting stone.

Sorry, I should have mentioned the item measures 2.5" across and is made of sandstone.

 

[discoidal roller]

Sandstone "chunkey" gaming stones have been found along the Potomac, and thats what it could be. In fact, the largest chunkey stone manufacturing site ever discovered was found at the Winslow site, right across the river from the ahem Trump National Golf Course.

https://jeffersonpatterson.wordpress.com/2013/09/11/chunkey-stones-in-maryland/

 

[Charl]

Lots of possibilities offered here. With anvil stones, since they were the nether half of a hammering operation, most of the time the pits would be a lot more uneven looking, rougher looking with uneven depths. But, could be. You don't show the sides to see if it looks like those sides were used to hammer. But, if they were, as you suggest, another possibility is what's known as a pitted hammerstone, which usually have pits on both sides. They come in various shapes.