I have found a handfull of these around this place and my grandfather said they used to call em moon balls when he was a kid. Most people think they are cannon balls, and they are almost as heavy as a cannon ball would be but they are not a cannon ball. I've had people tell me they are meteorites, but they are not metallic. They are not magnetic. My metal detector (Fisher) doesn't pick them up. We busted one open one time and they have a silver, metallic looking, crystallizedlike substance in them. It reminded me of "fools gold" 
They vary insize from marble -- tennis ball size. Any help would be appreciated. southern middle tennesseE.
In "The Natural and Aborigin History of Tennessee (1823) author John Haywood describes them as
" In the country within the limits of this state,,
called the Chickasaw purchase, between the Tennessee
river and the Mississippi, and near the latter
river, are found in many places, balls which at
first sight seem to be cannon balls, to which theii
resemblance is very striking. They are round and
«f a dark colour, but are composed of sand within,
and in the centre is a small cavity, containing fine
particles of very white sand. The shape is like
that which is given to the vitrified, round and hollow
su«bstances, which are found in the vicinity of
the Cumberland liver, where it most nearly approaches
the Tennessee, in the lower parts of Stuart
county. The latter are supposed to have been thrown
up in the times of earthquakes, from subterraneous
fires, through apertures of a rounded form, which
were opened via Biany parts of th© country, givingvent to the passages of sand, and fused materials.The motion by which they ascended, was such as
produced rotundity iu the rolled or upheaved mass,
and met the external air something like that, perhaps,
which in a kettle of boiling water fixes watery
globules on the surface." View attachment 774349View attachment 774350View attachment 774352
They vary insize from marble -- tennis ball size. Any help would be appreciated. southern middle tennesseE. In "The Natural and Aborigin History of Tennessee (1823) author John Haywood describes them as
" In the country within the limits of this state,,
called the Chickasaw purchase, between the Tennessee
river and the Mississippi, and near the latter
river, are found in many places, balls which at
first sight seem to be cannon balls, to which theii
resemblance is very striking. They are round and
«f a dark colour, but are composed of sand within,
and in the centre is a small cavity, containing fine
particles of very white sand. The shape is like
that which is given to the vitrified, round and hollow
su«bstances, which are found in the vicinity of
the Cumberland liver, where it most nearly approaches
the Tennessee, in the lower parts of Stuart
county. The latter are supposed to have been thrown
up in the times of earthquakes, from subterraneous
fires, through apertures of a rounded form, which
were opened via Biany parts of th© country, givingvent to the passages of sand, and fused materials.The motion by which they ascended, was such as
produced rotundity iu the rolled or upheaved mass,
and met the external air something like that, perhaps,
which in a kettle of boiling water fixes watery
globules on the surface." View attachment 774349View attachment 774350View attachment 774352
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