Native American Carved Stone

NolanTheExplorer

Sr. Member
May 11, 2011
353
249
Virginia
Detector(s) used
AT Pro, AT Max, ProPointer, Ace 250, GTA 1250, Radio Shack Bounty Hunter, Eye Balls, Intuition, Instinct.
Primary Interest:
Relic Hunting
Buddy found this in a creek near our house. Not sure what it is.
Ideas?

ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1453134575.871878.jpg

Good luck to everyone out there!
DHD
 

Upvote 0
No more granite like. Hard and heavy.
 

I'll add:
Granite like stone
Very hard
Very heavy
 

How did you go about checking the hardness? My first thought was a small steatite bowl. Or a huge undrilled boatstone! More pictures might help. Cool find either way.
 

hard to the touch. common sense check, not a check with tools.
 

Can you get some more photos of this item like the bottom and the sides. I have never seen a lamp made of stone by a NA, most were made of pottery?
 

DeadheadDigger - Really a neat find. Like monsterrack said, can we see more pictures? This is an unusual piece - frankly right now I no idea what it is. My gut tells me that if it's a native piece it's post contact. Nice find and I hope you're able to find more info on it.
 

Thread from "Today's Finds" moved & merged with this thread...
 

This item has a lot of questions, like if it was made for a lamp or to mash up berries for a dye it would have to be held in the hand, because what I see in the one photo is that it has a round bottom. Other odd thing is why would they make a bend in the outlet flow area, unless this is a natural item from a fossil that was altered, but it still is a lot of work for something that had to be hand held to use. It would be real nice to have more photo's and we would have a better chance to be able to ID this item.
 

Need more pics like the bottom and sides. Could be natural or could of been used more pics will tell.
 

Need more pics like the bottom and sides. Could be natural or could of been used more pics will tell.

Natural? Hah
I'll try to get moe pics on here soon.
 

Natural? Hah
I'll try to get moe pics on here soon.

So Im guessing we arent going to see more pics of it? Im wrong once in a while but without more pics we will never know if Im rite or wrong. Id like to be proven wrong and it be a find of a lifetime for you.
 

The finder mentioned it early on, but it looks just like an oil lamp. The tail of the comma would have given the wick a perfect place to rest and burn steady. I am not aware of ancient oil lamps being found that far south, but once you get up to the northern Atlantic they are pretty standard artifacts (they are common in many parts of the world.)

If I had it, instead of natural or manmade, my question would be is it Native American or something historic? Whale oil lamps would have been used in most houses into the 1800's, kerosene became more common but whale oil was cheaper even into the early 1900's. Heavy steatite lamps were common even into the historic period.
 

So Im guessing we arent going to see more pics of it? Im wrong once in a while but without more pics we will never know if Im rite or wrong. Id like to be proven wrong and it be a find of a lifetime for you.


ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1455120341.000756.jpgImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1455120350.871115.jpgImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1455120365.812607.jpgImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1455120375.567231.jpgImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1455120387.022634.jpg
 

I would think it's NA, just because of the bottom, it's not flat and would've sat nicely on an earthen floor, whereas I would assume colonials would've likely given it a flatter bottom to sit upon a desk, etc.

As to it being natural formation ( minus tool marks), I wouldn't think so, but certainly far stranger geofacts are out there.
 

Last edited:
I would think it's NA, just because of the bottom, it's not flat and would've sat nicely on an earthen floor, whereas I would assume colonials would've likely given it a flatter bottom to sit upon a desk, etc.

As to it being natural formation ( minus tool marks), I wouldn't think so, but certainly far stranger geofacts are out there.

Thanks for sharing. I personally feel long past the "is it native" question. It's the "what is it" that is bugging us. Could bug us forever I guess..
 

Whatever it is, its pretty cool !
 

Thanks for sharing. I personally feel long past the "is it native" question. It's the "what is it" that is bugging us. Could bug us forever I guess..

Thanks looks to be Soapstone. Pics are much better ty.
 

Top Member Reactions

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top