Spanish stone cannonball or Chamorro artifact...or just a rock?

[Terry_on_Guam]

Hi, my family and I have been living on Guam for 6 years now and we used to live on Navy Base in Santa Rita. One day while playing with his friends, my young found this cool round rock and brought it home. I've seen my kids playing with it a hundred times, but it finally dawned on me that natural round rocks are probably rare. After looking at it closer, it appears to maybe have some type of seem going around it and a small circular flat spot about the size of a pencil eraser. Now I'm curious as to what they've found. Is it an ancient relic? Was it used during the Magellan's landing? Or is it a geode that some kid bought while on family vacation and then subsequently lost? Photos attached. Please help.

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Agony and Death on a Gold Rush Steamer: The Disastrous Sinking of the Side-Wheeler Yankee Blade - Grab it through Amazon!

[smokeythecat]

Looks manmade. The Spanish did use stone cannonballs at first, sometimes 100 year old croquet balls turn up also and people think they are cannon balls.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Terry, I can't help on the stone, but welcome to TreasureNet. I was in air force and passed through Guam several times, my hunting partner was Navy and stationed there.

 

[Terry_on_Guam]

Looks manmade. The Spanish did use stone cannonballs at first, sometimes 100 year old croquet balls turn up also and people think they are cannon balls.

Thanks for the reply, I thought that it looked manmade too. At first, I thought maybe cement, but it appears to be stone.

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

 

[Terry_on_Guam]

Terry, I can't help on the stone, but welcome to TreasureNet. I was in air force and passed through Guam several times, my hunting partner was Navy and stationed there.

Thank you! I love old collectibles, I don't really have much, but I'm the type of guy that will spend hours at antique shops looking around and digging through bins at flea markets.

My family and I love it here, I don't know how long we'll stay, but we bought a house here last year...so we really do like it. I work on NCTS (Navy civilian), my kids go to school on Andersen AFB. Hogs and deer hunting is still big here, they're all over the place.

Since you were last here, coconut rhinoceros beatles have decimated the islands coconut trees, all over the last 5-10 years. Now it's a rare sight to see one that isn't infected. It's sad to say, but in 20 years there likely won't be any coconut trees left here.



Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

 

[Terry_on_Guam]

Terry, I can't help on the stone, but welcome to TreasureNet. I was in air force and passed through Guam several times, my hunting partner was Navy and stationed there.

Ahhh, were you referring to relic hunting?

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

 

[Ammoman]

I would say take it to UOG. I'm pretty sure they have an archeology department.

 

[Terry_on_Guam]

I would say take it to UOG. I'm pretty sure they have an archeology department.

Great idea! Unfortunately, archeology isn't offered as a major there (I would've chose something in that field), but they may have someone in cultural history that can help identify it. I'm starting school there in January, so would be cool if they could help.

I know that govguam has a few archeologists on staff too. Will swing by and see them sometime soon. Was hoping that the small circular indentation and seam would have been a something that some of the more experienced members on here had seen before.

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

 

[TheCannonballGuy]

Sigh. I suspect I'll be asked to comment on a (perhaps) "stone caannonball."


Cannonballs made of stone were used from the beginning of cannons (approximately the 1200s, in China) through "about" 1600, with perhaps a very few leftovers after that. Unfortunately there is NO WAY to solidly prove or disprove to everybody that a stone ball is or is not a cannonball. With metal balls, we can precisely measure the ball's diameter, and then check for a match-up in the historical document data lists of known sizes of Colonial-through-Civil-War cannonballs, grapeshot balls, etc. But insofar as I'm aware (after decades of study) there is no surviving historical data on the exact sizes of stone cannonballs. So, I've got no size-data to go on to say this ball is or isn't a cannonball.

All of that being said... the apparent "seam" on it suggests it was manufactured by molding, or perhaps turned on a lathe. That makes me doubt it is a cannonball. It might be a native American "game-ball"...or as Smokeythecat indicated, an old croquet ball, made of ceramic or some form of cement. Might be interesting to do a Streak Test and a Hardness Test on it, to determine what it's made of.

 

[Terry_on_Guam]

Sigh. I suspect I'll be asked to comment on a (perhaps) "stone caannonball."


Cannonballs made of stone were used from the beginning of cannons (approximately the 1200s, in China) through "about" 1600, with perhaps a very few leftovers after that. Unfortunately there is NO WAY to solidly prove or disprove to everybody that a stone ball is or is not a cannonball. With metal balls, we can precisely measure the ball's diameter, and then check for a match-up in the historical document data lists of known sizes of Colonial-through-Civil-War cannonballs, grapeshot balls, etc. But insofar as I'm aware (after decades of study) there is no surviving historical data on the exact sizes of stone cannonballs. So, I've got no size-data to go on to say this ball is or isn't a cannonball.

All of that being said... the apparent "seam" on it suggests it was manufactured by molding, or perhaps turned on a lathe. That makes me doubt it is a cannonball. It might be a native American "game-ball"...or as Smokeythecat indicated, an old croquet ball, made of ceramic or some form of cement. Might be interesting to do a Streak Test and a Hardness Test on it, to determine what it's made of.

Thanks for the very informative post! I'm at lunch now, I'll read up on those tests this evening.

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

 

[Indian Steve]

I bought almost 50 of these several years ago for $1 each from a guy the plowed them up in his garden. Locals said that they were Confederate Clay Cannonballs. I heard later that they were used in a sewage treatment plant to raise or lower water level in the sewage tanks. Who Knows? I still have several around somewhere in the pile. A couple of years ago, I saw several more in a flower bed in Martinsville. No Civil War activity around here except for one minor skirmish.

 

[Terry_on_Guam]

I bought almost 50 of these several years ago for $1 each from a guy the plowed them up in his garden. Locals said that they were Confederate Clay Cannonballs. I heard later that they were used in a sewage treatment plant to raise or lower water level in the sewage tanks. Who Knows? I still have several around somewhere in the pile. A couple of years ago, I saw several more in a flower bed in Martinsville. No Civil War activity around here except for one minor skirmish.

lol, septic tank balls. I'll let you know what i find out.

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk