Unusual piece of stone found in Arkansas.

S

Smee

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My wife paints rocks, unusual rocks which she sees the shapes of animals in. A friend of hers, an elderly lady, will pick up any rock she thinks is interesting and give it to my wife to paint. While she doesn't understand the concept, today she gave my wife a rock that I find amazing. This rock appears to have been broken off the corner of some sort of larger item made of stone. The rock measures 1 7/8" long by 1/2" thick by 7/8" tall. There is some more carving on the top, but I didn't get a picture of it. What is amazing is the writing along the edge. Take a look, and hopefully someone will recognize what language this is. I did find what appear to be two Hebrew characters that I am familiar with, but I really don't think the writing is Hebrew. Any ideas?

chalkedrock01.jpg

The rock has a carved area just above the lettering, and at the far right end there is a definite corner with the text continuing to wrap. The rock was broken off of something.

I was hoping to learn something about this rock's carvings, and what it would be doing on the ground in Arkansas. I seriously doubt it is Native American as most of us did not have a written alphabet.
 

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Calworks said:
What you have there is a piece of rock that has Japanese Kanji symbols. Each symbol characterizing a complete writing or just symbols depicting love, Honor, Sacrifice, loyalty
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Interesting, as I noticed that the carving on the top resembled an old map of Japan I have seen, although the main island has been broken off about mid ways. It does not resemble a modern map of Japan, however.

bakergeol said:
Although a very good magnified close up is needed. It's appears from your second(golden set of photos) set of photos that there is crystalline material inside the grooves. Would you not expect to see clean lines if the stone had been chiseled?
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The "golden set of photos" is the actual color of the rock. In the first picture, I had gone over the marks with some white chalk to make the carvings or "wormy writing" more visible. BTW, never let a woman near a dirty stone with a toothbrush . . .

There is nothing "crystaline" there, however there is pitting, which could be expected. This rock has been plowed under and over for quite some time.
 

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Looks like the real deal to me. Might try to post it in "Treasure Marks/Signs" and I bet a few of those guys that like to post in there could help you out... Awesome find!
 

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I have a request? Is there a way you can do a rubbing of this and post it? A pencil won't work to well, you will need a artist graphite stick or some thing similar.
If it works it will clear up some questions as to its authentisity or language. i have seen worm holes but it doesn't look like that to me.

Brian
 

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I think Calworks has figured out what kind of writing it is . . . Look HERE

Now all I need to do is decipher what it means . . . Thanks.
 

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The rock you have found looks very similar to one my great grandfather found in the same state!! The marks are very similar and the markings on the top may be a map to the lost city of Atlantis. You may have found one of the greatest archaeological pieces of all time!! The one my great grandfather found is on display at a natural history museum in Washington DC and he receives a check every year from them to keep it on display. GOOD FIND!!! I believe you may have found a small piece of a puzzle that may unlock a hidden chapter in the worlds ancient history!!! You can be truly proud of your find and I consider you one of the top treasure hunters of the modern era!! If everyone on this forum could be as lucky as you!!!! Don't believe all the bashers that are just jealous! You found yourself a TRUE TREASURE!!!
 

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Sorry, I have no pics of this item. It was found many years before digital photography! Also my
great grandfather, who is 97 years old, was raised dirt poor, and at the time of the find, could not afford the luxuries of a camera.
 

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I'm not sure of the amount but I see you stated you donated pieces to the museum. He didn't DONATE them, he basically is letting them display them for a small fee.
 

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I was wondering about it's composition- Looks sedimentary- Does it fizz in HCL or muriatic acid. If it does it would be limestone/dolomite.



George
 

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After seeing the top of the stone (bone???) It looks to be the outline of a howling wolf...Could it be Cherokee???

Just a thought...Did the Cherokee use war clubs???

LandStar
 

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LandStar said:
After seeing the top of the stone (bone???) It looks to be the outline of a howling wolf...Could it be Cherokee???

Just a thought...Did the Cherokee use war clubs???

LandStar
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I'm the guy who writes about the Indian Trail Trees in some of these forums, and I am a little bit familiar with the Cherokee writing. Their alphabet resembles the characters we use here, and was probably based on writings they had seen before they had a written language (my opinion, not science).

When I went to the Kanji site noted above (http://www.tribalshapes.com/categories/kanji/1.html), I found almost every one of the characters on the stone in those pages . . . just not in the order that would make it Kanji. If I understand right, the Japanese just adopted the Chinese alphabet for some writings. Kanji is Japanese, but made using Chinese and other characters.

Wikipedia says: "Kanji (help·info) (漢字, ?) are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with hiragana (平仮名), katakana (片仮名), and the Arabic numerals."

As for war clubs, I have not "researched" how the Cherokee fought but you can research "Indian Tomb Hollow" which was a low spot next to where a war fought by the Cherokee took place. After the fighting ended, they threw the bodies of the dead into this hollow and marked it with several of the bent trees. Researching this may answer that question for you.
 

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Have you tried looking at it upside down? try a red and/or blue light filter and see if the characters stand out a little better, perhaps use the light at an obilque angle to the writing.

Good luck in your hunting, very intriguing
 

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When I went to the Kanji site noted above (http://www.tribalshapes.com/categories/kanji/1.html), I found almost every one of the characters on the stone in those pages . . . just not in the order that would make it Kanji. If I understand right, the Japanese just adopted the Chinese alphabet for some writings. Kanji is Japanese, but made using Chinese and other characters.

Wikipedia says: "Kanji (help·info) (漢字, ?) are the Chinese characters that are used in the modern Japanese logographic writing system along with hiragana (平仮名), katakana (片仮名), and the Arabic numerals."
Click to expand...

Smee is correct about kanji. It is simplified Chinese characters. I fooled around with your pictures and it COULD be kanji, but very crudely carved. Then again, my Japanese language skill is only good enough to get my face slapped. :-[ ;)

If it came from the Jerome camp, it would read from right to left. Japanese didn't write much from left to right until after WWII. And Japanese language, spoken or written, was strickly forbidden in the camps.

Also of note, there were "Stone Gardens" at some of the internment camps and there is an ancient Japanese art called SUISEKI that is based on unusually shaped stones. But they are typically left natural (not carved).

My father-in-law was at the Jerome camp from '42 - '44 before he was finally allowed to enlist in the Army. He fought against, as he says, "the German people" in Italy on the Gothic Line.

DCMatt
 

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DCMatt said:
If it came from the Jerome camp, it would read from right to left. Japanese didn't write much from left to right until after WWII. And Japanese language, spoken or written, was strickly forbidden in the camps.

Also of note, there were "Stone Gardens" at some of the internment camps and there is an ancient Japanese art called SUISEKI that is based on unusually shaped stones. But they are typically left natural (not carved).

My father-in-law was at the Jerome camp from '42 - '44 before he was finally allowed to enlist in the Army. He fought against, as he says, "the German people" in Italy on the Gothic Line.

DCMatt
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The entire camp has been removed except for a smokestack where the generator house was.

Your father-in-law might find it interesting that the entire camp site, with the exception of that stack and the small memorial stone (Wouldn't want to make it too big and attract attention to it) are now rice fields.
 

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Cannonman17 said:
Looks 100% natural to me.. mother natures script.
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Cannonman17 said:
Look man, I've collected and or studied rocks/artifacts in one shape or another for a LONG time. After seeing these additional scans I can guarentee you that what you have is nothing more than your average sedimentary rock!! It's layered and those layers are not always the same consistancey so they wear away at different rates thus leaving your ancient writings. Good luck on future finds but I wouldn't waste anymore time on this one. :'(
Click to expand...

Aw man! Those danges worms are smart!!! Take a look at the coin in THIS POST.

The character on the right end of the stone is the same as the character at the bottom of the first picture. Did they go to school on the Cannonman17 scholarship? J/k --- I have found other characters from the stone on other Chinese coins when I got out my Coin World magazines after seeing that post. Interesting.

I have consulted with a Japanese translator outside of this forum, who said it may be Kanji, but the characters are too worn to be sure. However, she did say the characters are Chinese (Kanji is Japanese but written with Chinese characters).

I have turned over pictures of the stone (including the one filtered by VERMONTPACKRAT --- Thanks to you and to Old Dog who also did one) to a local translator to see if they can make out what the stone says. She looked at the stone itself, but in its present condition and without chalking the writing, she was unable to see the writing well enough to make out the characters.

As soon as I know something, I will post it here.
 

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