What have we found? An old statue?

[nickandanna]

Hi everyone,
Please help us in identifying this little statue we found on a remote beach in Hilton Head Island, SC. We were just digging in some wet clay, sand, when we unearthed this little girl figurine. It is about 3 inches tall and 2 inches wide and made out of either some kind of stone or clay. The only identifying marks on it are the carved out body parts. We also found an idian arrowhead on this same very beach a year ago, but we don't know if this statue is also an indian artifact or not. Please help us in identifying this statue and and help us try to figure out what time period it came from.
Thank you,
Nick and Anna

 

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[fishbone3d]

It looks to be African to me. Maybe from the slave trade in the past. It looks to be fertility related. Either way, you have something special there.

 

[nickandanna]

Thank you for your reply, we were first thinking it could be Indian but now that you pointed us into the African period, it opens up all sorts of possibilities, and we can do more research on it with that direction because frankly we exhausted our research in the Indian direction and we haven't been able to find anything like it in the Native American period, so thank you to pointing us toward the African period. We were also thinking it could be relating to some sort of fertility thing, but not sure. Any input or help is always appreciated.

 

[Breezie]

Welcome to the forum! Since I'm from NC, I've heard about the South Carolina Low County 'root-workers' and VooDoo. It's prevalent in certain areas of the South. You might want to Google to see if your little doll is part of that. Even here in NC, there are 'root doctors.' I can remember as a child an old man working a root to remove a wart from another child's finger. I've also heard my Momma talk about stories her Mother told her about people being conjured. From my understanding, HooDoo/VooDoo arose from a cross between West African religion and Christianity.

Is the doll made of stone or what? Do you live in SC or just there to visit/vacation? Breezie

 

[ivan salis]

AFRICAN low country area slaves practiced a form of "voodoo" type magic worship * that would have been a fertility goddess (note the large sized "milk of life giving" breasts and pubic area are both "clearly marked " on the statue )

native americans also made such "effiogy items" as well but that one looks be be of a more of a african type design -- due to its features .

it is most likely made of a local clay and then heat fired to make it "hard"

 

[Noodle]

The head looks Egyptian.

 

[High Plains Digger]

Gotta go with the egyptian appearance in the hair, but the rest is all wrong. I have a small "fertility' piece that came from pre columbian Columbia, and was buried in the corner of the corn field. More 3 dimensional than this one, though.

 

[fishbone3d]

After researching some pictures, I personally think it definitely has something to do with fertility. I would take it to your local university anthropology department to find out the answer.

 

[kuger]

The head looks Egyptian.

Dont see many Egyptians,with the "wide",nose....very African

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

I removed my prior post. Thinking about it, the waves deposit rocks on the beach everyday so I guess its certainly possible something very old and this small to be tossed ashore. There is usually some wear from the wave action. Was it found below the high tide are or up in the dunes?


You may want to see if the stone is native to the SC area. I have no idea what it is but as others have mentioned a lot of history in the area.



The island has a rich history that started with seasonal occupation by native Americans thousands of years ago, and continued with European exploration and the Sea Island Cotton trade. It became an important base of operations for the Union blockade of the Southern ports during the Civil War. Once the island fell to Union troops, hundreds of ex-slaves flocked to Hilton Head, which is still home to many 'native islanders', many of whom are descendants of freed slaves known as the Gullah (or Geechee) who have managed to hold onto much of their ethnic and cultural identity. [wikipedia]

 

[Breezie]

BCH made a good point about showing wave/beach wear, as well as if the stone is native to SC. (could be carved Jasper) It looks too symmetrical to be hand carved, but I really can't tell from the video. Could you post several still pics of it? I'm wondering if it is some type of import for tourist or either a fertility stone like the website:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/75830825/choice-carved-stone-fertility-goddess
Breezie

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

I removed my post because I didnt want to sound negative but you need to consider the possibility of a recently lost item. The beach sands are constantly moving. I think its a very cool item but hard to tell by a pic. Of course I hope its authentic artifact.

I dont know SC laws but here in Florida its legal to keep anything found below the high tide mark. I would send pics to a University to see what they say.

 

[fishbone3d]

BCH made a good point about showing wave/beach wear, as well as if the stone is native to SC. (could be carved Jasper) It looks too symmetrical to be hand carved, but I really can't tell from the video. Could you post several still pics of it? I'm wondering if it is some type of import for tourist or either a fertility stone like the website:
http://www.etsy.com/listing/75830825/choice-carved-stone-fertility-goddess
Breezie

Neat link. If I am not mistaken, those pictured are either Venus or Aphrodite.

 

[nickandanna]

Thank you for all your responses. To answer some of your questions:
We were vacationing in SC, like we do each year and we always stay by this very remote beach on Hilton Head Island. We also found an Indian spearhead or arrowhead on this same beach a year ago which we took to a local historian and he confirmed that it was an Indian spearhead.
We found this new artifact while digging below the high tide mark, in very wet sand. What you have to understand about this beach is that it usually gets completely covered by water right up to our house during high tide and our house is about 100 yards away from the shoreline of this beach.
We appreciate the responses saying that this artifact might be just a lost item, but if you actually hold this piece in your hands and really look at it in the pictures, you can tell that this is from a long, long time ago, so we know that this does not belong to any tourist or is not just some lost item or an import for a tourist.
We can't tell what it is even made out of, we are leaning towards some sort of stone, because it weighs a little too much for it's size. And it does have some sort of light reddish, brownish several spots or markings on it, almost petina to it, if you look closely, and we don't know if that's indicative to some sort of stone or clay that has aged over time.
We have emailed already the SC Archaeology Research University, but have yet to hear a response.
Here's a still pic of both the new artifact we found and the spearhead we found last year:

 

[nickandanna]

Here's the pic, sorry about the previous post

 

[Breezie]

Thank you for all your responses. To answer some of your questions:
We were vacationing in SC, like we do each year and we always stay by this very remote beach on Hilton Head Island. We also found an Indian spearhead or arrowhead on this same beach a year ago which we took to a local historian and he confirmed that it was an Indian spearhead.
We found this new artifact while digging below the high tide mark, in very wet sand.Were you metal detecting, and this caused your detector to go off? What you have to understand about this beach is that it usually gets completely covered by water right up to our house during high tide and our house is about 100 yards away from the shoreline of this beach.
We appreciate the responses saying that this artifact might be just a lost item, but if you actually hold this piece in your hands and really look at it in the pictures, you can tell that this is from a long, long time ago, so we know that this does not belong to any tourist or is not just some lost item or an import for a tourist.
We can't tell what it is even made out ofWill a magnet stick to it?, we are leaning towards some sort of stone, because it weighs a little too much for it's size.You could do a few Mohs test to determine hardness, thus eliminating some minerals, but you might not want to do so as not to mar it. And it does have some sort of light reddish, brownish several spots or markings on it, almost petina to it, if you look closely, and we don't know if that's indicative to some sort of stone or clay that has aged over time.
We have emailed already the SC Archaeology Research University, but have yet to hear a response.
Here's a still pic of both the new artifactNice point we found and the spearhead we found last year:Can you post a pic of the back of it using macro settings? Can we get a profile pic to see how far the nose extents from the face. A stone item that has been taken in and out with the tide twice a day will have a smooth exterior, thus the nose would be the first area to be worn down.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

Here's the pic, sorry about the previous post

It looks a lot different in this pic. Did you clean it? It almost looks Egyptian.

I hope you will keep us informed what the University says.

 

[Bigcypresshunter]

We have an Indian artifacts section. I think its worth a shot to post it there as well to be looked at by some more experienced members of pre-Colombian era artifacts. http://forum.treasurenet.com/index.php/board,1028.0.html

 

[nickandanna]

Yes, we did clean it a little since the video. And the new pictures are a little more close-up. We will post more pics soon.
To answer more questions, we were not metal detecting that day, although we do own one. We were just actually looking for shells and my husband was showing our kids the many hermit crabs on the beach and the sand was almost clayish and he started digging in one spot to show our girls the different layers in the sand and noticed something that didn't look right, like it belonged in the beach area. A magnet doesn't stick to it. We have thought of ways to figure of what kind of stone it is, like measuring the exact weight and seeing what kind of mineral it could be from there, but we don't want to mark it in any way.
The nose is not completely worn down on the artifact, will try to get a better pic.

 

[nickandanna]

Here's the profile: