MARBLES
Yes, marbles are artefacts… they’re just not Native American artefacts, and they may not be very old. Marbles as we know them were first made in Germany in the 1800’s and were mass-produced from around the 1870’s onwards. They were sometimes used as saleable ballast in empty ships sailing to American ports to pick up cargoes – hence their popularity in America. As demand increased, they began to be manufactured in America and there were major manufacturing companies in Ohio and West Virginia.
Most people think “glass” at the mention of marbles, but earthenware and clay marbles were made in the millions and are the most common dig find. Children – and probably adults too - lost them everywhere.
You wouldn’t readily confuse the glass ones or those having colourful surface decoration with Native American artefacts but plain ones made of fired earthenware or clay can look and feel like stone. They’re usually tan or pale grey colour but are sometimes dyed brown, red, blue, green or yellow and when hand-made may not be perfectly round:
[pic by the seller boomerville via Etsy]
These date from the 1860’s and have lost whatever surface colour they once had. Note that the top one has the remnants of a “bullseye” design, which is not uncommon:
[pic by the seller MuseumTreasures via Etsy]
Typical sizes are usually around ½ inch to ¾ inch like most of those pictured above but larger ones exist – up to about 2 inches or so. These are around an inch in diameter and made from pipe clay:
[pic by the seller faganarms on ebay]
These items can sometimes be identified by the fact that they have a few sizeable pores in the surface. There are a couple of examples at the top of the web-page linked below, as well as some good information about marbles in general elsewhere on the site:
http://www.marblecollecting.com/marb...e/earthenware/
Yes, marbles are artefacts… they’re just not Native American artefacts, and they may not be very old. Marbles as we know them were first made in Germany in the 1800’s and were mass-produced from around the 1870’s onwards. They were sometimes used as saleable ballast in empty ships sailing to American ports to pick up cargoes – hence their popularity in America. As demand increased, they began to be manufactured in America and there were major manufacturing companies in Ohio and West Virginia.
Most people think “glass” at the mention of marbles, but earthenware and clay marbles were made in the millions and are the most common dig find. Children – and probably adults too - lost them everywhere.
You wouldn’t readily confuse the glass ones or those having colourful surface decoration with Native American artefacts but plain ones made of fired earthenware or clay can look and feel like stone. They’re usually tan or pale grey colour but are sometimes dyed brown, red, blue, green or yellow and when hand-made may not be perfectly round:
[pic by the seller boomerville via Etsy]
These date from the 1860’s and have lost whatever surface colour they once had. Note that the top one has the remnants of a “bullseye” design, which is not uncommon:
[pic by the seller MuseumTreasures via Etsy]
Typical sizes are usually around ½ inch to ¾ inch like most of those pictured above but larger ones exist – up to about 2 inches or so. These are around an inch in diameter and made from pipe clay:
[pic by the seller faganarms on ebay]
These items can sometimes be identified by the fact that they have a few sizeable pores in the surface. There are a couple of examples at the top of the web-page linked below, as well as some good information about marbles in general elsewhere on the site:
http://www.marblecollecting.com/marb...e/earthenware/
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