Mystery shiny ball

[CRDX]

Hey all, I have not posted in like 3 or 4 years but I used to have an account here under this name. I am sure some of the admins and older members remember me, Chris from Kentucky. I was pretty young when I first joined here. But to the topic at hand, I have posted about this piece once before many years ago, and everyone decided it was a hematite concretion. I am going to try to make the case it is not that simple, and at the very least, it was brought to where I found it over many hundreds of miles. Some background- I found this piece over 20 years ago, when I was a young kid at my grandmas farm in rural Lincoln co KY. I found it in the mud in a little ditch on the edge of the road bordering her driveway.

I talked to a local archaeologist, and he came to the conclusion it was something called a "moqui ball" or marble. But the problem I found is, the conditions for these marbles to form, they ONLY exist out west in specific areas of specific desert regions. And I found this in deep south Kentucky. I wasn't as knowledgeable at that time, so I accepted his answer and moved on. I posted about it on this forum, and I got pretty much the same response. Everyone decided it was a hematite or limonite concretion. But hear me out, and after looking around for hours, upon hours, I cannot find anything similar to this at all being found anywhere. Nothing else matches it's level of sheen and seemingly pecked, worn polish. It also has an oddly perfectly flat bottom. Something else to note- if I get this thing wet with hot water, I can literally make a rough painting on a surface with the red color it gives off. I am guessing thats from iron oxide within it. I need to post a picture of that. It also looks almost like an engrained thumbprint on the top of it. Was this an ancient native stamping tool? It is very polished, and very heavy for its size. So in conclusion, if you insist this is merely a natural concretion, please find me one as perfectly smooth and worn as this one, that was found in my region.

[Hoss]

What was the name you used years ago to sign up? I will try and find the original topic.

[utilized flake]

Have you looked up cones? I have one that is a ball cone that has a flat bottom...not perfectly round

[CRDX]

What was the name you used years ago to sign up? I will try and find the original topic.

I believe it was this name! CRDX. I was troubled to realize that somehow my account had been deleted. EDIT: it may have been CRX

[SurfaceHunter]

What’s the size of it?

[CRDX]

What’s the size of it?

heres a measurement compared to an inch scale. Its basically the same width all around, with the slightly depressed thumbprint part cutting into the shape. If this is a cone, its one of the smallest ones I have ever seen. One thing I just keep noticing, maybe it means nothing, but its bottom surface is so perfectly flat no matter how you toss it, it always end up sitting on the flat side.

[SurfaceHunter]

No ideas from me but hopefully someone will know

[CRDX]

Maybe this was a cone in progress, and something stopped its maker. Looking at a few pics of hematite cones, I can see this possibly being an early version of one, before much work had been done.

[flintguy]

You might want to look up Bola/egg stones and see if it matches those artifacts.

[Lindenmeier-Man]

I’m thinking you just pointed the way !

[CRDX]

I did some googling, and I was able to find one, yes 1 single image of a stone that looks very similar to mine. However mine is a bit more rounded. Compare this to what I attached of my own piece earlier. I think the similarity is obvious. The pic attached is a documented bola stone.

[CRDX]

Bump, can anyone contribute some more opinions? I feel like stuff like this frequently gets disregarded when it could potentially be significant. I have searched some more and I still cannot find anything like the piece I posted, nothing else that looks quite like it.

[SurfaceHunter]

Probably a bolo stone of some type or game piece

[Kyflintguy]

Bump, can anyone contribute some more opinions? I feel like stuff like this frequently gets disregarded when it could potentially be significant. I have searched some more and I still cannot find anything like the piece I posted, nothing else that looks quite like it.

Unfortunately some things are nearly impossible to definitively Identify by photograph alone. I think your rock is intriguing, but significant from an archaeological standpoint? Probably not. The Bola stone suggestion was likely a good one, but I also think context of were something is found can be important when trying to put all the clues together. I'm not sure if I've ever seen a Bola stone from Ky and I'd like to know more on that... I've seen some interesting round stones supposedly from sites and i've also learned that perfectly natural round stones are not as uncommon as one might think. Being found in a ditch beside a driveway I don't find it impossible to imagine someone say possibly a kid dragging home a nice round rock leaving it lying in the driveway and then it being flatspotted by being drug or ran over by a passing vehicle. This is a imaginative scenario but crazy things happen. I do see were your coming from with the pecked surface and seeming polish, it has an artifactual look agreed but I just think without it being in hands of someone experienced in hardstone it's a tough call by photo alone. I have seen some nice artifacts from Lincoln county so I suggest keeping up your search untill you find the answer, and hopefully it's the one you seek.

[Artifascination]

It looks like a hematite/limonite nodule that was used for something. I would say it’s possibly a moquis type marble or game stone. It could be a bola or throwing stone also. It could even be an ochre ball that was just used to make red paint. Truth is it could have been used for any or all of these things.

[Cecilia]

Thank you. Personally, I use items for multiple purposes, probably none envisioned by their maker. If I do that, I imagine others do too!

[CRDX]

Unfortunately some things are nearly impossible to definitively Identify by photograph alone. I think your rock is intriguing, but significant from an archaeological standpoint? Probably not. The Bola stone suggestion was likely a good one, but I also think context of were something is found can be important when trying to put all the clues together. I'm not sure if I've ever seen a Bola stone from Ky and I'd like to know more on that... I've seen some interesting round stones supposedly from sites and i've also learned that perfectly natural round stones are not as uncommon as one might think. Being found in a ditch beside a driveway I don't find it impossible to imagine someone say possibly a kid dragging home a nice round rock leaving it lying in the driveway and then it being flatspotted by being drug or ran over by a passing vehicle. This is a imaginative scenario but crazy things happen. I do see were your coming from with the pecked surface and seeming polish, it has an artifactual look agreed but I just think without it being in hands of someone experienced in hardstone it's a tough call by photo alone. I have seen some nice artifacts from Lincoln county so I suggest keeping up your search untill you find the answer, and hopefully it's the one you seek.

What area of KY are you from? I have some a little rock shelter find I think you might be interested to see. It is not much, but deep in eastern Kentucky in a very deep rock shelter, among flint shards, I found a piece of shiny white nacre. It's just a little shard, but its big enough for me to photograph and I will post a pic here tomorrow. To find, seagoing, coastal stuff, deep in the kills of inner KY, was a shock to me.

[Kyflintguy]

I'm from extreme southeast Ky, Letcher co. It doesn't at all surprise me to hear you find shells in caves, but they likely aren't from the coast . Freshwater mussles and gastropods were a staple in the diet of Native Americans. I've got remnants of of pearly white and silvery shells found miles away from the source rivers. Often refuse or midden deposits can be found that are feet deep of bones, and shells. Many species of mussles that once thrived and we're sourced are now extinct. Still interesting to find though!