Nutting Stone??

[Virginia _Hunter]

Seen this in a local thrift shop and it has caught my eye, but being the novice I am I would appreciate some feedback.

[CoachG]

I'll try and help you out. First, I've never personally seen a rock of that proportion with many different mortar holes. I've never seen holes that close together either. Second, do you have anything to compare the size to? Not real sure the size of it. It's cool looking whatever it is. Hopefully somebody around here will give you more help.

[twoshovel]

sure looks man made to me, wonder what it is thanks for sharing hope we learn more,,ts

[CliffJ]

It looks like a typical nutting stone. If they are not asking too much, buy it. Sometimes those places will ask too much, as there are no price guides on such things, but I'd give $50 for it if it were from my area. You are just not going to find large tools in the fields here anymore.

[jimr]

many people do call these nutting stones but i'm sorry i can not. a nutting stone will show impact from use from the tool used to crack the nuts. the nutting stones that i have seen and found usually have one hole for use and shows such use,(battering around the hole).
i excavated a rock shelter ( late woodland ) that produced about 65 such stones as in the pictures, some as large and some real small ones that would have surly broke if it were used for nut cracker, and also in that shelter were stones that showed impact from use.
i do believe that they might have been used for some sort of food preparations? what is really puzzling is the placement of the holes. there is a cave in kentucky that has the same type of holes in the inner wall face about waist high. so in order to crack a nut you would have to hold it up there and strike it.
so i guess i really have no really good explanation of what they were used for, just theories.  jim

[cgode]

That was my initial impression as well jimr....why multiple concavities on one stone?.....doesn't seem to be very efficient to make multiple impressions when you have one that works......not sure what to call it.

[jimr]

to show other examples, here are a few of the cup stones i recovered from the rock shelter i mentioned in my reply. as a side note most all were recovered with the holes down, as if to protect them.  jim

[Virginia _Hunter]

Thanks for the feedback, the guys wants $125 for it, I did offer $50 and he is supposed to let me know. I failed to mention that it is a little over a foot long, found in Madison County, Virginia. Thanks again. - Jeremy

[painshill]

The preferred term is “cupstone” since you are quite right that there’s a lot of things we don’t now about their usage, but the evidence says that they are not statistically associated with the kitchen portion of middens. They certainly didn’t have a single usage and were likely used for preparation of medicines, paints and pigments as well as for cracking nuts. Acorns in particular were ground as well as hulled, to produce a thickener for soups and gruels.
Other probable uses include the base socket or palm-protector of a fire-drill (when using the stick and bow method) and as a stabilising or securing socket when working arrowshafts, spearshafts, poles and spindles. The pattern, size and number of cups varies enormously and stones frequently show signs of grinding marks (both linear and circular) as well as impact damage on one or more surfaces. Some have drainage channels carved from the cup to the edge of the stone, or rudimentary spouts, and very clearly were used to process liquids. Sometimes, the cup has been hollowed out by back-carving to become the major part of a sphere.
It’s odd that when there are multiple cups, they are frequently almost the same size and so clearly not intended for nuts of different sizes. Also the closeness of the cups does not allow for multiple users performing the same operation crowded round a single stone… not even a biggish one. Different paint colours? Separate processing of medicinal substances which are then mixed in particular proportions? The latter might possibly explain overlapping cups. Heaven knows what waist-high cavities on a cave wall might have been used for.
In an effort to shed more light on this area, almost a hundred cupstones  recovered from 2 adjacent semi-coastal sites in San Luis Obispo were subjected to detailed scrutiny in an attempt to associate them with particular usage by Breschini -and- Haversat (1988-1993). Shell debris from the sites puts the radiocarbon date between about 3,500 to 4,900 years old (uncalibrated).
Most of the stones were relatively small and some of the cups were quite shallow, suggesting that they might have just performed as a finger or thumb grip on a hammerstone rather than being an impact anvil. The possible use in pounding tasks was supported by wear and impact damage on some of the edges of the stones - not on the flat surface where the cups had been ground out. Some of the cups were positioned acentrally and some of the stones had double-cups – mostly one on each of the two opposing surfaces, but sometimes with both cups on the same surface.
Even within food preparation, usage was not confined to nuts and acorns, the residues of which are frequently found with larger, non-portable stones. Breschini -and- Haversat have subjected 22 of the stones – both double and single cupped – to testing for protein residues using anti-sera from animal species likely to have been used for food or other resources. The only reactions observed were that 3 of the stones tested positive for trout (or a fish of the salmonid family), 5 tested positive for clam and one tested positive for both of these. Bear, cat, chicken, deer, dog, guinea-pig, mouse, rabbit, shark and sturgeon were all negative.

[flinthunter]

I won't say yes or no on this stone but my personal opinion is that it is a geofact. I find quit a few like yours around here that have multiple holes and many times the rim diameter of the hole is smaller than the inside diameter of the hole. Even though a lot of these were naturally formed that doesn't mean they were not picked up by the ancients and used.

[rmartin]

flinthunter wrote:

I won't say yes or no on this stone but my personal opinion is that it is a geofact. I find quit a few like yours around here that have multiple holes and many times the rim diameter of the hole is smaller than the inside diameter of the hole. Even though a lot of these were naturally formed that doesn't mean they were not picked up by the ancients and used.

  I agree. I have seen them around creek beds with more than a dozen depressions. Several of them in one spot like this too.

[jimr]

this is probably one of the most interesting cup stones i have. the placement of the three holes and the thickness of the stone is what sets it apart from the others. the stone is about 3/4in.thick. this stone would not stand any impact such as cracking nuts. this artifact came from the East Steubenville site several years before it was destroyed. jim
   Attached files 

[Hoss]

here are some more found in CT over the years. Amazing how these were utilized for such a long period and coast to coast it seems.

The one above is made of a quartzite cobble and was probably an anchor stone for a drill and bow set up. The cup is less than a half an inch across and 3/8th deep inside that dimple is polished smooth as a new borns bum!

This one may be some type of Granite I am sure someone will know for sure. Looks harder than most of my cupstones.



This next one has three holes and came from a Rock Shelter in Shelton CT



The rest were found at various locations in western CT. Softer materials for sure. some of these may be dimpled in a bi polar fashion as well. Sorry there is nothing in here for size. They are about the size of a childs fist. The flat one with the three depressions is 8" X6" maybe 1 1/2" deep.

[jimr]

nice stones, except for the first one i would class them as anvil stones, used for breaking things such as nuts and possibly flint reduction. the holes show a lot of use. usually a stone used for a bow drill would be much smaller to be held in the left hand on top of the drill rod pushing the drill towards the material being drilled, not on the bottom.  jim