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They Liked Their Fossils

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  • They Liked Their Fossils

    Native Americans that is. They did collect fossils. Trilobites in Utah. Crinoid columns for beads where fossil crinoids can be found. And who knows what else. Maybe some of you have found fossils on prehistoric sites that you feel must have been transported to the site by the ancients. Post your examples if you think that is the case.

    Fossils were my first love as a collectable. It's close though. I was into stamps, American coins, Roman coins, and arrowheads at a young age. That said, nothing like finding a fossil that is also an artifact to combine two loves in one object. Many years ago, a friend who hunts both artifacts and fossils did just that when he found this notched pendant fashioned from a piece of shale from the Upper Carboniferous Rhode Island Formation. It has a poorly preserved fossil fern, some 300 million years old, and a native clearly took a liking to it. He has to have known it was a fern, but we are left to wonder how he figured its image was on this rock:

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    Rhode Island

  • #2
    Going on 7 years ago, I created another thread about the above find, but it failed to make the transition to the new forum at that time, so Roger recreated it a couple years ago:

    Fossil and Pendant in One Posted by [CMD]: Moderator Note: this thread was first posted in 2012 but failed to transfer across to the new forum when the software


    So, anyway, I had a field, called it my field of dreams, you can bury me alongside it some day, thank you, and this field, unlike most New England soils, contains almost no stray rocks. Good soil in places, nothing but sand in other sections. So few are the rocks, that I can afford to look at nearly every rock I come upon. Flakes, artifacts, fire or hearth stones, and otherwise, none of the scads of rocks that get in the way. So, when I found a block of shale that had been split open, with a fossil fern showing, I knew. Could not prove it, like the fashioned pendant above, but I knew. Well, I'll be, one of my ancient native friends must have collected this fossil. I put a nice big antique style label on the backside, and on a shelf it went.

    Fast forward to about 2 years ago. The fossil was not on the shelf. Well, like any self respecting husband, I knew this had to be the evil doings of my wife. And so I asked where my native collected fossil was. And my wife, like any self respecting wife, denied all knowledge. Of course I persisted, because I knew I had not moved it. Finally, she confessed that she had thrown it away one day. Say what?!?! How could you not have seen the big label, let alone the fossil itself. No, it was not a killer fossil per se, but how could anyone not see the label???

    Every once in awhile, I would think of that fossil, and no matter when I did, I would want to all but cry. I was a fossil hunter. That ancient native was a fossil collector. God, how that hurt, lol.

    Then last week, while putting up the Xmas tree, the Mrs. pulls this out of the bottom of a bag of ornaments. Man, did my heart ever soar! My fossil had returned home at last. I thought it had ended up at the central landfill two years ago! It's not much, as I said, but it meant the world to me. Not as killer as that pendant, but it meant something to a native long ago, and back on the shelf it goes for that reason.

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    Rhode Island

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    • #3
      Those are beautiful and very unusual . Many of my little pieces have clam shells in them nothing like that point .

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      • CMD
        CMD commented
        Editing a comment
        Thanks, Tam. It does have the shape of a point, but shale is no lithic, and we think it's a pendant....

    • #4
      Thanks Charlie. I'm sure that both the pendant and the fern were prized possessions of the ancient owner. On an ancient site in Texas an artifact collector found hundreds of crinoid fossils in close proximity. I purchased them and they were very inexpensive. There were enough fossils to string up five 32" strands. I gave Jay two strands and kept three for my own collection. I have a broken point with a sizeable bivalve in the break. I have often wondered if an ancient person might have kept it after the point was broken.
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      Michigan Yooper
      If You Don’t Stand for Something, You’ll Fall for Anything

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      • CMD
        CMD commented
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        Wow, great score on the crinoid stems, and that bivalve fossil is way cool. Probably a brachiopod of some sort. Would love to know how they interpreted such occurances!

      • Von
        Von commented
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        Now that’s a cool impact fracture!!!

        Von

    • #5
      The ancient Native Americans admired many of the same things that we admire today and I am quite sure they saw beauty in the fossils of these end scrapers.
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      Michigan Yooper
      If You Don’t Stand for Something, You’ll Fall for Anything

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      • CMD
        CMD commented
        Editing a comment
        Beautiful, Ron!

    • #6
      I’m not into fossils but I did love the story ! The moment of silence upon asking where your fossil was.. Ahh I see the intensity now ! JJ
      Lubbock County Tx

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      • #7
        We have a lot of shell fossils here, and up at my grandmothers, there is a large coal seam that has plenty of fern fossils. I might ride my bike there one day, and look for fossils to make things out of.
        "The education of a man is never completed until he dies." Robert E. Lee

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        • #8
          Awesome find Charlie. Glad it reappeared .
          SW Connecticut

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          • #9
            That’s one of the best stories I have heard. Sure glad you got your fossil back Charlie!
            South Dakota

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            • CMD
              CMD commented
              Editing a comment
              I couldn't believe my eyes. An early Xmas present!

          • #10
            Click image for larger version  Name:	 Views:	1 Size:	36.4 KB ID:	339683 Plummet on the left is made of Pleistocene fossil bone, perhaps manatee rib bone..
            Last edited by tomclark; 12-23-2018, 08:43 AM.
            Professor Shellman
            Tampa Bay

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            • CMD
              CMD commented
              Editing a comment
              Way cool. I have a fossil manatee rib bone I bought for the wife at our local rock and mineral show years ago...

            • Tam
              Tam commented
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              Love that plummet .

          • #11
            This turned out to be a great thread and I enjoyed the show . I truly believe they valued their lithics . This is what they had to work with . Like a gem to them .

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            • #12
              The like their fossils. Big tooth holes are natural from worms while fossilizing. I have not doubt it was used as a pendant. Piece was found broken in half, middle of a great site. Little ones much more common though I've only found two in my life but they are drilled.
              Professor Shellman
              Tampa Bay

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              • #13
                You know they were puzzled about how the fossil remains scattered throughout their stomping grounds had turned to stone.
                I have found several fossil shells most of which were gastropods in earthen habitat areas over the years.
                Never found one intentionally utilized as anything more than an oddity other than the occasional point with fossil inclusions, those I got.
                It is a "Rock" when it's on the ground.
                It is a "Specimen" when picked up and taken home.

                ​Jessy B.
                Circa:1982

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                • #14
                  Manatee rib bones, mammal fossils from the Miocene, shark teeth constantly shedding but also many many fossil shark teeth all occur as outcrops in parts of FL, including Tampa Bay. People screen for fossils at the beaches all the time.(mainly shark teeth, you actually have to have a permit to collect any fossils other than shark teeth...!) So the Native population here had access to finding fossils in the creeks and on the surface in some place here. Same with outcrops of Miocene coral heads and chert, they occur here and there on the surface or close enough from geologic forces, mostly erosion as there is little "uplifting" or "folding" here. They travelled many miles to these outcrops over the millenia. I assume the same for all over the U.S. If geologic forces or severe weather exposes fossils on the surface or close to it, then they were on it like white on rice boom. Stuff from tens to hundreds of millions of years is exposed on the surface, even shell layers on cliffs etc.
                  Professor Shellman
                  Tampa Bay

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