Odd Steatite Sherd

[CMD]

This one always made me scratch my head a bit. I understand repair holes. There are two in this sherd, one of which is broken out, as seen in this photo:

It's a thin sherd, I imagine a vessel sherd. In the above photo, the top surface is the outside surface of the vessel.
The odd part is that it looks like there are drill marks parallel to the outside surface :huh:
Very shallow, and I'm guessing that they cannot actually be drill marks, but it's a surface texture that is man made, whatever it represents.  They sure look the part, but if so they're running 90 degrees from the drilled holes :blink:

[CMD]

Maybe a tool that shaves the soapstone in one direction, leaving that pattern.

[Kyflintguy]

Reminds me of chisel marks.  Repetitive tapping on the back side of a beveled flint chisel or gouge like chisel perhaps :dunno:

[Hoss]

Ky flint makes a good point. If a chisel was used and indirect percussion the chisel would be in one place and many blows struck. Cool artifact Charlie thanks for sharing

[waterglass]

Are you sure those marks are man made and not just coincidental? They Look almost like sea fossil impressions worn from use or by erosion.

[gregszybala]

That is an interesting piece. When you get down to it, who knows. Salvaged and or repaired vessel? Broke piece and salvaged as something like a gorget? Broken gorget and repaired? Who knows how many lives that piece may have had.

[Ron Kelley]

It looks like some of those are tapered like a drill hole. I wonder if holes were drilled as part of the process of splitting the softer stone.

[CliffJ]

The outer marks look like rodent gnaws. They like the minerals in the soapstone. Little scoops with parallel lines from the teeth.

[CMD]

My memory told me the inside of the sherd was the same, but it was not. The inside looks like a normal sherd surface:

waterglass, no, not coincidental. No fossils would occur in steatite. All interesting suggestions otherwise. Rodent is a new one. Would love to see confirmed examples of such just to compare the marks. Would never have guessed that in a million years, so that is different!  Don't know how to interpret the sherd. Only piece I have ever seen this on, though. Man or rodent :dunno:
I might have to check rodent teeth against the marks :rolf: Seriously, I can picture a rat or squirrel sitting in the field eating my soapstone sherds :rolf: Maybe the natives had to chase squirrels running away with their soapstone pendants to stash with the acorns :rolf: Who knew :dunno:  But, I'm just joking, why not? Still, would love to see more examples. The edge doesn't seem chewed, and I can see a chisel shaving it as well.  But, being a one-off in my experience, maybe rodent becomes more likely, since it is not the surface texture one expects to see on the outer surface of a steatite vessel. And the bit of a chisel or the bit of a rodent's tooth might amount to the same thing as far as the appearance. So seems like a good suggestion too. But I'm up in the air because I can't really rule out man made at all.

[painshill]

CliffJ wrote:

The outer marks look like rodent gnaws. They like the minerals in the soapstone. Little scoops with parallel lines from the teeth.

  It’s an interesting thought Cliff, and I suspect that you’re quite right.
Rodents not only apparently seek to supplement their mineral intake by gnawing rocks (especially in spring) but also use it a means of keeping their incisors sharp and at an appropriate length. Most usually, rock-gnawing for minerals is seen on carbonate rocks which often have useful amounts of magnesium, and steatite is also rich in magnesium of course. Koerper reported rodent gnawing on steatite effigies in California on several occasions.
Magnesium is the mineral most usually deficient in the spring diet for herbivores. It’s a common problem in cattle put out to feed on spring pasture for example, where it causes a problem known as “staggers” and is usually treated by veterinary injection of magnesium sulphate.
When seen on siliceous rocks, it’s more probably a matter of keeping rodent’s teeth in good shape. They have the problem that their incisors grow continuously throughout their lifetime and at times when they don’t get enough “hard” dietary material, they resort to non-foods as a means of tooth maintenance.
These are typical rodent gnawings on limestone (from “Rodent-Gnawed Carbonate Rocks from Indiana” Gobetz -and- Hattin: Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science 1 :1–8 2002):

Note that several different species have had a go at this rock, and the authors speculated that scents left by the initial gnawers may act as attractants for subsequent animals.

[CMD]

It certainly seems possible that a rodent could hold it in his hands and shave it that way. And never seeing it before would seem odd, seeing as there are hundreds of steatite sherds in our collection. We should see more of them if it's man made manufacturing marks. I like the idea, if only because I never would have guessed it myself in a million years. Just not 100% convinced that they are teeth marks and not man made. I'll consider it the leading candidate, though. Using google, I could not find any info about rodents and steatite. But I imagine that's a pretty arcane search at any rate and might be expected to draw a blank.
However, since the sherd would have had a finished exterior, no reason for an individual to be shaving it after completion of the utensil, therefore rodent seems more logical from that point of view.  Something that happened long after it was made, and not during manufacturing.
Since the grey squirrels are hand fed by us every day anyway, now I'm going to leave soapstone sherds out for them, and see if they take them
“Rodent-Gnawed Carbonate Rocks from Indiana” Gobetz -and- Hattin: Proceedings of the Indiana Academy of Science 1 :1–8 2002)
Wonder if that made the NY Times bestseller list

[Hoss]

Wow that mark to the left  in third  picture down from the top looks a lot like an upper and lower nibble mark or a matched pair of upper and lower teeth marks such as I have seen on shed antlers. LOL

[waterglass]

ell, I have learned that rodents chew on rock, and you cant find fossils in soap stone. Thanks for the information.

[Hoss]

I found that article Roger it is very interesting material. Yes I can say I have learned something new today too. Thank Cliff for pointing the way and Roger for the further convincing material on this artifact.

[CMD]

This is from the same study cited by Roger. I think it's easier to see a comparison from this example.

I also noted in searching that there exist "gnawing rocks" sold for folks with pet rodents.