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  • Incised or nah?

    Hello to all my fellow rock lovers and hello to all the rock experts out there. I’ll get straight to it. I found this rock in Ohio County, Kentucky. I attached an image that highlights the small area I found this piece. My grandfather seems to think that there is some significance to this rock but I’ve heard other people say it’s mortar with trial marks. Personally I have no ideas about what this is or was, if it was functional, or (I don’t think it’s likely) if nature created such a thing. I’ve been sitting on this for about 2 years contemplating on what the rock could be and what I should do with it. I hope everyone enjoys and is intrigued as I am.

  • #2
    Yes, that's incised by humans. I can show you a similar looking situation on a piece of soapstone from California, where there is a whole literature, although generally in journals that might be hard to track down:

    So, yesterday I received a package, from a friend I know from elsewhere in the artifact forum universe, containing several artifacts from Almeida Co., Ca. From around San Francisco Bay. Among several pieces were a couple of what I believe are discoidal-like manos, very nice, and this really cool incised stone. After reading


    I would not draw the conclusion that the same motivation was involved in these artifacts, I just don't know if they're the result of a functional activity, like sharpening something, or something else. But those lines were put there, it isn't natural.
    Rhode Island

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    • Lindenmeier-Man
      Lindenmeier-Man commented
      Editing a comment
      Complete agreement Doc, we won’t get into age.
      ( Although I like good arguments !)

  • #3
    What’s the material?
    Floridaboy.

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    • #4
      Maybe they were a few feathers short of headdress. There’s a Vincent Van Gogh in every tribe (crazy artist) I guess. The amount of thin blades it must have taken to make those lines is as insane as the person who made them. No need to have all those intersecting lines and curves. I get an incised stone and it being a tool but that’s overkill. One crazy idea i have is that it was used as the tribes mourning stone and women instead of cutting themselves they used all their husbands points and ground them to nubs and by the looks of it the whole village got a turn.

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      • Jethro355
        Jethro355 commented
        Editing a comment
        I agree. Could have been a kid with a disability who just sat around rubbing that stone for hours on end. Who knows....but it was done by somebody. The why is all but irrelevant at this point.

    • #5
      I will say that I was suspecting something recent until I saw the bottom but there is something that’s oddly odd if that makes sense. There’s two blobs of something that seem to be right over where there are deep lines and or where the lines should have continued or have at least scarred that area. Anyone else seeing that?

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      • SGT.Digger
        SGT.Digger commented
        Editing a comment
        In the 3rd picture

    • #6
      Here's a study of incised stones from the Gault site, Texas...






      And here is an otherwise unmodified quartzite cobble from Norwood, Ma.

      Click image for larger version

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      Click image for larger version

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      Some incised pebbles/cobbles show organized incised lines. The above crosshatch design is one of the most common of petroglyph design elements. Who knows what was intended to convey with something like this. Other rocks with more haphazard lines may have been sharpening stones, or perhaps resulting from dulling the bases or lateral blade edges of projectile points during the knapping process, as members here have recognized was likely the case with so-called sinew stones.
      Rhode Island

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      • #7
        So, these incised stones are not common place finds. Some will go back to paleo times. If your going to chunk it, I’ve got my glove on ! JJ
        Lubbock County Tx

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        • #8
          Thank you all for your helpful information. I do tend to have a nack for collecting antiques. But something ancient is something I can’t chuck away. I’m sorry.

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          • #9
            I’m not for sure on the material but I’d love to safely get it into the hands of someone who is apt to to be as factual as possible in regards to this stone. If it shall be forever a mystery I’m okay with that too.

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            • #10
              The rock looks like a nodule of some type of Chert and the incisions are on the chalky outer cortex. Native Americans did make abstract incised pieces . Another thought would be that it was used to shape or polish bone needles on. The part I had to rationalize to myself in seeing that type of usage is the fact the lines continue over the round edges. My only guess on that would be shaping or polishing the curved edges on trigger awl like utensils. I could be completely wrong, my only other guess was that it was buried in a field at just the right height that the plow hit it but didn't actually hang up and pull it out. But I think some of the marks on the opposite face kinda rule that out. Interesting piece if it was a sharpening stone I'm surprised it wasn't utlized as material for actual tools seeing as how it could be one big nodule... Just some of my random thoughts.
              Josh (Ky/Tn collector)

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              • #11
                How could I put a value on this thing? I don’t know How but I’d like to see what kinda value this thing has

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                • Mailman
                  Mailman commented
                  Editing a comment
                  Take it too the artifact show in Owensboro, this summer. There will be plenty of folks that will give you an idea what it's worth. I'll see ya there.

              • #12
                To me it is clearly plow marks. the majority of the rock was buried(you can see the line were the plow marks stop) so the plow ran over it for years at mostly the same direction but no always. That is just my opinion from what I am seeing but I am NOT an expert.

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                • #13
                  I agree with it being altered by ancient hands. It would take a very sharp plow to make thin lines like that. I believe a rock that size would also get tossed around by a plow over the years resulting in strike marks all over the stone. Very cool artifact!
                  Uncle Trav- Southwest Michigan

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                  • #14
                    The fact that the lines are super straight, many of them are parallel, and they follow the curve around the piece is interesting. It makes me wonder if something thin, tough, and abrasive was drawn back-and-forth across the rock such as if they had a handful of plant fibers they were trying to strip down, either so that they could use the fibers as a building material or because they were removing the pulp from the fibers for food. Imagine taking a stalk of celery and wrapping it around that rock, then dragging it back-and-forth until nothing was left but the thick strands. Then imagine something much tougher and less domesticated than celery that might wear grooves into the rock while you were performing that action repeatedly over a long period of time.

                    I got the idea from an emergency camping saw I got is a Cub Scout. did anyone else have one? It was a piece of abrasive wire with a key ring on each side. You wrap it around a stick and draw it back-and-forth then it wears a groove until it cuts through the stick or you can easily break it. It makes the same exact kind of grooves seen in photo.
                    Last edited by BoilerMike; 09-08-2021, 02:09 PM.
                    Central Indiana

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                    • #15
                      I think all cultures had them, but for what purpose, no one knows. This is a personal find from a 14/15'th century site, Clyde Ohio. Grid is 1 CM.

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