Interesting rock

[RGINN]

Came across this rock in the middle of the sagebrush near my campsite last night. Almost got excited, but finally decided a pretty good joke. Least I think so?

 

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[Old Dude]

I don't know the significance of that brand. Was it that clean when you found it?

 

[RGINN]

I didn't associate it with a brand at the time. I recognized it as Elder Futhark, an old style of runes. The first symbol is z, and represents protection of self or property. The second is a, and represents prosperity or stability, just generally speaking. Before I ran off to find a phone to call Scott Wolter, I did a little investigatin. The rock faces due west and appears to have been in a fire, like one of the many campfire rings in the area. I found another similar rock and it's very hard, so it wasn't scratched in. Looks like they used a punch or big nail. Look really close, and if Vikings set up a camp here and put up a boundary marker, they did it within the last year, as I don't see much weathering at all in the carving. Maybe not what the rascal intended, but I thought it was a pretty good joke on me anyway. Left it where it was, and maybe in 50 years we'll see it on the news and get another good laugh out of it!

 

[BosnMate]

My first thought was it's a brand, turkey track F. Some bored cowboy messing with a rock.

 

[RGINN]

Might be something to the brand idea. There was a lot of ranching in this particular area, so maybe I need to research some old brand books. I have more education and done more research on ancient alphabets as a hobby (don't list that on a job application) so that's what caught my attention. But still it's not that old. That quartzite rock does take a while to weather, so I'll give it maybe in the last 5 years.

 

[Old Dude]

Hey, at least you didn't sell the farm! It is such a shame to see artifacts being manufactured with power tools and by cheats and dishonest people. I have pretty much quit certain parts of this site due to dishonesty.

 

[RGINN]

Hey, at least you didn't sell the farm! It is such a shame to see artifacts being manufactured with power tools and by cheats and dishonest people. I have pretty much quit certain parts of this site due to dishonesty.

Amen to that. That's why I wanted to make it clear I didn't believe this to be of ancient manufacture, and hope nobody thinks it is. But man oh man, for about two minutes when I first saw it...!