Found this last week (Effigy?)

[car209]

My Husband and I were hunting our favorite place for Artifacts about a week ago and it was just about Dark and I found this Awesome piece... I have been speaking with someone that specializes in these Artifacts ..
found it myself so its no replica. It was found just North of a well documented Clovis Site. All opinions are welcome. Its about 3 1/2" tall.

 

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[Tnmountains]

He was real pain for us over at Arrowheadology too. We eventually gave him a timeout where whatever he posted was only seen by him and the Mods and Admins so he would get no replies and I think he just gave up and left. We may have actually banned him as well.

Now that is just cruel Grim. Lol. Last resort is ban for us and we try hard not to do that and if we do we give the user a reason. Gets hard sometimes on a full moon with thousand of users on line.

 

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[Charl]

Folks are right, car209. Here is what is actually happening:

pareidolia - the Skeptic's Dictionary - Skepdic.com

And here is an individual who has taken his delusions to absurd heights:

http://portablerockart.blogspot.com/

If ANYONE tells you that is an artifact, they are either mistaken, deluded, or just plain lying to you.

 

[Charl]

Now that is just cruel Grim. Lol. Last resort is ban for us and we try hard not to do that and if we do we give the user a reason. Gets hard sometimes on a full moon with thousand of users on line.

When I was a child, I knew an old Swamp Yankee who howled and shook his fists at full moons. Every full moon. Great, great guy, but the full moon just affected him like that. Had to lead him off a curve in the road one night, very dangerous spot to be howling at the moon, and tell him "stay on the farm, man, not the road!". So, every time some smart ass scientist says the full moon has no affect on people, I just laugh and shake my head. He didn't know my friend Joe.

 

[redbeardrelics]

Just call me contrary I guess ? I agree with everyone that the rock that car209 posted photos of is not a man made or man modified artifact / effigy. I would just like to remind everyone though, that a rock does not have to be modified by humans to be an "artifact" in most archeological circles, it merely has to have been used or handled by a human to be a human artifact. No doubt the pre-historic peoples picked up unmodified natural rocks, either as candidates for lithic modification, or just because they thought they were "cool" or special, or mystical maybe. If car209 found that neat piece of rock on a prehistoric site where that type of rock does not naturally occur, or could not have been brought there by geological forces, then I would have to say that yes, it is a human artifact. Some of the sites I hunt are small sandy dunes or knolls where there is little or no geologically placed rocks to be found. It is interesting to see the unmodified stones that have ended up there due to prehistoric peoples bringing them there. Just consider the totally natural and unmodified, neat looking rocks that many of us collectors pick up out of the creeks and bring home and place around our flower beds. 5000 years from now some one hunting these current home sites will find those neat rocks, and yes, they will be considered human (unmodified) artifacts. This point is often overlooked because of the many people out there falsely claiming that all of the naturally formed neat rocks were modified to that condition by humans. Just sayin. HH

 

[Charl]

From "A Handbook of Indian Artifacts from Southern New England", Mass. Arch. Soc., 1991, pg. 77

"Magic Stones: Late Archaic to Late Woodland.
Material preferences: quartz, unusual stones
Description: These items are altogether unmodified, most often quartz crystals but also gastroliths or other oddly shaped or colored stones that might be encountered on rare occasions. They are not infrequently found associated with cremation burials, but also occur at habitation sites, where they may have been part of shamans' medicine kits."

Gastroliths are dinosaur gizzard stones, swallowed to aid in digestion. Usually colorful,and polished from being a gizzard stone. Other examples include quartz crystals, quartz crystal clusters, other mineral crystals, concretions, fossils.
i have found fossil specimens on habitation sites that were almost surely transported there.

Also, manuports is a term used to describe items transported to sites as raw materials, but which were not themselves altered for use as tools. Chunks of graphite or hematite, paintstones, fit here. They may show scratches from extracting the raw pigment, but were not used as tools. Still artifacts of a sort. Artifactual. Chunks of iron pyrite used in fire making kits also fit here.

 

[unclemac]

remember too, these people didn't have pockets, moved around a lot and didn't really have space or the inclination to just carry around a lot of "cool" rocks from place to place.

 

[ivan salis]

quartz stones * remember crystal radios? the stones were used to gather in radio waves and to "focus" the signal ? so the stones can have mystical properties that most folks can't easily understand --wonder what the folks thought of the guy that ttold them that the stones could pick up invisible and unhearible sound waves and focus them so we could "hear" them ? I wonder how NUTS did they think he was?--- that is until he PROVED IT.

hum that rock appears to have "rabbit ears" on it better to tune in stuff with...

honestly looks like a pink quartz bear cub facing sidewise looking at you to me --but go figure. what do I know.

 

[Charl]

Here is an older article on shamans and "magic stones", such as quartz crystals, etc.....

http://library.bridgew.edu/exhibits/BMAS/pdf/MAS-v36n0304.pdf