Carved Artifact?

[Quigi]

Hi, I've been a rock hound for a long time now and found a few pestles and fire starting bearing block but this one has had me mystified for several years now lol. I found it by accident buried in a bluff in western Canada while exploring. At first it struck me as a possible totem with Delaware roots...but that would place it several thousand km's from traditional grounds. And then there's also the fact that I've yet to find/see anything else similar. If anyone here has any insight, it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

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[Charl]

IMO, it's a natural rock. Another mineral weathered out of the cavities seen in the piece. I can understand easily why one would see an animal's head in appearance, but it's very unlikely that a human did that. Far more likely that Mother Nature did. Almost looks like a vein of white quartz in the back of the long cavity, but I can't be sure that is what I'm seeing there. A neat looking rock, but I have to go with natural in this instance.

 

[Quigi]

Normally, I'd agree, I've came across some pretty neat cherts and such in the past, especially along the shores of Lake Erie. I can see that the 'eye' was from a natural erosion or dissolving of a more porous mineral What throws me off is the placement of the teeth. They're not loose and have been forced in place and I'm pretty sure that one of them is grey shale which I don't think occurs with granite formations (I could be wrong though ). Also the back of the 'mouth' is to rectangular to have been formed naturally and there are 'suspect' marks that would indicate some kind of tooling. I don't have a macro lens proper, so this is the best I could enlarge. The top of the 'mouth' looks to be cut for the placement

 

[capsmith]

Just a rock , sorry.

 

[old digger]

That is not man-made. Natural rock.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Take Charl's advice. He is 100% correct on that piece.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Natural rock, pebbles were forced in by nature....

 

[digger460]

Cool piece anyway! Kinda Cree-pie zoomed in

 

[Bow Only]

That is a great conversation piece. It appears to be a natural rock with no modification by man, but that wouldn't stop me from putting it on display because it would be great to talk about.

 

[Quigi]

Thanks to everyone for your help. I'll let you all in on a little secret...how I 'accidentally' found it was by climbing 1/2 way up a bluff to figure out where I wanted to wander off to next......and to 'shed a tear' lol. Next thing you know, I'm washing this off with my water bottle :P

 

[quito]

Welcome to the forum Quigi!

All I can say is, It's a very neat natural phenom. Something I would have brought home for the wife if found during an artifacts hunt. ( I bring her lots of pretty and interesting rocks).

....................."The top of the 'mouth' looks to be cut for the placement"...........................

Well if it was cut to put them in, they would surely be able to come out easy enough.

 

[quito]

Thanks to everyone for your help. I'll let you all in on a little secret...how I 'accidentally' found it was by climbing 1/2 way up a bluff to figure out where I wanted to wander off to next......and to 'shed a tear' lol. Next thing you know, I'm washing this off with my water bottle :P

And I have found sea shells at 8000 feet. Nothing about where you found that piece would surprise me.

 

[Quigi]

That's a very good point. Physics is as physics does lol. I'm curious as to the conditions that would have to occur with the expansion and contraction rates based on the mineral composition of the 'teeth' and 'jaw' and what the odds would be for that to take place for a 'perfect' insertion. In addition to the exact angles of the the 2 'teeth' that meet being perfectly aligned. The odds must be staggering....but, old mother nature is fickle in that way too lol

 

[Quinoa]

Ok, I'm curious, I usually don't comment on small rocks out of context, because they are rarely anything other than people's imagination, but could I see a couple pictures of the bluff where it was found. It's seems pretty small and it may be just natural , but it oddly enough has some things that are seen on larger monuments in certain Spanish sites, like a diamond shape and also a turtle head with something it's mouth or eating something. I;m not going to delve into it, but if you knew what each thing meant, then it would probably become more interesting.

It wouldn't be first time something was buried up in a cliff. Also was this rock really "oddball" and out of place to the surroundings in the place it was in, what made you pick it up?

 

[Quigi]

I'm currently looking for a picture without my ex-wife in it lol. I've pulled a pic that basically represents the lay of the land where I found it...in the Albertan coulees. The only reason I even noticed it was because I was taking a leak halfway up a hillside and looked down and...ta da! lol.

 

[Quinoa]

Yeah that picture is a bit small, but I don't see anything in it offhand relating to what I am talking about. I had originally thought you found it while scaling a cliff.

 

[le_smoking]

This is an ecofact. Made by Mother Nature but cool nonetheless!