Round stone with perfectly symmetrical edges

[pingdis]

Found this clearing property less than 1 mile from both a Middle Woodland site and a Mississippi era site in East Tennessee; both sides have the indention

Natural?

 

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[ptsofnc]

Nice. Nutting stone. Definitely a tool.

 

[Buckleberry]

Nutter, maybe discoidal. Nice, certainly worked.

 

[pingdis]

Spent many hours and walk for miles looking for tool in area, then find one in my backyard.

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

Spent many hours and walk for miles looking for tool in area, then find one in my backyard.

Never know where you will find one. I found my first point when I was relieving myself in a farmers field, let's just say I found the point when dirt was washed off..

 

[Al D]

Looks like an old fishing weight, but the maker never finished it.

 

[Gold Maven]

hammer stone is what i would call it, to crack bones for the marrow.

 

[Tesorodeoro]

That’s a good one.

 

[Garscale]

It's a very nice artifact. Multi purpose. The holes are for holding a spinning shaft of a bow drill when starting a fire or drilling wood. Stone is shaped to the hand and may have been used to abraid or dress skins. Nice one.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

It's a very nice artifact. Multi purpose. The holes are for holding a spinning shaft of a bow drill when starting a fire or drilling wood. Stone is shaped to the hand and may have been used to abraid or dress skins. Nice one.

I have to respectfully disagree. I have heard for years that these were used as Bow Drill Toppers but I have yet to see one that shows the polish inside the hole that would occur from wooden shafts rotating back and forth inside said hole. I never adhered to the "nutting stone" theory either. Why do you need a round stone with hole on both sides to break open a nut? Just put it on a flat surface and hit it with another stone. Viola, a broken open nut. I call them Pitted Stones and I believe most are either Hammerstones or Anvil Stones.

I have a lot of these Pitted Stones and none show polish in the divots.

 

[CHUDs]

Hey Grim Reaper...I posted an example of a capstone for a bow drill some weeks back. Highly polished inside the divot.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

It's possible CHUDS, but to be honest it's more likely just an Omarulluk and completely natural.

 

[CHUDs]

My understanding is that Omarulluks are Midwestern. This was found at a known site in the coastal CA mountains which are comprised of sandstone and decomposed granite. I suppose it’s possible that it is natural but context would lead me to believe otherwise.

 

[southfork]

My understanding is that Omarulluks are Midwestern. This was found at a known site in the coastal CA mountains which are comprised of sandstone and decomposed granite. I suppose it’s possible that it is natural but context would lead me to believe otherwise.

Looks like polish to me ? fire starter / bow drill cap makes you wonder when found out in the hills .

 

[pingdis]

I have to respectfully disagree. I have heard for years that these were used as Bow Drill Toppers but I have yet to see one that shows the polish inside the hole that would occur from wooden shafts rotating back and forth inside said hole. I never adhered to the "nutting stone" theory either. Why do you need a round stone with hole on both sides to break open a nut? Just put it on a flat surface and hit it with another stone. Viola, a broken open nut. I call them Pitted Stones and I believe most are either Hammerstones or Anvil Stones.

I have a lot of these Pitted Stones and none show polish in the divots.

Thomas M.N. Lewis and Madeline D. Kneberg Lewis in their exhaustive 2 vol. set "The Prehistory of the Chickamauga Basin in Tennessee", which includes the region of the lower Hiwassee River where this was found, calls this a "Pitted Pebble" and is almost always quartzite, and by far the most common form of hammerstone.