ID help on a very cool find

[dcinffxva]

Unfortunately it isn't mine, but this was found by a co-worker, and sometimes relic-hunting buddy in Loudoun County Virginia. It is absolutely flawless, and smooth as can be. This guy has un uncanny eye for arrowheads, and other artifacts, and has plucked over 1,000 of them from the dirt. The object in the picture is a Quarter for size reference. Anyone here have an estimate of the age of this piece, and/or know why the hole is in it ?

 

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[The Grim Reaper]

It looks to me like your buddy has found himself a killer Pendant, probably Woodland in age and maybe an Adena type. The thing that is throwing me is the way the hole is drilled. It looks like it was drilled in sideways instead of straight through the piece. I wonder if it was possibly something else that was salvaged and made into a Pendant. I'm curious to see what everyone else has to say.

By the way, your buddy is one lucky son of a gun. That is one killer piece.

 

[tchaire]

The first thing that came to mind was a celt...Have no idea about the hole... Carried around on a strap...1st tool belt? Beautiful whatever it is.

T.

 

[Johnny X]

I was thinking maybe some kind of flare-bit pendant as well.
Keep your eyes on the ground

StevenX

 

[dcinffxva]

The hole in one side is at an angle, and it is straight on the other side. It looks like it was very intentional. I don't know if that makes much of a difference, but you can see it in the pictures.

 

[jeff a]

looks like a celt that was drilled for a pendant,ive seen a few but they were slate not hardstone,very nice find

 

[Rege-PA]

An interesting piece...the hole could have been drilled first in the rough blank, then the axe/pendant shaped around it, that would account for the side drilling which would have been very hard for them to do in such a hard stone. Other scenario is that the rock had a natural occlusion that weathered out and was enlarged by them with a drill. Hole looks to be drilled from both sides.

 

[Jonnyreb]

May have at first been a natural hole, but I dont think so. Looks like the outer part was an earlier attempt to drill. I do know that cultures in Mexico way back before the Aztecs worshipped an "Axe god".
I know that seems to mean nothing for up here, but think about the pyramid mounds we have all through the South and S.E. Seaboard....Virginia included... I say pendant. Axes or at least what they may have been assosiated with were important to that maker. The fact thats is more a celt form would mean Woodland period.
A most nice find.

 

[dcinffxva]

Thanks for all the input. Now he has more info to start looking around a bit. HH !

 

[WhiteCountyPaleo]

Maybe I'm going out on a limb to say the holes were drilled
sideways so the lashing would sink in so it wouldn't bulge
out from the side. Looks like it has wear from the one edge
being a bit. Trophy celt? Cool piece.

 

[creekhunter]

It looks to me more like a celt edge than a pendant, so I am going with the tool belt theory as well!!