Very strange rock find...ever seen this before?

[electriceye]

Hello Folks-

Just happened upon this site and love it already, lots of really neat finds!
After browsing for awhile, I remembered I had a strange rock artifact sitting in my garden. I have never seen this before in a rock and thought maybe someone here might know more about what it is.

Basically this is a decent sized rock, weighing approx 8-10 lbs. It appears to be sedimantary based but not soft, like limestone. It is actually pretty hard!

There is a oval shaped hole almost in the middle of it (approx 1.5"x 2"), that looks and feels fairly smooth..until you look at it with a magnifying glass. There are actually rocks deposits on the walls of this hole, and no signs of modern drilling bits or other manmade boring signs.

Without knowing *what* this thing is, I put together a few different theories:

1. Oval shaped hole in rock was formed by rock growing around a human or animal bone that has since washed away (means it's thousands of years old?)
2. Oval shaped hole was ground out or hollowed out by ancient man to hold a torch in a cave wall. (means it's thousands of years old?)
3. Oval shaped hole was slowly ground out by water over thousands of years. (means it's thousands of years old?)
4. Your guess?

I 'm not really sure what the heck this thing is, but it is intrigiung to say the least. Has anyone else here seen anything like this? One of my friends was over and said it could very well be an ancient man artifact and could be worth a chunk of money...or not.

If you get a chance, take a look at the images (if I can upload them here) and see what YOU think this hunk of rock is. Thanks!

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[midwaydigger]

Looks like an ancient wheel...just a thought

[EagleDown]

It's a rock. That means it's hundreds of thousands of years old!

Just kidding. I'll have to admit that it does look like the center was man-made. If so, a close inspection should show some kind of marks from tools. At first glance, my thought was a type of grinding wheel, until I compared the size to the ruler.

My best advice? Have an expert take a look at it.

By the way, welcome to TreasureNet. I think you'll enjoy it here. (Especially if you can handle the ribbing you might get over this particular find).

Eagle

[CRUSADER]

Hi,

You don't say where you found it in the world?

[Digs68]

It's a geofact. Which means just a natural occurrence in the stone. Probably caused by a softer deposit that fell out of the hole years ago something like that. Were it man-made (historically or prehistorically), it would be perfectly round with grinding or drilling marks in the hole. The most common way of drilling by native Americans was with a piece of hollow reed, sand, and some sort of bow or other object, or even their hands to spin the reed in the hole. It was a very long process.
Other larger holes were pecked-out with another stone from both sides until through, causing a dished-out appearance in the rock. For a hole such as this to be made, they would have spent countless hours drilling the hole, then polishing it, then wearing it out into an oval shape with cord or something else. They would only do this to a stone that had already been shaped for use or display.
The most common geofact formations like yours appear in outcrops of limestone (where the hardness varies quite a bit) or other permeable stone. Or they are caused by fossils or fossil pieces becoming dislodged from the stone.

[Digs68]

Here is a close-up pic of a hole drilled in stone by early man. See the marks created by the sand and the twisting of the reed?

[John Silvered]

that is unusual. I agree with Dig in that if it were many thousands of years old and man made...it'd pretty much have to be round not oval. Though such a shape COULD be made quite a long time ago by making one large round hole and another round hole next to it. You'd then file the sides until the desired oval shape was achieved. Why would one do this? A wheel would wear out the fit faster if it was perfectly round. There'd be "slippage" in time if a round piece of _______ was the axle for the round holed wheel. Oval axel ends with oval wheel hole...would have no slippage.

I'm just saying...ancient people could've had that idea as well.

[Cool Hand Fluke]

Looks like an ancient wheel...just a thought

Fred Flintstone lost his spare tire!

[Gunrunner61]

Not a clue......But Damn cool!!!.....HH

[midwaydigger]

Fred Flintstone lost his spare tire!

Haha...mabye he had a flat and threw it away

[electriceye]

Some good responses so far folks, thanks!

The 'Oval axle' theory got me thinking- If you look at the shape of the oval hole and look for things today that would fit, some items look like a natural fit. Think about the handle on most sledgehammers, axes and other tool handles. Also the femur bone from a leg or maybe a giant rib. The hole is not symmetrical, the oval side is wider on one side than the other. I'm not sure why anyone would want to grind out an 'oval' shaped hole...unless they put a handle through it and did not want it to spin or fall out. We used it in our garden edge to hold a tall Tiki-Torch made of bamboo. This is what got me thinking of ancient man using it to hold a torch...If you are exploring a cave, carrying a torch, and have nowhere to put it...you bring a holder that won't burn. Rock was the most plentiful resource available to them, so that also makes sense. I'm not disclosing the location of where this came from in case there are other interesting things found.

[terryo]

It looks like a rib bone "hole" to me, in cross section....but just a guess..I guess.

[nuggy]

Hi, I have seen several holes similar to this made when a very heavy type of wood that rots slowly is stuck in a sedimentary deposit. It finally does rot away but by then the rock has solidified around the branch, and the space where the branch had been becomes a hole. It can be possible to discern the grain of the wood or bark pattern by study of surface within the hole.
At times this hole can be filled by other mobile elements seeping through the rock or entering a break. This other element can totally fill the branch hole, and become a solid of different composition and usually a different colour. This can be seen when the rock is cut or broken as an odd circular or oval spot.
The tiki torch holder seems a perfect use for the item. It could be used as a fishing rod holder, or small boat anchor as well, and may indeed have been used as such in times past.
Good luck Nuggy

[Steveo]

Not a clue but I like it....................................

[vor]

Don't know but;
Holes in figure 5 in link below are out of round. Maybe they had a wobble in the bit.
Evidence of Advanced Machining In Ancient
The contrasting inclusions appear to be cut into and not formed around another object or material.
Nice rock.

[stefen]

How close are you to water?

Could be an ancient anchor....

[antlerman23]

that is really cool! i guess i like the idea of water dripping on it for thousands of years. thats what id assume about it if i found one.

[chrisplay2004]

I agree with stone boat anchor

[RiverRat3]

Is the area you found it been blasted in the past. Could have been drilled by a water drill and blasted with TNT and you have a piece that survived. Just a thought. Neat find either way.

[electriceye]

Hmm... the mystery deepens.

-The boat anchor theory sounds very plausible...except this piece of rock does not look like it's ever been in the water. Also, not knowing anything about anchors...would an 8-10 lb. piece of rock even work as an anchor? I'm not sure.

-The water jet/blasting area theory also sounds very plausible...except that there are rock growths or deposits on the inner walls of this hole *over* the oval shaped hole. This means to me that the hole was drilled and then new rock grew over the walls of the pre-drilled hole, making this... ridiculously old!
If you look at the pictures, you can see some of it in image #3. Since rock grows or forms incredibly s l o w, this (to me) rules out that theory. Most high pressure water jets/drills operate at extreme PSI with a cutting slurry to erode away the material and most likely would be round in shape? Again, not sure, more research to do now-

I did just contact one of my friends at National Geographic; I figure if anyone knows rocks, it's them.

The more I think about this the more puzzled I get! The one thing that really gets me is- The hole is not symmetrical, the oval side is wider on one side than the other. AND it works as a great torch holder!

Maybe all treasure that does *not* glitter is gold!