✅ SOLVED Hardstone ID help. (Found a cool one!)

Pancake

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Nov 27, 2012
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It's been a busy really summer here and I haven't posted anything in a while. I've found a few nice points on the beach but have been too busy to really get at it. I finally had some time today and found this piece. Found a 1/4 mile from the coast in Massachusetts. At first I thought that it was a net weight but all the others that I have seen locally have been grooved around the narrowest point of the stone, not the widest point and none that I have seen here have been fully grooved. Could it possibly be a club? A hafted hammerstone? Any help with this would be appreciated, I am by no means an expert when it comes to hardstone artifacts.

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GatorBoy

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That looks like either a really large blola stone or what in some places are believed to be a sinker for bottom fishing with a a bone hook or piece of bone intended to be swallowed by the fish and get lodged in it's gullet.
Here is a fishing sinker from N. Dakota.
The material of yours looks almost like coral.

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Pancake

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I should have mentioned that it's granite and weighs just under 2 lbs.
 

GatorBoy

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At that weight its probably a fishing net weight.
 

rock

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Or on the joking side a ancient yo yo. Just kidding of course. Thats a cool find for sure.
 

GatorBoy

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I think of that when I see them too.
If I remember correctly ..you always put your left boot on first too.
 

Charl

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Jan 19, 2012
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Yep, as noted, a grooved weight, Early Archaic-Late Woodland in New England. Always a nice find, we've only found a handful, notched weights are a lot more common, and easier to fashion. I do think the form on yours is a bit unusual, you would think the groove would be easier to put around the short axis. But around the long axis isn't atypical either. Here's one such. Some sort of weight is the best interpretation for what you found I imagine, but it's somewhat unusual. Looks like sandstone.
 

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dennco2000

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Just goes to show ya.... Hockey fans go waaaay back!
 

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Pancake

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Thanks for the info guys. I showed it to a friend who's been artifact hunting for years around here this morning and he said "nice net weight".
 

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