Paint pot

[NC field hunter]

A friend of mine brought this little mystery to me two weekends back. He was going through some dirt that was piled up while digging a pond, and came across this.











He said he noticed the small stone packed in the hole tightly with clay. He carefully dug it out with his pocket knife and cleaned the excess clay out as well. Knowing that I read about and collect artifacts in my spare time, he came to me for answers. Answers, well, I couldn't give him. I have read all that I can find to read on paint pots and still have no certain answer for him. While I feel pretty sure that this is a paint pot, I would like to see what you guys think. The pictures will not show all that is necessary for determining what this is, so you are stuck with my description for those details. The small stone fits in the hole like a glove in three positions. In my opinion, a longer stone would have been easier to work with. The small stone is hard to remove with my fingers. Instead, I have to flip it up side down for removal. The small stone doesn't show much wear from grinding elements necessary to make paint either. Lets see what you guys think! If this is a paint pot, it's the only one I've ever handled.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

DR.ÖTEK Metal Detector, Waterproof Gold Detector, Pinpoint & Terrain Modes, Professional Metal Detector - Grab it through Amazon!

[quito]

Here is a paint pot a friend drug up out of his gravel driveway and gave to me. It looks similar, the way the hole is worked into the stone. This one looks to have had a little more use due to the polish, and blackening from use.

There is another second shelf left side. That one still had red color in it, and came from North dakota.

 

[NC field hunter]

Yours are much nicer and more like I would expect to see. I wander if the stone I have was used for ore to make the paint. It is a grainy stone. Not one that would polish up nice. It's an oddity. Thanks for the help, and those 2 paint pots of yours are immaculate!

 

[GatorBoy]

I'm sorry man.. that just looks like a neat geo fact. Looks like something made that stone... probably moving water... get stuck in what was already a natural divot and it just spun and tumbled in one place creating what you see now. The small stone is harder material then the large stone...right? I mean..look at it.. there's no way for you to move it around in anyway that would have been done while making paint.... actually I think the stone just got stuck and water moving around it eroded the other stone.

 

[Charl]

Yeah, I think the small stone just got stuck in the hole. But I don't think it created the hole. It would have just fallen out before it ground something that deep I believe. I think it just lodged in a depression that was already present. I would have picked it up as possible human produced as well.

 

[tomclark]

In some places in the Smokey mountains (NC) I've seen examples of historical, local marbles made by putting rounded stones into holes in the bedrock of streams.

 

[NC field hunter]

In some places in the Smokey mountains (NC) I've seen examples of historical, local marbles made by putting rounded stones into holes in the bedrock of streams.

That's odd. I'll have to check into that.