A friend found this big round stone. Ideas?

[archer66]

Celt in the second picture just for something to look at.

 

[Tdog]

Stone cannon balls were prepared and used. Nice celt!

 

[Tony in SC]

Could have come from a washout in a river or creek bed. Over the years they get very round and smooth?

 

[Out Of Time]

If it's natural, it's unusually smooth and round.

Interesting.

 

[archer66]

Man...you guys usually are full of ideas.

 

[Kantuckkeean]

It’s definitely either natural or human altered. Either way, I like it. I wouldn’t recommend playing soccer with it... maybe shot put.

Nice celt!

Kindest regards,
Kantuck

 

[arrow86]

It’s definitely either natural or human altered. Either way, I like it. I wouldn’t recommend playing soccer with it... maybe shot put.

Nice celt!

Kindest regards,
Kantuck

Either natural or human altered ..... guess that’s a win win answer lol .
I’d say context would mean a lot determining this one if I found that in one of my field sites / camps I would definitely pick it up and bring home , if I saw it in a creek I prob would have left it behind.

 

[Tdog]

Check out the posts in this thread...

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/north-american-indian-artifacts/612641-game-ball-hammer-what.html

 

[GaRebel1861]

Interesting.

 

[Rege-PA]

Some measurements as to circumference might help with the cannon ball theory. Might be able to match to a known cannon bore.

 

[Twitch]

Agree that it doesn’t appear man-made, or natural. I assume it’s not a chert nodule.

 

[Gaspipe]

It’s natural . I’ve found a number of stones just like it . I bring them home because they look cool and my wife likes them in her flower beds. Perfectly round things are not rare in nature : heck we all live on the surface of one.

 

[Gaspipe]

Common misconception. When you think about it...what are the chances of a rock the size of earth being perfectly round?

View attachment 1779061

I was trying to a make a point for Pete’s sake!!!! Just because it’s round doesn’t mean it’s man made ; better?

 

[Doubter in MD]

The Earth doesn't look like that.

"What your graphic actually depicts is the Earth’s geoid: a way of describing Earth’s gravitational field. The original graphic is a product of the MATLAB. Earth’s gravity isn’t smooth at the surface but is stronger in some places than others. That’s because the Earth isn’t a perfectly homogeneous sphere (that is, the exact same density throughout its interior) but has some places where it’s more dense and places where it’s less dense. That affects the surface gravity.

The actual graphic is hugely exaggerated on purpose, making it easier to see the Earth’s lumpy gravity field."

The preceding explanation was brought to you by cutting and pasting from the interwebs.

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

Sorry to hijack. Good catch

Per the round stone..along rivers they are common.
I call them boil stones. They get caught in a low spot in the bedrock and the water turbulence causes them to roll around. You end up with a round depression in the bedrock and a perfectly round rock. The boil stone eventually is ejected or the bedrock breaks up and the stone gets washed downstream...picked up by glaciers and dropped off who knows where.

Search the term "bedrock pothole" and you will kind of see what I'm talking about.

 

[Doubter in MD]

Sorry to hijack.

Per the round stone..along rivers they are common.
I call them boil stones. They get caught in a low spot in the bedrock and the water turbulence causes them to roll around. You end up with a round depression in the bedrock and a perfectly round rock. The boil stone eventually is ejected or the bedrock breaks up and the stone gets washed downstream...picked up by glaciers and dropped off who knows where.

Yeah. I went off-topic. It's hard to imagine a stone becoming that well shaped by nature. My vote is man-made but my vote and a couple of bucks will get you a cup of coffee.

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

Yeah. I went off-topic. It's hard to imagine a stone becoming that well shaped by nature. My vote is man-made but my vote and a couple of bucks will get you a cup of coffee.

My grandpa picked one up along the river that is just about exactly the same size as a bowling ball. He painted it black.
It rolls perfectly along the floor and we used it to knock down plastic bowling pins.
If someone would look at it now the first impression would be that it's a cannon ball.

It does make you think..

 

[Quartzite Keith]

I believe it is natural. Where I live stones like that are still being formed in the rapids at the fall line of the James River (Richmond, VA). What happens is a stone rolling down river gets caught up in the rapids just right to get rolled around and around, like it's stuck in a washing machine. The result is a round rock and a reamed out, bowl like depression left in the big granite slabs that make up the rapids. Many years ago I had a neighbor that regularly walked the river and would find them, especially during droughts when the water was low. Nearly perfectly round like one shown here are rare, though. I have another friend that has one a little bigger than that he picked up in the river, made of granite, but not perfectly round. Most of them I've seen from around here are quartzite cobbles that are already round, then get caught in mother nature's rock tumbler in the rapids and get rounder and more polished.

 

[IMAUDIGGER]

Per Wiki - the perfectly round holes in the bedrock are called;
Pot
Kettle
Giant's Kettle
Evorsion
Hollow
Rock Mill
Churn Hole
Eddy Mill
Kolk
Swirl Hole

In rare circumstances these round depressions can be full of placer gold.
As a result, miners spend hours cleaning them out hoping to find a mess of nuggets at the bottom.
I've done several myself. On occasion a perfectly round stone or several perfectly round stones will be wedged into the bottom of the hole.

That's why I suspect these perfectly round stones are the result of river action.

For what it's worth..I've found very little gold in these holes.

 

[Relicgrubber]

Looks like a 10 pounder.