A large, holed shard, bone with a hole, and a plummet.

[PetesPockets55]

A large, holed shard, bone with a hole and a plummet.
Hit the riverbank instead of the beach on Saturday looking for NA items or European items. Winds from Helene pushed the edge of the water inland somewhat but didn't really erode the beach. She just pushed the loose sand higher on shore.

This fairly large shard surprised me when I noticed the hole in it. As large as it is and as close to the edge that the hole is I can't imagine this was repurposed by them for ornamentation or a net weight.

Actually, the first interesting items I found were fossilized teeth. A tiger shark, a molar and an incisor, and I'm not sure which animal they came from. Maybe you guys & gals will know.


It was a fun, hot, long, interesting day of detecting.
When I got home I decided to clean up the trunk and wash up other shards I've found. That's when I noticed the notches and incuse lines on both faces of one shard. That's when I realized I had a nice plummet.

The holed bone was from a previous foray and I wanted to include it in this post to see what the consensus is. I believe the hole is man made and hope you can confirm or refute it for me.

Enjoy and let me know your thoughts on any of the items.

 

[Older The Better]

If I had to guess the teeth may be deer, and I’d lean towards natural on the hole, I think that’s not uncommon on that area of that bone but that’s just a gut reaction I’d have to do research if I was going to try to back that up. The hole in the stone may be a fossil that fell out but again a guess because I can’t really see it from the picture and I could get behind the plummet but I don’t have any first hand experience with that artifact type… sorry to be wishy washy but hate to see an interesting post not get a reaction so that’s the best I can do.

 

[Rockdog]

The hole in the bone looks man-made to me. Especially in the last picture. As to the first item I would like better pictures of the hole to give a better idea of what I think. The etching work on the one that you're calling a plummet is really interesting.

 

[Older The Better]

Ok had to check myself, if it’s a humerus they have that hole naturally

 

[Rockdog]

Interesting. When you look at the tast picture of the hole in his it looks drilled but maybe natural. I was not aware of that.

 

[Older The Better]

Hey could be just like to check myself if there’s a difference of opinion, thought I’d share what I found. I don’t have it in hand so I don’t know… could be natural and used as if it were drilled, although you’d have a hard time proving that

 

[PetesPockets55]

Thanks for the replies Older The Better and Rockdog.
The photomacrographs are great. I wouldn't have known where to begin.

The hole in the shard is tapered from both sides. I've gotten maybe half a dozen from this same riverbank over the years, but this one is the largest shard. Quite a few items turn up while detecting.

The hole in the bone (bird?) seems too close to the end to be natural as well as perfectly round. The ones in the images above seem oval or oblong, which probably serves to not pinch the nerve or vein going through it.

I'll get more closeups that may show the hole in the bone better, as well as the hole in the shard.

ps. Next time I go to Popeyes Louisiana Chicken I'll have to study the bones more closely before tossing them.

 

[Bucket Lister]

I found a similar bone back in April.

I found some... stuff! 🤔

Finally got a B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L day (clear, 60sF), so I spent a few hours at my permission. Aside from a fistful of rusty nails (I tossed all but the really old square ones, which I'm saving for the big presentation at the end) I found a few artifacts. IDK what they all are, but they seemed...

www.treasurenet.com

I thought the hole was drilled, but now... I think I'll take another look. 👀

 

[CreekSide]

Looks like a catfish bone and if so it’s natural. Good finds

 

[PetesPockets55]

Here's some closeup images of the holes. (Bone first.)

Looks like a catfish bone and if so it’s natural. Good finds

Are you thinking it might be a dorsal fin on a catfish?
You might be right. The hole just seemed too close to the end of the bone to be natural and the image of the inside of walls of the hole I provide are so straight.
Here's a link to an image of some modern catfish dorsal spines. The hole in these spines is called a "foramen". (I tried to save the image and then post the image but that wasn't working, so hopefully it's ok to do the image this way.)
https://img1.etsystatic.com/053/0/8511832/il_fullxfull.762318145_su09.jpg

Thanks again everyone for the comments and help.

Here's some images of the hole in the shard.

 

[Older The Better]

I must have missed the large piece was pottery I was thinking it was too big for a personal ornament so probably a fossil but now I’m wondering if it’s not part of a ancient repair, sometimes they’d drill a few holes and lash the pieces back together

 

[PetesPockets55]

... but now I’m wondering if it’s not part of a ancient repair, sometimes they’d drill a few holes and lash the pieces back together

Being so close to the rim, I'm guessing this wasn't an ornament either but part of the original pot.
I never would have guessed that they repaired the pots.

Any chance you have some images of repaired pieces of your own or from reference sites?

 

[Older The Better]

Mending Pottery in the Past

I've had some questions posed to me recently about how and why pottery was mended in the past, so here's a brief overview of the most common methods. If you're looking for how to glue your pottery back together now, you can find our guide for that here. Say you've made a pot and fired it. If your

www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu

Went to see if I could find some info for you, this pretty much says it all

 

[rginn]

Bones like that we found in SWOK with holes that were definitely drilled were used as shaft straighteners in arrow making.

 

[PetesPockets55]

Mending Pottery in the Past

I've had some questions posed to me recently about how and why pottery was mended in the past, so here's a brief overview of the most common methods. If you're looking for how to glue your pottery back together now, you can find our guide for that here. Say you've made a pot and fired it. If your

www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu

Went to see if I could find some info for you, this pretty much says it all

My hat's off to you sir. Thank you for that link on an interesting piece and images.