Ancient Indian Artifact

[Tnmountains]

It would seem very possible that it is an onyx "speak no evil" figurine, likely made in Mexico. Onyx figurines are commonly sold at rock and mineral shows.....

Miniature Onyx Figurines Monkey Speak No Evil Hand Carved Brown 1¼ & 1 5/8 | What's it worth

Good I.D !

 

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[mcl]

Dang beat me to it. I actually own one of these in red.

Not sure if it has been mentioned yet but the hole on the bottom is so that it can be used as an amulet with a medal or coin at the bottom. The chain goes between the arms, down through the hole in the bottom, then is affixed to the medal which acts as the stopper.

Whether there is any truth to this "myth" is unknown, but one virtually identical in carving and form was featured in a famous photograph in which it was attributed the "lucky" amulets worn by certain British and Irish soldiers in WWI. Lots of soldiers wore amulets in WWI, this was just one that was popular for some of those folks. As always, this particular monkey of the trio is much more popular for some reason. These appear to have been produced in at least somewhat moderate quantities up through the 1970s or so, as far as I can tell. I think they were popular with hippies or something. As far as mine, my grandmother gave it to me in a box of junk from her basement. She has no idea what it is or where it came from. But one other thing in the box was an 1890s-1910s era or so clay pipe. So who knows.

 

[dakotaterritory01]

I am brand new to this site and looking for other Indian artifact hunters in the South Dakota area....any groups or info would be very much appreciated TY

 

[mcl]

I am brand new to this site and looking for other Indian artifact hunters in the South Dakota area....any groups or info would be very much appreciated TY

Welcome to the forum! As you may know, metal detecting is illegal in quite a few more places in South Dakota than in other states, including all the state parks and the parks in the largest city in the state (you can detect but not dig or probe). Therefore it might be tough to find others in SD since a lot of this forum is metal detecting. But, we have a state specific forum so I think we should take this conversation over there.

Here's a link: South Dakota

 

[seekerGH]

okay, so the person at the American Indian Center is an accountant, so I dont really see any qualifications there for any sort of artifact assessment.

Given that is something he has never seen, potentially means that it is older, or perhaps, not even from the area. It certainly does not look like any native American artifact that I have seen from that area. It almost appears to be a sort of jade carving.

Do you have an idea of what it is made of? Specific gravity test would help.

Images that include a scale bar can help.

EDIT: I see that on the previous page that the see no evil monkey has been identified. I guess this is why the person at the Indian Center had never seen one!

 

[100acre]

Could be made from whale tooth or walrus tusk traded across country.

 

[Digging Duo]

you said Ohio?

 

[ToddsPoint]

Just for the record, the mound builders, aka Hopewell or middle woodland, lasted from about 1 A.D. to about 400 A.D. Earliest Hopewell sites are in IL, later in OH. They also made small human effigy statues but they were made of clay. Gary

 

[cutty]

Monkey making sweet sweet love to the proverbial football is my guess prehistorically speaking that is.