Awesome small stone mortar found

[teddyrobo]

Hey everyone! It's been some time since I've posted on this site, but I never stopped hunting This summer I went exploring on some land in NE Kansas near where I was raised and found a small, basalt looking rock sitting by a stream with an indention that resembled somebody pushing a spoon down into some putty. The spoon shaped indentation is perfectly smooth, there are no flaws or anything. I try my best to do as much research as possible before I go out creek walking or even when it comes to my (rare but insanely exciting) finds. This one has puzzled me some. I looked at the piece to figure out how it might have been used. The grinding area (spoon shaped indentation) in the stone looks much too small to be used as a traditional pestle and mortar for cooking, but maybe it was used for smaller ingredients. On the top side of the stone there is a large, grooved indentation. When I took the stone and imagined myself using it, I found that this large grooved indentation fits a bent knee perfectly, giving the user a perfect angle for grinding and allowing the substance to fall out of the spoon area once ground. But since I've never seen something like this I thought I'd come to the seasoned experts here. So..... am I crazy?

Also, in my photographs I've marked the top of the stone A and the bottom B so people can understand the layout of the stone in multiple positions. Disregard the multiple colors

 

[Sonnydigs]

Looking at the 3rd photo, just doesn't look like there is any real signs of grinding.. Hard to tell in the photo butdoesn't seem to have any signs around the edges of the hole that show any signs of grinding.. Hard to tell without holding it and feeling the interior wlls. Still very cool and I may be wrong to..

 

[tmodel]

hello Teddy!! and welcome to Tnet. and AIA forum, from Tmodel!! on the eastern central highland rim of Tn. on 350% on my PC looks like you can see work marks on rim of hole, and small round peck marks inside of hole looks like to ruffen hole to make it grind better. same as resharpping knife. marks look different from surface of stone. this may be a small medicine motar. i was looking at photos 509 & 510 at 350%. Terry

 

[quito]

My first guess is geofact.

I find lots of rocks with round holes/indentations just like those.

Joel

 

[joshuaream]

Most mortars I've seen are on pretty stable (non-wobbly) wide rocks. You can find nutting stones like that with a much more shallow dimple, but that hole looks deep.

I'd vote geofact.

 

[texan connection]

That looks like a rock that was dripped on and ran out on the side over a long period of time... But im no indian artifact guy