✅ SOLVED best guess... sanding block?

[mill-Z]

This rock is surprisingly soft. It seems like it was shaped for finger placement.

 

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[invent4hir]

Hmm, not sure of the purpose, but the black areas look like flint while the whitish areas look like core (I think). However, that may not jive w/ it being surprisingly soft. Which part was soft: the black, whitish or all?

If it turns out to be flint/core, then maybe someone was beginning to work on it, but didn't get a chance to finish. Was that found in the area of "confetti"?

 

[flinthunter]

It looks like a possible small chert nodule. The idea that Native Americans made tools with finger placements is mostly a myth. You don't tell us where it was found, so maybe a creek find. Tumbling against other stones will chip the edges of chert stone.

 

[Kray Gelder]

I'm thinking it's a natural stone. But in the first pic I DO see the left side of Chairman Mao's face and bald pate.

 

[mill-Z]

Well, its more of a bluish than whitish, and yes, that's the part that's soft. Now that u mention it, the black part does look like flint. I found this on the sand by the river, close to a power dam, when I was visiting a friend in Willacoochee, Fl. along with this cute lil guy (images attached)

 

[Relicgrubber]

That is a type of sea urchin fossil I think...

 

[mill-Z]

That is a type of sea urchin fossil I think...

I don't know if you can tell it by the picture, but there's a bunch of needle holes around the design

 

[GoldieLocks]

The cracks convince me it is dried clay and a fake.

 

[Red-Coat]

It's not a fake (if you're referring to the second item). It's very obviously a sea urchin fossil. This is not the same species as the OP's, but the 'needle holes' are a normal anatomical feature of the test (the shell portion). They're the podial pores of the petalloid ambulacrum.



The first item is just a piece of heavily weathered rock with a cortex that has seen significant hydration. That will also affect the hardness of the interior and rocks like rhyolites are particularly susceptible to this (although I don't know if it occurs in the area where you found it). Difficult to say if it has been worked or chipped by mother nature.

 

[mill-Z]

It's not a fake (if you're referring to the second item). It's very obviously a sea urchin fossil. This is not the same species as the OP's, but the 'needle holes' are a normal anatomical feature of the test (the shell portion). They're the podial pores of the petalloid ambulacrum.

View attachment 1938842 View attachment 1938844

The first item is just a piece of heavily weathered rock with a cortex that has seen significant hydration. That will also affect the hardness of the interior and rocks like rhyolites are particularly susceptible to this (although I don't know if it occurs in the area where you found it). Difficult to say if it has been worked or chipped by mother nature.

Thank you... Solved ��

 

[ToddsPoint]

Here's a similar flint nodule found in the glacial till in IL. Gary