🔎 UNIDENTIFIED cannonball?

[tinkeronthemarsh]

While metal detecting on a marsh yesterday in midcoast Maine, I found this piece of metal about six inches deep under the mud. My metal detector identified it in the "Low and high value coins, screw caps and some pull-tabs" category.

It's quite heavy—definitely seems like part of a spherical object. Any ideas on what it may be?

 

[Almy]

Not an easy one! I suggest it might be the bottom of a cast iron kettle or pot. These pots are brittle and the sides could have fractured away. The bottom, being round and arched would presumably resist fracturing better than the sides. Did you find any iron fragments nearby?

 

[Alan Payne]

While metal detecting on a marsh yesterday in midcoast Maine, I found this piece of metal about six inches deep under the mud. My metal detector identified it in the "Low and high value coins, screw caps and some pull-tabs" category.

It's quite heavy—definitely seems like part of a spherical object. Any ideas on what it may be?

It kinda looks like it’s flat on one side and then the other side is arcedfrom one side to the other. What comes to my mind is possibly the middle part of a post mold for bottle making. Is it magnetic is it made out of iron?

 

[tinkeronthemarsh]

It kinda looks like it’s flat on one side and then the other side is arcedfrom one side to the other. What comes to my mind is possibly the middle part of a post mold for bottle making. Is it magnetic is it made out of iron?

Thanks! We think it's made out of lead. It’s roughly 1.4 lb, and 3.5” across and 1” width. I'm wondering if it's part of a lead cannonball sinker used for fishing?

 

[tinkeronthemarsh]

Not an easy one! I suggest it might be the bottom of a cast iron kettle or pot. These pots are brittle and the sides could have fractured away. The bottom, being round and arched would presumably resist fracturing better than the sides. Did you find any iron fragments nearby?

Thanks—good suggestion! It's not iron, however, not magnetic. I wasn't able to do too much more exploring nearby but there are lots of things buried in the marsh, it being an intertidal zone with lots of activity over thousands of years...