Found this in a rock shelter

Ohio_Doug

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I posted this in the "What is it" forum and figured I would post it here also to get some more ideas on what it might be. I found this while digging under a rock overhang a few years ago. I'm certain it's indian related since I found several spear points and alot of other worked stone in the area, just wondered if anyone here has found anything similar to this and what you think it may have been used for.
 

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Cant really tell you what it is maybe a preform maybe a geofact?
 

Pickaway, I dug a rock shelter behind my house just curious what I would find, I found several spear points, an awl, alot of scrapers and knives and 2 hammer stones. This particular piece looks like it has been formed into this shape. The edges are so smooth and so squared its almost like it was cut out of soft clay or something and then fired, you cant see from the pic but on the smooth side it has fine lines running the entire length as if it was smoothed with something.
 

I would of dug it to. Did you use a sifter? Good place for small items.Someone here will be able to help you on it after looking more close it would be an odd geofact,Congrats on the finds ;D
 

Yes I used a sifter, the rock overhang was right in my backyard where I used to live. I heard some guys at work talking about digging and I thought I would give it a try since I had the prime spot on my own property, glad I did, I found my first arrowhead there along with alot of other neat stuff. I will get it all together and take some pics if your interested.
 

Yeah everyone here likes to see pics of artifacts,Jacskon county is a good spot to artifact hunt,I believe the city of Jackson was a large source of salt and alot of old indian trails ended up there.
 

Nice looks like some ft ancient and older in there to bad you dont live there anymore.Hard to say but i bet the black pecies are Zaleski material being where it was found.
 

Yeah, I wish I could go back and do some more digging there, I'm sure i did'nt find it all. I was finding stuff more than 2 feet deep in the back of the cave so yes some of it was no doubt very old.
 

That second picture is a nice bunch of artifacts but that first picture is a geofact IMO.
 

Cannon, whatever it is it was placed there by someone a VERY long time ago, there were no other rocks under the rock shelter I was digging other than 2 hammerstones , it was basically sand I was digging in. If you could see it in person you would see what I'm talking about, I could be wrong but I'm not convinced it's a geofact.
 

I don't know what kind of rock the cave is made from that you are in but around this area it's sandstone and in that sandstone we get iron rich layers that are harder than the surrounding material. Over time they erode out in plate like pieces much like the one in this picture.. they even have that wavy look on one side frequently. Also, the piece itself wouldn't serve any purpose that I can think of in terms of an artifact. It has an unusual shape but that's about it from what I can see. The key part of that being "from what I can see". There could be some lines etched into it like you were saying that could be from human hands... maybe you could scan that side? Maybe, if there are some lines it could have been used to abrade or prepare striking platforms for flintknapping, then again, a rough textured stone would be better for this vs. a smooth one like this. I am sure it's not any kind of preform or anything like that otherwise signs of human intervention would be more evident. Actually, I take that back, I suppose it could be a preform for a pendant or gorget or something along those lines but I think it's a long shot. Like I said, if you could get a good clear scan of the surface I think we could put it to rest one way or the other. Out of curiosity was there a lot of flaking debitage in the cave?
 

I will try to scan it in the morning, surprisingly there was not alot of flint flakes present, some yes but not alot. The second pic shows maybe half of what I found, most of the other stuff was scrapers and more knives and a couple hammer stones. The overhang was sandstone but there was no other material like in the first picture. But like I mentioned before I'm sure I missed alot of stuff and did'nt do a thorough dig, if only I could go back to that spot.
 

Knowing now that the cave was sandstone I'm even more convinced that you have a high iron bearing piece of sandstone. Now I know you said you didn't see any rock like that in the cave or around the cave but that particular layer could have eroded out eons ago. Somewhere in that rock formation there is probably more of it. I would also venture a guess that if you were able to dig and sift the entire over hang you would find more of this material. Around this area some of the over hangs have tons of it and others have very little or none, just depends where the iron layers are and when they erode. Of course until we get a scan of the scratches we can't completely rule out human intervention either. Native Americans were very resourceful and would use whatever materials were available for some purposes. I wouldn't sweat this piece to be honest with you, the other artifacts are FAR more interesting.
 

Here it is scanned, the lines on the smooth side are not showing up very well.
 

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Looks like a geofact to me. Just because something is found on a "site", doesn't automatically mean it's an artifact or was even used by the natives. It's a common misconception. Given, in SOME instances they are artifacts, but it doesn't always hold true. In other words, just because I find an arrowhead in a creek, it doesn't make all of the rocks there artifacts. Look for valid (valid is a very key word here) signs of intentional manufacturing / tooling marks or use wear.
 

Ohio_Doug said:
I posted this in the "What is it" forum and figured I would post it here also to get some more ideas on what it might be. I found this while digging under a rock overhang a few years ago. I'm certain it's indian related since I found several spear points and alot of other worked stone in the area, just wondered if anyone here has found anything similar to this and what you think it may have been used for.
Geofact,I,ll pick up and bring home most anything that looks interesting, but much of it ends up in my garden for landscaping purposes.I like the other artifacts though.
Jeff
 

So I've been holding on to this "geofact" all these years thinking it might be something. :-[
 

Don't feel bad doug, everyone's done it ..me too. Hell, I bring home "oddities" alot of the times when I'm out hunting, I think most collectors do. If you don't know what it is, it sure is fun to find out.
 

looks geofact to me,indians found these as well and took them to the camps with them
 

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