Hanmerstone?

[Wandermore91]

Apologies for misspelled title, can’t edit it 🤓. I’m going to keep trying this until I get it right! Pulled this from under a lightly used dirt road nearby to a site I found. Could it be a hammerstone? It’s incredibly polished. A very hard and heavy stone. What would have been the “bottom” in comfiest grip position is coincidentally dimpled.
Thanks









These are hammerstones from Illinois. Comparing the impact marks they look very similar to me..

 

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[kingskid1611]

Looks like river rock. We have piles of them around here. They are real heavy but smooth and mostly round from being tumbled in a rapidly flowing river.

 

[quito]

Looks like you have some hammer stones to me.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Coming from a road full of rocks that is most likely just damage from it being crushed against other stones as it was driven over.

 

[Wandermore91]

Coming from a road full of rocks that is most likely just damage from it being crushed against other stones as it was driven over.

Yes, I obviously considered this. It was actually toward the center, so on a verily lightly used road it probably was not the part of the road under tire constantly, or much at all. If it’s a river rock it’s not nearby to any river. The road is quite eroded and low compared to the surrounding earth as you can see from the picture.

 

[Charl]

I don't know what it is, but we live in a region that was once glaciated. So what might be a river rock in some regions are glacial cobbles in New England. And those cobbles usually have smooth skin like that. Fact is, we are buried in glacial cobbles and pebbles. If it were used as a hammer, it was used very little, tough to say...

 

[Charl]

And if you want to see how animated a discussion of hammerstones can get, this recent discussion is one such example:

http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/north-american-indian-artifacts/567295-artifact.html

Especially when we're talking about cobbles and pebbles that were merely used, and not themselves fashioned, it can be tough. Obviously, the more pronounced the battering, the more obvious the usage, the less debate is likely to break out. But on other occasions, it can be tough to be certain. But quite a few hammerstones are seen in that slightly older thread...

 

[joshuaream]

I normally don’t follow it fits in my hand argument for something being an artifact, but hammerstones usually do fit the hand rather well or they are flat enough to have been an anvil stone.

In big quarries you occasionally see the exception, where mass was more important than ergonomics.

 

[NCPeaches]

Comparing it to the ones in your last pic it looks too big to me. I would say natural but cool and I would have brought it back also. Curious if you have found any points or pottery in that area, looks promising.

 

[Charl]

I normally don’t follow it fits in my hand argument for something being an artifact, but hammerstones usually do fit the hand rather well or they are flat enough to have been an anvil stone.

In big quarries you occasionally see the exception, where mass was more important than ergonomics.

We find a class of artifacts here called end picks, large and small, associated with the soapstone bowl industry, but also used to peck and create hardstone tools. Many appear ergonomically designed in a manner that would minimize the reverse power driven back into the hand. They are hand held tools, and if you are delivering blows, you really don't want to be continually hurting your hand at the same time. In the case of end picks, when you grip them, you can see they were flaked into shape so a flat facet, not a sharp edge or point, would be driven back into the hand holding and wielding the tool....

 

[joshuaream]

Charl, great detailed example. I’ll rephrase my original wording:

Not every rock that’s fits in your hand is an artifact, but hand held tools are usually ergonomically improved.