I know this is not an artifact but anyone know WHAT it is?

[balddawg]

These pics are what I was referring to when I asked about authentic points, tools, scrappers ect. How can you be sure what you found is something? Tool marks? What?

 

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[GopherDaGold]

Fossil. Not sure what type. Coral perhaps?

 

[arrow86]

My first thought was coral as well

 

[Old Pueblo]

Fossil

 

[balddawg]

Thanks I thought it was pretty interesting.

 

[flinthunter]

It's fossilized coral.

 

[dognose]

fossilized coral.

you asked:
How can you be sure what you found is something?

For flint relics look for chipping on the flint / stone. The chipping will flake away from the point of impact in a half conical shape for percussion flaking and small edge work chipping on pressure flaking.

Flint is similar to glass as its made of silica. Think of a bb hitting a pane of glass and how the conical hole is shaped to show the exit. This is from the force of the impact and the shock waves passing through the glass.

Now extrapolate this to a piece of flint, where one only has half of the area where an object, in this case a billet instead of a bb, would impact the material, flint instead of glass. The shock wave can be manipulated by the chipper by using different angles of the material and billet to form how these shock wave travel through the material and how much of the material is remove in the flake. The flaking scar will be evident on the relic.

For hard stone relics look for evidence of pecking and polishing. Pecking used to shape the relic and polishing either from use of in refining the relic to the finished item.