Mysterious Pebble

[padubenay]

I found this stone amongst some rubble in my garden. It does not look like any stone I have seen in Scotland, and seems to have an asiatic quality. I think it may be porphry but would like a knowledgeable opinion if any one might be so kind.

The curious thing is that this area used to belong to Col. Farquhar, who founded Singapore, and retired here after a life in the Far East. While there, he married a local lady, apparently of Mogul ancestry (according to a DNA investigation) but had to leave her behind when he returned to Britain. He was, as well as being an Engineer, very fluent in the local language and interested in nature; he even had a pet tapir which used to come to the table for cakes.

And so it seems like this stone may once have been his, and even had some significance - an illusion fostered by its very smooth and symmetrical appearance and feel: it sits the hand well, and is rather dense, weighing 120 g, and is 6 cm by 5 cm. But the only way this surmise might be reinforced is to determine from which geographical area it originated - a project beyond me, but possibly someone will have an idea?

 

[Plumbata]

Very interesting stone, it looks like a dark agate/chalcedony or perhaps flint (the attached chips where the surface has been struck look somewhat translucent) and appears as though it would have made a very excellent sling stone. Maybe it's related to the unusual ancient carved stone balls of Scotland (usually round and decorated instead of oval though)? If it's something from the orient I have no idea but given the present information I'd guess it was a very superior example of ancient Scottish sling ammunition that may have been found already naturally rounded far away from the garden you discovered it in.

 

[Kray Gelder]

Padubenay, That stone looks intentionally shaped by man, and the wear is probably from carrying around in someone's pocket for many years. If you look closely, you will see white, or clear crystalline inclusions, just like these polished black tourmaline spheres from India. Also, in searching for this, I saw polished black tourmaline stones, with brown banding just like your stone. This person could very easily have traded for it in the Singapore, southeast Asian area. My guess, a worry stone.

Oh, and welcome to Tnet!

 

[vpnavy]

1st - I noticed this is your first post - so, Welcome Aboard padubenay! Take a look at Sub-Forums: United Kingdom for information (i.e., clubs, etc.) directly related to your country.

2nd - I moved this thread from HELP! over to Forum: What Is It? for more exposure.

 

[NVNutcase]

There are millions of stones just like this in the Marble Canyon area of Arizona .

 

[padubenay]

Thanks for those interesting observations. I should have posted a side-on picture, which would show the stone to be rather flat, making it an unstable sling-stone, I would guess. I've seen a few of the round carved stones you mention, and it seemed to me they might have been so carved as to allow the stone to be tied into a rope, possibly in pairs like the South American bolo, to be used for hunting, to entangle the feet of an animal.

 

[padubenay]

That's a great suggestion about tourmaline; I found several other examples of rounded, polished stones fairly similar when I googled 'tourmaline/porphyry', so I'll keep digging. I agree about the worry stone role, and that it has been shaped for some use, and polished thereby. I gather from this research that some stones of this sort also had medicinal uses, which is intriguing.