Need help w/ midwestern Gorget

Twitch

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Feb 1, 2010
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Missouri
UPDATE w/ more pics - Need help w/ midwestern Gorget

Hello all. This piece was recently purchased as an auction in the St Louis area and given to me as a gift. I have very little experience w/ hard stone artifacts and am looking for any help on the piece. In hand I don't see anything that is problematic but, again, I don't really know a lot about this artifact type. Let's start with what we do know:
Length 5-3/8", Width 1-3/4", Thickness 11/16" in the middle
Material - Very dense large grained hard stone. Almost looks metallic.
Type - it's a two holed gorget
Provenance - purchased in St Louis, south county. Other dozen or so artifacts are all clearly authentic, mostly Etley related and from Burlington chert. This was the only hard stone there.

Any thoughts are appreciated. Thanks for looking.
 

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Last edited:
Upvote 0
Couple more pics
 

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Like you, I have very little experience with hardstone artifacts but I'd say it has the anatomy of an atlatl weight. As for authenticity, not certain.
 

Better in focus closeups of the holes would help, both sides with light to see inside the holes. Looks good on pictures posted.
 

After seeing choo's post with all his hardstone I would ask him. The holes look to be reed drilled and good. What a nice gift!
 

Porphyritic Andesite maybe? Just a wild guess. The metallic look tells me it might be a metamorphic rock. Nice artifact for sure. Gary
 

Here are both holes, both sides.
 

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Other two pics. Too big to post all 4 at once I guess.
 

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Holes look good....
 

interesting relic.


Was there any history listed in the auction listing?

What about the auction house? What sort of history do they have? Are they known for being reputable?

It looks like a nice relic to me.

Do you see any mineralization on the surface? any signs of polishing with a lot of parallel polish marks close to each other in an odd pattern?
 

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