Found this today, just happened to glance down at some disturbed soil and I suppose just due to the shape it stood out to me. We are building a new house in a rural area. We have rocks of various shapes and sizes in our soil, but I have never seen a rock that is for all purposes essentially round. Musket ball? How could I know for sure if it is just a rock or if it is something cooler without destroying it visually to find out? Seems heavy enough that it could be lead as opposed to just rock.

Metal detector to determine if lead?

I've also found perfectly round clay balls about that size on sandy sites here where other Native American artifacts have been found. Been told they were game balls....but not 100% sure. Maybe the inner core of what is referred to as stick balls.

Here is some found in Georgia.

Hmmmm I will have to find someone with a metal detector. This is was on a hill top about a 75 yards from where a barn stands that was built in 1905.

That appears to be a Native American game ball. Small stone balls, that size, were frequently used with discoidals, a coin shaped disc, with one or both sides hollowed out, to fit the game ball. No one knows exactly how they were used together, but it's likely the discoidal was tossed out and then players took turns throwing game balls so that they rolled into the cup on the discoidal. Other players may have then tried to knock their opponents ball out with theirs. There's likely other game balls and discoidals nearby.

I have several large game balls. In my area, they are usually made of granite or green stone.

Keith

Strange to see this. I had a dream last night of plowing up a cache of clay marbles

Old musket ball?

If it were lead like a musket ball, the weight should be heavier than what the mass appears to be. I would think that would be obvious to you if that’s the case.

If it’s not lead, then I believe that Mr. Swamp and Mr. Keith nailed it.

X2

Measure the diameter, calculate the volume and weigh it, then check against lead.

Check it with a magnet.
If steel, it might be from an old rusted ball bearing.

I found one just like it along a county road in SE Nebraska

Cool Stuff

lead goes thud when you bag it on a board , a rock would not have the dull thud

also scratch it with a nail lead will be easy to tell once you scratch it

Further info. It does not stick to a magnet. Just by feel it seems to weigh more than a rock of that size would, but that could be just my mind telling me that.

If it is lead it would be very soft and you should be able to gouge it with you thumbnail. Press thumbnail against it and just slide it lengthwise.

Petrified testicle of a midget that was the victim of a pig castrator.

Based on opinion or experience Boco?

When trapping in Wy years ago, I run across a sand blow that had hundreds, if not thousands of perfectly round balls, from marble size up to baseball size. I cracked a few open, and looked like sandstone, but a dark colored and hard, dense sandstone inside them. Looked just like what the op’s pic.

I tried to tell them Lee. But it's like trying to convince the guy that had a coyote run across his head lights at full speed in a 1/2 second it wasn't a mountain lion.... lol