Artifact or rock?

My wife found this on the bank of the river at the back of our property. Is this just a dented rock, or did she find an indian artifact?

That's an indian love stone.

Looks like a 'paint pot', More or less a mortar to grind and mix organic materials / minerals into dyes / paints.



Charlie

Lol! I haven’t heard that in a while!

That was done by a human IMO

I think a lot of that stuff was left in place when the people moved to be reused on their return

If it was used to grind anything the interior of the "bowl" will be smooth or show wear patterns. Hard to tell by the photo.

Moosetrot

I can find rocks dished our like that somewhat frequently in particular areas. I think they have a softer deposit of minerals that dissolved away. I would think if it was a human tool it would have been flattened on the bottom so it would set flat and not rock when in use but I'm no expert. Just my 2 cents

That is a cool find. It is a mortar. Basically a stone bowl used to grind stuff, such as corn, acorns, etc. The stone held by hand to grind with is called a pestle.

You have a nice native American artifact there.

Nice find.

X2

It looks like a mortar made by hand to me too. Nice find.

Keith

I thought those were called sex stones! Looks like an odd shaped rock to me!

pig castrator

Half of a big castrator. Ya need two of them, and be sure to HEEP YOUR THUMBS OUY OF THE WAY..



Charlie

All right boys I just this minute hit the mother load of mortar stones checking cattle this morning. Knew this rock ledge was here (boss thinks there's dinosaurs tracks in it also) so road over and snapped some pics. Excess of 30 round pits in the stone. Ill post pics when I get better service. Stand by you guys will be amazed.

I have a large rock with 11 mortars showing on it, on my farm. I have found around 40 stone tools near it. Some of the tools fit it perfectly. I think the Native Americans made pemmican here.

Keith

Here's one

Come out here u can find a hundred or more in one day! U would be so excited till u figured out they formed naturally

Mine didn't form naturally and look nothing like yours. I have mounds on my property too.

Keith

have a piece of flagstone with a petrified chunck a wood in it.

Keith
Keep in mind this is pics from the first rock out cropping I found. I spent less than 5 seconds looking for rocks to take pics of. If I'd spent 5 minutes looking for the perfect one I'd found it.

more unique rocks ive found that I know are naturally formed. The round ones I probably found over a hundred and only find them in one exact spot about 2 acres in size.

Rock with rectangle in it is a pocket about 1 1/2" deep almost perfectly formed

Those are cool.. The one looks just like a goofball.

I'll take some pictures of some of mine.

Keith

that one may possibly be (not) naturally formed. LOL
My point is just because they have very unique shapes or form it doesn't mean they are man made. Or because they seem to fit naturally in your hand. I can pickup lots of rock fragments in the creek beds that fit in your hand very well but also look like the thousands of other rock fragments laying around that don't seem to fit just right in your hand. I know a guy the picks up lots of "scrapers " that the only difference between them and the other hundreds of rocks laying around is that they fit in your hand very well.

"Cannon ball !!!" LOL!

the kids call them petrified dinosaur droppings

concretions would be my guess

Thank u. Ive never been able to figure out what they were. I goggled what you said and it actually told me what region in Kansas I found them in.

Good deal !!

I found a large black rock with a hole wore all the way through it on a remote AK island, Kanaga. When I say large, it was about 24" long, 16" wide, and 10" thick. The hole was much larger on top and tapered down to about baseball size on the bottom. In the hole was a white rock that had wore the hoe through the black rock. It would have been about two feet under water at high tide. I would bet I saw it, at least a dozen times. I am sure I have a picture of it, because it was nature made.

Isn't it amazing what a slight difference in hardness can achieve ?

I didn't realize the Natives played golf! Lol, very cool.

The one that looks like a golf ball is amazing!

Native american bra stone. There should be a match nearby.

As kids we called the round ones rock eggs. When hatched obviously made more rocks

Seth, there was a sand blow in Wy that had gobs of round stones inn it. I picked up a few sizes from about golf ball to baseball size that were perfectly round and heavy like they had iron in them. Kind of a novelty, but never found them but in one place. I'll bet they were concretions also. There were some that looked like they had a seam. Really weird to find stuff like that when you least expect it!