archaeologyfieldwork.com - Found this on Lake Huron shorline

Topic ID #13902 - posted 9/17/2011 6:30 AM

Found this on Lake Huron shorline

00merc69

I found this years ago (20+) near Lexington, Michigan on the beach. Was going to skip it into the lake but thought maybe I should keep it.
It's approx. 2.5" x 1.75", 0.125" thick and 0.4 oz.
One side has dimples and the other side has grooves.
It looks like a manufactured material, not stone and with a magnifying glass there looks to be some type of fiber(s) in it.
I've tried contacting the history museum in downtown Detroit & Wayne State University but of course have had no luck.
Any help here would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Jeff H., Clinton Township, MI

HAD TROUBLE LOADING IMAGES...

THANKS for your help webmaster!

artifacts

Post ID#19016 - replied 9/17/2011 7:31 AM

Jennifer Palmer

Webmaster

You could e-mail the pics to me at webmaster@archaeologyfieldwork.com and I'll be happy to put them up. You can also put them on a website like flickr.com or picasa.com and then obtain the URL from there.

Hope this helps, Jennifer

Post ID#19017 - replied 9/17/2011 1:09 PM

Jennifer Palmer

Webmaster

Here are Jeff's pics:

Post ID#19018 - replied 9/18/2011 5:06 AM

Dwarmour

very nice, from the pictures I would say it may be some kind of ornament like a pendant or something.

Post ID#19019 - replied 9/18/2011 7:39 AM

DesertWalker

Hard to tell from those photos. Most likely a piece of laminated fiberglass.

Post ID#19020 - replied 9/18/2011 8:25 AM

00merc69

Thanks for the reply DesertWalker. It doesn't look like an chemical-based material, looks like some type of clay or stone.

Post ID#19022 - replied 9/19/2011 4:52 AM

Dmack89

Ancient Guitar pick ? =^)

Actually - could be stone - used as a pendant. Pecking on the one side is reminiscnent of what a pecked hollow on a grinding stone or other ground stone implement would look like, but on an item this thin I would suspect that type of action might well split it.

Have you tried contacting someone at U of Mich in Ann Arbor - they have always had a great archaeology department.

Good luck

Post ID#19023 - replied 9/19/2011 12:09 PM

00merc69

Thanks Dmack89. I'll try sending UofM something. If I hear back from them I'll post they're reply.

Post ID#19024 - replied 9/19/2011 2:20 PM

StarRider

Fiber tempered ceramic?

Post ID#19026 - replied 9/21/2011 7:12 AM

fresno

Those are some pretty blurry pictures. A shaped piece of asbestos sheeting, perhaps.

Post ID#19043 - replied 9/23/2011 10:39 AM

FireArch

Moderator

Looks like a piece (water-worn fragment) of monocoque skin to me. The hexagonal pattern on the one side strongly suggest human construction - as opposed to manipulation.

"It looks like a manufactured material, not stone and with a magnifying glass there looks to be some type of fiber(s) in it."

So, fibres and a regular pattern on both sides (even if the patterns are different); screams man-made to me.

Post ID#19045 - replied 9/23/2011 12:04 PM

rkeyo

Moderator

It appears to me that the "pattern" is not a pattern; each indentation is different in size and shape. In addition, the grooves are not evenly spaced, suggesting that they were incised by hand, not by a machine. Given that the hole is offset, not in the top of the triangle, I would venture that the piece is a part of a necklace of some sort.

Post ID#19059 - replied 9/26/2011 9:22 AM

SHPO Grunt

Well, what the heck, I'll hazard a guess. To me it looks like a piece of "Rabestos" disc brake pad that has been water tumbled. The hole looks too perfectly round to not have been drilled, and could correspond to the rivet that held the pad to it's backing. Additionally, the "checkered" side really looks like the split open (they tend to fracture on a plane) insides of a brake pad. While the roughly parallel likes on the other side could have been caused by a well worn disc in desperate need of turning or replacement. Although the lack of arc (hard to tell from the scale) may be enough to refute this. Or, it could be an industrial brake instead of an automotive one.

That's my guess. Your mileage may vary.

Post ID#19064 - replied 9/28/2011 7:48 PM

diginit

We are missing a key bit of sensory information we shovelbums rely on in the field...what does it taste like?

My first impression was pendant/gorget although I have seen NA ware with holes that have been proposed to be for hanging the vessel up off the ground.

I know you said you don't think it is stone and I'm not sure what kind of mineral sources there are up there. What ever it is it is well worn.

Run a string through it and see how it feels on the person or swing it around your head and see what it sounds like, just be sure to upload the video.

Best of Luck!

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