Alright guys I need your opinion on Indian artifacts

[ohio mike]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oq7gXL1zzZE&feature=youtube_gdata_player


Tell me your opinion

 

[banditicey]

If You are aware of a museum or historical society that focus on Indian relic's it would help to contact them
and see if they would accept a photo with description

This happens in our parts also and a Local Legendary Detectors who has a ET has established a collection of Indian Relics from
his area which is now being displayed at the Museum and credit is given to him

Very similar to England and some detecting results, but here it is voluntary and there it is mandatory

As you indicated, ask your friend and he should be able to answer or point you in the right direction


Good Luck

 

[firewxman]

How porous is the rock material? If fairly porous, then I would guess it is a metate. Otherwise it does appear to have been used as a mortar. Now without seeing the "artifact" within its context, I would be cautious to label it as "Native American." That being said...signs point to it being of Native American origin. If it was mine, I would take it to a local college with an archaeology department, get their insight, then go from there.

Really cool...thanks for sharing!

 

[ohio mike]

If You are aware of a museum or historical society that focus on Indian relic's it would help to contact them
and see if they would accept a photo with description

This happens in our parts also and a Local Legendary Detectors who has a ET has established a collection of Indian Relics from
his area which is now being displayed at the Museum and credit is given to him

Very similar to England and some detecting results, but here it is voluntary and there it is mandatory

As you indicated, ask your friend and he should be able to answer or point you in the right direction


Good Luck

I am actually trying now to contact someone at the local college to get a "professional" opinion

 

[ironman200081]

Luckily, I know much more about Native Americans than I do about metal detecting!

Your artifacts are called "matates." You are spot-on in relating it to a mortar and pestle. I am 100% sure that it is man-made because of the pock marks in it.

The matates would have been used to grind up nuts, grains, and oil seeds. Think of it as a self-service grist mill.

I doubt that it is associated with the Shawnee, it is likely much older. I think it would date from the Middle to Late Woodland periods of occupation.

 

[dmckee17]

Ironman is probably right: Native American, predates Shawnee. Seen similar "grinding" bowls (a little smaller) in Alabama.

 

[Ray-Mo.]

Looks more like early white man's toolmarks to me.I have seen a lot of Native American "Grinding Bowls" but they were all a lot smoother without the chisel type tool marks.

 

[khouse]

I don't know of their origins but have a theory. It's possible they were both smooth. But years holding water with the freeze and thaw process could have eroded the bowls making them rough. Just a thought. They are very cool!

 

[silversweeper]

As a life-long Indian artifact hunter/collector and someone who minored in Archeology ( and worked a few years at a Mississippian Mound complex museum as well), I'd say those are almost definitely indian artifacts. As the others have said, metates or grinding stones. I can't explain the cuts/grooves/pock marks, however, never have seen that before. Whatever the reason, those gashes appear to be done by man. Could be they were trying to shape the bowl area or make "catches" for whatever they were grinding. Most of the metates I've seen are worn smooth from the grinding process. Who knows how long it took for the bowl areas of those stones to get the size/depth that they are but it was probably more than one lifetime. And they're older than Shawnee, as some of the others have said. They could be anywhere from 800 years old to a few thousand, possibly several thousand. Only way to really gauge age on them is if you knew exactly where they came from and could date the site from other artifacts found there. Great pieces in any case but if the show you saw which reminded you of them was American Digger, they're not worth anywhere near what they "supposedly" sold theirs for. Could be worth a few hundred each, or more depending on how they clean up and if you can find the right buyer. Pieces like those are getting hard to find these days, unless they're from private collections ....or someone's flower garden....lol. Actually I think my parents have a metate/mano set that my father found when he was younger and....it's in their flower garden! HH and thanks for showing them. Brad in Missouri

 

[Hotzone]

Matatis are flat and grinding was done by rolling back and forth, while this is a bowl and would have been used with a pestil. Did u find it upside down? That was how u usually find them so as not to fill with water and break when freezing. It is so cool turn over a rock and see the bowl for the first time in hundreds if not thousands of years. I think u can get a rough guess as to age if found with arrowheads. The bow and arrow being in the hundreds of years while atlatls with larger points could be measured in thousands of years. Found with Folsom or more primitive spearheads dating to the ice age when they went after mastodon. The outside of the bowl appears to be unfinished. I think bowls like these were used by more transient visitors to a camp. Permanent residents having the time and pride to chip the outside into a more aesthetic shape. Good whole bowls are hard to find. I believe some bowls were started soon after the squaw married. She used and treasured it throughout her marriage. At the death of her mate she would purposefully break it when mourning. Broken bowls that have no visible defect often have chips from the lip indicating intentional fracturing and only one half of the bowl is found. That is the intrigue with artifacts, what , who, why, when, where... Makes u think