Perfectly round white stone (native american?)

caspider10 · Feb 18, 2014

Hello all, first post here!

This stone was found about 20 years ago when digging around in my great-grandmother's backyard in Manila, Arkansas. She was 1/2 Comanche Indian, so I know there were some tribes in the area. I meant to take the picture with a quarter or nickel for reference, but I forgot, please excuse this.

I hope the photos are clear enough, it's about the best I can do with my current camera. Size of the stone is approximately 1.5", and like i said, it is almost perfectly round. It was not found near any rivers or streams, and I have never found anything quite like this in the area. There doesn't seem to be any markings except for a few small nicks that look like it hit another rock or struck something sharp (you can see these in the photos). I'm not quite sure what kind of stone this is (limestone perhaps??).

Here's what I'm hoping to find out (in increasing order of hopefulness!):
~ What kind of rock this is
~ Is it man-made, or natural
~ If it is man-made, what was it used for, or what could it be

ANY help would be appreciated, even if it is just a reference to another site that might be more specific/helpful!

Thanks!!

Greeneman215 · Feb 18, 2014

Looks NA to me. Possibly a game stone. You can try Arrowheadology.com and post it there. Some real experts on artifacts there.

caspider10 · Feb 18, 2014

Greeneman215 said:
Looks NA to me. Possibly a game stone. You can try Arrowheadology.com and post it there. Some real experts on artifacts there.

Thank you very much, will definitely give that a try!

SafeMode · Feb 18, 2014

Looks like a ball from a bocce set.

caspider10 · Feb 18, 2014

SafeMode said:
Looks like a ball from a bocce set.

Aren't Bocce balls usually made out of metal or plastic though? This is neither of those materials, it's definitely stone of some sort.

SalemScott · Feb 18, 2014

Aren't bocce balls also much bigger, like the size of a softball? I was also thinking it's a cue ball from a pool table but 1 1/2" seems to small for that also, though smaller 'toy' tables have smaller balls. Older pool cue balls were made of ivory so who knows.

caspider10 · Feb 18, 2014

SalemScott said:
Aren't bocce balls also much bigger, like the size of a softball? I was also thinking it's a cue ball from a pool table but 1 1/2" seems to small for that also, though smaller 'toy' tables have smaller balls. Older pool cue balls were made of ivory so who knows.

I guess I should clarify a little- it's VERY round, but not perfectly so. If it was perfectly round, i would lean more towards man-made.

GillyWI · Feb 18, 2014

How deep was it?

caspider10 · Feb 18, 2014

Honestly, I couldn't say for sure. She did quite a bit of backyard-gardening, so I can only assume it was a few inches deep. Not just sitting on the surface.

Detector Nut · Feb 18, 2014

That's neat!

Silversmith45 · Feb 18, 2014

An inch and a half? Possibly some kind of a large marble.

angry1541 · Feb 18, 2014

Isn't the actual bocce ball....the one everyone aims for a little on the smaller so Dee of a golf ball? And I could totally see a nice decade of stone....me set was rock, or at least some faux rock.

GillyWI · Feb 18, 2014

I know I have seen them somewhere, can't remember what it is from. It was inside something like a toy (think of the metal ball inside a hula hoop, for those of us old enough to remember those) but of course this is too large for that. I think it's from the 50s or 60s.
Other possiblity is a weight that is placed in a large truck tire to help balance it. All assuming it was not especially deep.

caspider10 · Feb 18, 2014

GillyWI said:
All assuming it was not especially deep.

I know it wasn't found on the surface, but i doubt it was really deep. The deepest it could've been found would be the deepest you go for normal garden veggies, I'd say no more than 8" or so? The more experienced gardeners could make better guesses than I

notdapolice · Feb 19, 2014

Greeneman215 said:
Looks NA to me. Possibly a game stone. You can try Arrowheadology.com and post it there. Some real experts on artifacts there.

This guy said it, I have found quite a few of theses at a NA camp my uncle found years ago on our property most definitely a marble for playing games.

Mayor McDigger · Feb 19, 2014

My vote is the "pallino or jack" ball from a bocce set, The set i have has a ball with similar dimensions and feels like stone or very dense plastic.

caspider10 · Feb 19, 2014

Alright, I got some measurements, its diameter is right around 38mm, so it's definitely not a pallino ball.

Teamroper · Feb 20, 2014

Looks to me like a medicine ball that the NA would use. If I'm not mistaken there was usually two in a set. A friend of mine is a big NA collector and he's the one that showed them to me years ago.

I'm no expert here, but if you consider WHERE you found them I think that's what you've got. If so, what a great find. I'll see if I can hook up with him and see what he thinks about it. Again, congrats on the find.

If you punch in Native American medicine ball on Google you will see one that was sold on Ebay. Sorry, I tried to put in the link but my own personal account comes up. LOL.

caspider10 · Feb 20, 2014

Teamroper- thanks, that is helpful! It does look pretty similar.

I'd be very interested to hear what your friend has to say.

Ancylid · Nov 7, 2014

Round Stone

I'm glad I found this website. Your stone is the first one that looks very similar to mine. I also found mine about 20 years ago in northeast Indiana. I was always told that it was a NA game stone. Interesting that it might be a medicine ball.

Perfectly round white stone (native american?)

New Member

Attachments

Full Member

New Member

Elite Member

New Member

New Member

Elite Member

New Member

Elite Member

Elite Member

Junior Member

Elite Member

New Member

Senior Member

Full Member

New Member

New Member

New Member

New Member

Attachments

Similar threads