What would this be?

[MooseIBe]

I found this on the shores of Crummock water when I went there with Antti and put it rather absent mindedly in a pocket, thinking it looked interesting. I fished it out again the other day and wondered if anyone could tell me what it might be? It looks vaguely like it might be some sort of handtool or something but then, I could be completely mistaken. Doesn't look natural though.. note the groove down the side closest to the camera and, though you can't really tell from that picture, the side that's not on my palm looks as though it's been deliberately smoothed. Anyone got any comments or ideas?

http://photobucket.com/albums/b88/Moosemizz/th_rock.jpg

[livius drusus]

I vote hash pipe.

[curses]

I vote hash pipe.
:roflmao:

Maybe it's a piece of broken masonry? It's hard to tell..

[MooseIBe]

It could be broken masonry yeah :). I was hoping it might be a stone or iron age hand tool but then .. it might just have fallen off someone's garden wall last week (not that we were near any gardens..)

[curses]

You never know. I've heard stories of people finding old Roman coins on the banks of the Thames. Stranger things have happened.

[MooseIBe]

Well yes :). There;s a load of Roman ruins around here but I don't think the Romans went in for stone hand tools, somehow ;). Am not sure who was inhabiting the area during the Stone Age although afaik it WAS inhabited..

[Sarpedon]

Can you give us pictures that aren't so blurry? Maybe several views?

[MooseIBe]

I can try yeah but althought I can take pictures for free it costs to send to them my email account so I don't want to take too many. I will wait till the sun comes out :)

[LadyShea]

Looks like broken pottery to me, hard to tell from that picture though.

[TomJoe]

Why do you need to send the pictures to your email account? Why can't you just upload them from your computer to here?

[MooseIBe]

I don't think it's broken pottery but I can't be sure.

As to pics .. it costs money to send them from my phone to my computer wherever I upload them to :) I can't just transfer them over, don't have the necessary equipment.

[Ari]

Looks like a very bad piece of Brie. Hmm, maybe it's roman brie. :)

[Godwhacker]

Please forgive my lack of geography knowledge...is Crummock water on the ocean, or is it a lake?

[MooseIBe]

It's a lake in Cumbria :)

[Dingfod]

A broken piece of slate shingle? A piece of slate chalkboard? The groove in the end should be a clue.

[Dingfod]

Interesting, this photo (http://www.arrowheads.com/roadrunner/SLATE%20SPEAR%20M035_3055.JPG) was identified as "a slate spear" on this website. (http://www.arrowheads.com/roadrunner/misc.htm)

[MooseIBe]

the groove on that does look very similar :). I can't work out what it would have been for though.

[freemonkey]

That's very cool, and I'm very jealous, MooseI.

Can you tell what its made of? Stone? Ceramic? Bone?

Do you have a natural history museum nearby that you could visit?

[MooseIBe]

It's definitely stone, but I don't know anything else about it :). For all I know someone just picked it up last week and carved a groove in it ;). There's no real way of knowing without asking an expert and I dunno where I would find one.

[freemonkey]

It's definitely stone, but I don't know anything else about it :). For all I know someone just picked it up last week and carved a groove in it ;). There's no real way of knowing without asking an expert and I dunno where I would find one.
I Googled stone age tools UK, neolithic UK, museums UK and got too many wonderful hits. You might looking at a good natural history or science & industry museum in one of the bigger cities, or even a local history museum in your area, or especially the area where the object was found.

I don't know how it is in the UK, but I think just about every local museum in the US has some sort of ancient native American artifact collection. In fact, you'll find arrowheads, stone tools and other items in antique stores regularly.

[Darren]

Does it appear to have been actually broken - i.e. rough irregularities indicating that part of it may have snapped at one stage? If so are the broken parts still rough/jagged, or have they been smoothed over time?
If it's definitely stone, it's not pottery. What are the angles like, and does the smoothed surface lead to an edge on one side (which may once have been sharp)? Or does the acute angled end taper to a point?

[MooseIBe]

It doesn't seem in my inexpert opinion to have been broken ... but one side definitely looks like it's been smoothed (not actually cut or broken but, I would say, smoothed down with another instrument). That's one of the long sides. The opposite long side just looks like the normal side of a stone (it's definitely a stone, like I said :)). Then there's the short side which has the shallow groove in it that you can see in the picture. Both top and bottom look untampered with. The 'point' is not especially sharp but it's more, well, pointy than I've ever seen on a stone before..

[Johnny Pneumatic]

I can try yeah but althought I can take pictures for free it costs to send to them my email account so I don't want to take too many.


That's why you sign up for a free photo hosting account. Try www.villagephotos.com , it's what I use. There are other sites around as well.

[MooseIBe]

No I mean I have free photo hosting, I have photobucket, but I have to get the picture first to my computer so that I can hoik it into the photobucket account, right? :) And the only way to get the photo to the computer is to send it from my phone, which costs money.

[BDS]

With its triangular shape (identifying it witht he pyramids), I think it is an artifact left behind by Space Aliens.

[Crumb]

Doubtless it is a primitive anal probe. :alien: