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 Post subject: Perfectly round white stone (native american?)
PostPosted: Mon Feb 17, 2014 5:54 pm 
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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!!


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 Post subject: Re: Perfectly round white stone (native american?)
PostPosted: Mon Feb 17, 2014 9:00 pm 
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Location: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
This isn't going to be particularly helpful to your stone questions, but when I lived in Egypt, you would occasionally see perfectly round rocks (probably agate) lying in the desert. I've got one, it's the size of a 10 pin bowling ball and at first sight looks like a large cannonball.

They're formed by wind blowing them across the sand and the erosion caused by the wind and blowing sand will eventually make them perfectly round (and smaller and smaller over time).

All of that to say that perfectly round might not be the result of man's intervention.

Are there any museums nearby or online that feature Indian artifacts that might have similar pieces?


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 Post subject: Re: Perfectly round white stone (native american?)
PostPosted: Tue Feb 18, 2014 6:02 pm 
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Julie Gowans-Poli wrote:
Are there any museums nearby or online that feature Indian artifacts that might have similar pieces?


I will have to do some looking around, thanks for the tip!

I'm leaning towards possibly an Indian marble at this point. :?:


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 Post subject: Re: Perfectly round white stone (native american?)
PostPosted: Wed Feb 19, 2014 2:24 pm 
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I'm surprised Julie didn't spot it right away...obviously it's a stone age golfball


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 Post subject: Re: Perfectly round white stone (native american?)
PostPosted: Wed Feb 19, 2014 2:36 pm 
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When I worked in the aluminum smelting industry we used alumina balls like that to diffuse chlorine when filtering molten aluminum prior to casting into ingots. Any aluminum castings facilities near you?

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 Post subject: Re: Perfectly round white stone (native american?)
PostPosted: Wed Feb 19, 2014 5:32 pm 
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Frank wrote:
I'm surprised Julie didn't spot it right away...obviously it's a stone age golfball


Hehehe :D


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 Post subject: Re: Perfectly round white stone (native american?)
PostPosted: Wed Feb 19, 2014 6:36 pm 
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michael_e wrote:
When I worked in the aluminum smelting industry we used alumina balls like that to diffuse chlorine when filtering molten aluminum prior to casting into ingots. Any aluminum castings facilities near you?


I don't believe so... The only thing in Manila, Arkansas is cotton :D


EDIT: I got some measurements, the diameter is roughly 38mm.


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 Post subject: Re: Perfectly round white stone (native american?)
PostPosted: Thu Feb 20, 2014 8:21 am 
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Frank wrote:
I'm surprised Julie didn't spot it right away...obviously it's a stone age golfball

That's ridiculous...it is obviously a ball bearing from the flintstone era.


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 Post subject: Re: Perfectly round white stone (native american?)
PostPosted: Thu Feb 20, 2014 10:47 pm 
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stairman wrote:
Frank wrote:
I'm surprised Julie didn't spot it right away...obviously it's a stone age golfball

That's ridiculous...it is obviously a ball bearing from the flintstone era.


Heh, Fred and Barney played golf too, you know. :wink:


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