Ancient people painted their faces, bodies, rock surfaces, cave walls, etc with different pigments. The multitude of holes held different colors. Today we get tatoo's and deface flat surfaces with different colors of grafiti.
Those half rounded holes were for making Marbles. Native Americans played many types of games and they played Marbles of different sizes. They weren't nutting stones, or for starting fires. The reason it was always made in sand stone was to grind the stone down to make it round. Cherokee people have been making marbles for many years and still make them that way today. There is a site on RU-vid called Cherokee Traditions:.. Making Marbles and there you will see exactly what the stones with half spheres are.
In the southwest there are similar holes called cupuals used in "coming of age" ceremonies. The holes are smaller than your examples but the same random pattern. Could be something ceremonial that our or your speculation could not likely understand the symbolism. Happy hunting, consider bringing less stuff home. Much of archeological evidence comes from it's context in situ.
Just looked at a video as you suggested (Cherokee Traditions Making Marbles) Looks like the Indians know what these holes were used for which were passsed down through their traditions.
I have about 50 of these stones myself. The use of them is multipurpose. Around here (Ohio) there were hickory and white oak trees everyplace. So I have no doubt some were used for cracking nuts. If they were used as Flint napping tools or anvils, I would have found micro flint blades or debitage in the area, but its never present. The smaller ones, about the size of your hand or fist were used as a bow drill cap. Making it easier to stabilize the spindle when using a bow drill. The pitted stones here have two different size holes in them like the ones you have. There are black walnut trees here also, and I noticed about 20 yrs ago that some pitted stones have pits large like walnuts and other have small pits like acorns. I.M.O...Most were used in the processing of nuts and grains. (05:49) This stone I'm pretty sure is a stone billet. Most likely it was wrapped in sinew or treated hide to protect it from chipping or breaks, this is the reason for the impact marks on the end that you point out. You only have part of what it used to be. I have a couple, but mine are made of sugar quartz. I have a video on my channel about a stone billet that has writing on it if you're interested. Also I wanted to add that most of the pitted stones that are found here are made of very hard stone like pink granite. I also have a short video of me finding one near a pond that is dried up now but I still find artifacts around it. I.M.O.... Anvil stone just means a rock to pound things on or against. If you use one for working flint, you would use it to stop the billets strike to insure more precision. I have a couple with firing that has turned them red. My explanation for this that some were used to heat fat in a cup for the production of arrows and spears. Using the fat on the arrow bindings to water proof the wood before heat treating the shafts with fire (Grease Cups). Those are my thoughts on this topic. I been hunting artifacts for 50 yrs, and I used to wonder the same thing about the pitted stones. Just dont overthink it. The answer is most often the most obvious.
The shear number of them makes a person think it’s likely part of something they needed all the time. Meaning it wasn’t a once a year or month type activity but likely daily or weekly. It’s like one of those was an essential thing to have for a camp or group. Fascinating really!
@@cleggsadventures It's an interesting thought though - but there's none of the usual discoloration on the stone you usually see on firestones. Plus sandstone has a bad tendency of cracking/exploding when exposed to too much heat. Still it doesn't mean that warming it up by keeping it near the fire would do either? BTW, I returned from where my sister resides. I wasn't able to do any real searching for artifacts as their entire region is dealing with some abnormal flooding. I was able to see, in some of the seasonal waterways, the type of soil I could expect to find. Lots of sand over top of mud. The local stone seems to be almost wholly sandstone save for glacial deposited cobbles. My sister did show me some flakes of flint or chert which they'd found in times passed so that's a good sign. Next time, maybe. She wants my family to relocate to the region & after visiting I can put up few arguments against it!
@@RyanRohl i've seen some of your grandmothas "egg rocks" so big it would take a crane to lift them, or a pipe driller to go under them to "place" the fire underneath them.
I am a reconstructive lithic Technologist. When researching pecked & ground tools I found that grinding Garnet, jasper and sand with a lot of quartzes in it to a powder served a important purpose. Holes used with a pestle to grind these salacious stones into dust can be applied to polish the bit ends of a chopping tool making it much harder. The molecular structure is pulled forward forming a welded bond at the bit. The process continues by impregnating dampened leather with the dust and continued rubbing. The bit end is now harder & will cut more effectively. Charcoal could be applied to bit ends performing like a lubricant. Certain research suggests that Egyptians polished their statues using a fine hard dust.
@@jimajello1028 me too. They called me a flintknapper. 15 year professional. Bipolar reduction. I enjoyed using that technique. Great for quartz pebbles.
@@lelandshanks3590 Leland, I teach and demonstrate stone tool making using organic materials. I have worked with archeologist researching Native American lifeways with the use of lithic & other organic materials. Currently replication and research on a dug out and burned canoe followed with publications on the project. Tks for asking.
I read a scientific report regarding six nutting stones from East Texas that were examined for trace plant materials. In a "nut-shell" the report found that there were various microscopic plant remnants in the stone, however none were found of known edible varieties.
I’m sure they served many purposes, but I always wondered if they were used as animal fat lamps. The smaller ones could’ve been portable; the larger ones with more holes might’ve been a pathway marker or used somewhere they needed more light. It drives me mad wondering. I’m sure all the elders are looking down on us and just laughing at our ignorance. 🤣
I think the smaller hardstone ones are sockets for bow and drill fire starting or just drill use. I have a hand sized one that is very worn and polished in the hole and also on the side of it where I assume the wooden spindle and bow string were rubbing against it. They also apparently used slightly larger ones too by leaning over and applying pressure with the chest to keep the spindle drill shaft firmly in place while using them.
This is really interesting. My ancestors lived near Barrackville, Marion Cty, WV in the late 18th century. I found a YT video showing that property (which excited me no end) which also contained similar stones. Thanks for all of your videos. Cheers from MINN.
They were new to making beer glasses so the bottoms were rounded. They needed some way to hold their beers. These were smaller so they were used for Pilsners.
Great channel! Man I love the content on this channel. Scott - I have zero idea. LOL But if I was throwing random guesses out there.... What about tent pole bases. For lean-toos / teepee type structures or what not? Even the multiple holes... could move your pole around until you got it right. ?? Or how about the sides of a cooking pit... using them for spits to fit into to? I guess if that were the case... then perhaps there would be grooves heading down to the poles - at least on left or right hand side of a spit. ?? Or even the base of a fire-starting mechanism. LOL Probably dumb ideas. I agree - could be multiple uses.
It seems since all the holes are relatively shallow, it provided easy access to whatever was in them, which would explain why there were so many created, so as not to drill/chip any further into the rock.
I have a friend in Africa and the first thing he said well that is a good question. And then he says possibly for Spiritual reasons😊 I think if a hole is deep enough you could put a stick in there and then then place a skull on top of the Stick of the enemy you just killed😮 to scare off other enemies😮
So I love your theory about crushing shells to add to the mix for pottery, which could also work in adding calcium to gardens and or diet. In my varied life experience, crushing something hard into a consistent powder is easier in small batch quantities. And sometimes, a little goes a long way. Thank you for your videos. Keep them coming.
If they were for breaking nuts, I would imagine they would miss from time to time and rough up the edges , leaving obvious marks. Even being hit with a piece wood would leave an impression of use. Very puzzling indeed. Maybe a women's make-up kit..lol
For sure, I don’t buy the nut theory. The pigment holder has been said by a few, so maybe something to that. I do find a lot of rubbed and ground hematite
I can see the hole as a way to make pressure flaking easier. First a bit of leather was laying over the hole than folded over the point. Than a bit of flat wood over that held fast by one hand. Antler is able to push flakes under the flint as it is held secure between the leather. Also any other applications that a person could think of. Little ones are just more portable. Leave the big ones in camp. And you know they cracked nuts in there too. A true stone age multi tool, or work bench if you want.
The holes are for making Cherokee marbles. The shell idea was a good one, but I’ve tried it out making primitive pottery with wild Clay. I found out that if you roast the shells on the coals, they just crumble in your hands and you don’t have to crush them up. also, I found out that after you fire the pottery if the shells have just been crushed and not roasted, the pottery, just kind of falls apart the next day, because the shells go ahead and get fibrous and come apart inside the clay.
@@cleggsadventures I don’t know. That’s a good question. I might try to make a Cherokee marble and see if it works. Maybe that would answer why they use so many holes.if that’s what they were for?
@@cleggsadventures As far as I know, we don’t have those kind of rocks with those kind of holes in Oklahoma. We have nutting stones. but they’re usually associated with a rock outcrop by a stream. Or a grinding stone that has just slight indentions in it just enough to keep the nut from rolling off and the ones I’ve seen are red rock, which is sandstone because that’s what we have here.
This is what I was told as a kid. They were used to make marbles or beads. They would find a small stream or run and dam it up with rocks and mud. Then they would get a shaft of wood or cane that they could hollow out and make a pipe of sorts. Then they would situate the pipe into and through the dam so water would run through it. They would then place the nutting stone a foot or two under the trickle of water so that the water went right into the hole in the stone. They would get a small stone that was already roundish and place it into the hole where the water was trickling and the water would tumble the small rock and over time make it round like a marble or bead.
You can set them in your sink and then place a marble or roundish rock slightly smaller than the dimple in your "Nutting stone" then turn your spigot on and center the Nutting stone under the stream of water. It would eventually make a pretty close to perfectly round stone/marble. But how long would it take? That's a good question. @@cleggsadventures
@@cleggsadventures My modest understanding of archaeology suggests that hunter-gatherer societies had far more free time than their successors. Folks who had the skill to make useful tools from flint or Obsidian - not to mention the skill to drill holes in stone and shell beads - would be able to do this.
Because of your videos, i found myself out in a no till bean field an hour south of Chicago last week. I found a scraper, a half of an arrowhead, a possible firestone, and possibly a rock like this with a hole. Can i email you some pics for id ? Either way Thanks ✌️
The multi hole could be a two or more person operation for quantity processing of acorns, walnuts, and chestnuts (you have a banger, a hole clearer, and a reloader.) The one-holed ones could be more the household models.
Found one in Georgia. About ten inches round, 2 inches thick. Both sides rubbed with a broad hollow all the way across, but one side additionally has shallow central depression within a depression.
For those with multiple holes, it was likely the removed material itself that was needed for another purpose. It might have been a practical way to get uniform, pure material for pottery temper, paint pigment, or grinding sand. Once a hole reached a certain size removal became too difficult so they would start a new hole. For small stones they would just turn the stone over, thus a hole on both sides. They would peck the stone and then grind the fragments in the hole, thus the evidence of pecking marks. The hole would keep the removed material together. Stones with a single hole might not fall into this use classification.
I believe that they were used for several different things during their lives. For nuts, herbs, shells possibily, an just about anything they needed to grind up for their uses. Great video my friend. 😁👍👍
Were that the case, wouldn’t there be pigment residue to find in them, or would water and other forms of environmental erosion have worn that away by now?
@@andydaniels3029 I think these are mostly Archaic period, not sure if it would still be in there. I guess it depends on what conditions it was laying in for all those years
I have a few ideas but I think someone has beat me to the first one: Pigment grinding. It would explain the multiple holes - they didn't want to get the different colors mixed up from the stones they crushed and then ground fine. It also would explain the rough sandstone, since that is a great material for grinding things into a powder with versus a smoother textured rock. Also small holes are better than large for this action because a little pigment went a long way so they only needed something to hold a bit of it like a painter's pallet. I cannot explain why there are often holes on other sides of the rocks adequately, though. Only other ideas I had were they might have been used in combination with a branch or antler for spinning bow strings or cloth, or for using a bow drill. Even though sandstone is really rough, it is also much easier to "peck" a hole into with a harder rock than most other stones (Which might explain the fact they seem to have been pecked out initially rather than ground in), and they could have used bark or leaves or mud or fat or who knows what in the holes as a lubricant so the sandstone didn't wear out the tools they may have used in these holes for sockets as quickly or harshly. The funniest thing is, if we could go back in time and see first hand why they did this, it would probably be glaringly obvious and just doesn't occur to us now because we live so differently! We'd probably be shaking our heads wondering why we didn't think of it. This is a fascinating topic, Clegg! Thanks for sharing what you know! P.S. Then I found this! It's awfully darn convincing that this is the true origin of these stones!: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-n9l2Z4o9yTg.html I've even seen an episode where you found quite a few native game balls yourself!
Great and fascinating vid! Is it rare to find stones with multiple half-sphere cut outs? The one with multiple cut outs makes the question even more intriguing... Best vid I've seen in a while from anyone🤙Love these mystery find videos
I think they were used for Flint knapping tool maintenance. To reshape the bone/antlers which is a neverending process while knapping. Ive found many "nut stones" and none have had any signs of being struck with anything.
In coastal California we rarely ever find arrowheads, perhaps because ancient man had so much easy access to seal and other animal bones, but I have seen these artifacts many times often clustered into VERTICAL stone and rock surfaces, almost as if they are the result or aid of some type of target practice .
I’d use one to hold the top of my drill while using a bow drill to make fire? Maybe cook some eggs? Play a game like throwing pebbles basketball style? Measuring cups for trading stuff? Making traps?
I think they would be called Salt stones. The gathering of salt would be made into sheets or large crystals which would be larger than you would want to add to your cooking. Also wild mustard, pepper, and pepper plants.
I do think that the pecking surfaces were for small seeds. When you have larger seeds like wheat you can afford to use a grinding plate. But small seeds would be difficult to keep local and process. As for hematite, they also ground manganese. They may not have necessarily made paint in these. So, for me, minerals, small seeds… but everything would be difficult to manage in a larger mortar.
Really enjoy your video Mr clegg like hearing your theory on the grinding stones you have a lot of them my friend had one but he didn't have the grinding pedestal with it I always wanted to find me one but never did be glad when you get back down to that big old River we know that's where the pristine stuff is thank you for another outstanding video can't wait to see your next one I like watching those sifters in action I like that one that's got the handle on it where do you mainly use it at do you use it in the water and dragged back towards the bank with it can't wait till your next Arrowhead video thank you 👍✌️😊
I just got done reading a book called Ohio's Archaeology by Bradley Leper that said they were potentially used for some sort of step in the woodworking process for making canoes, and possibly early shelters as well. I think they used these nutting stones to store their embers for safe transport in their controlled burns of creating canoes. That's why ya find them along the waterways so much. I also read in the same book that there’s evidence of Archaic people using controlled burns to eliminate the threat of wildfires, and to propagate fire-resistant trees that bore edible foods. So they were probably transporting tons of embers for tons of different processes all the time. Also.... GREAT VIDEO CLEGG!! Thank you for releasing it, it's always a good day when you upload :)
@@axeman33333 I totally agree with ya, I think they would use the larger stones in the canoe making process by propping up a log, and filling those holes with slow burning embers underneath it, doing so they were able to basically smoke out the log and make it easier to hollow out. But who knows , thats the beautiful thing about ancient history, it has a way of tickling everyones imagination! I have enjoyed reading the theories in the comments here.
Just randomly once I was watching an artifact restorer (museum guy) he forgot to brong anything to sharpen his deer antler knapping tool, he glanced over spotted a nutting stone and shaped it right up....if you want to understand debris you find watch knapping videos. I feel they were certainly used for this purpose
Very interesting. I found some of these stones on my Grandfathers property. Some of the pedastals or pounding stones had a circle in the middle of them. One older gentleman thought they may have been used for pounding wooden stakes into the ground, however no one really knows for sure. Thanks for posting!
There are several in a huge rock on the river I live close to. Various sizes. But all near the water. I always wondered what they were for. I have a large stone 10 inches across with a large depression in it. It fits the crook of your arm nicely and I think it's for grinding of some sort.
Mortars for grinding grain or acorns. There was also a pestle. The depressions are round because they rotated the pestle. They are all over, because they used them wherever they were. gathering nuts. You have to grind acorns to flour in order to leach out the tannic acid.
Acorns ground up in small holes (although some of those depressions were much too small) . The tannin present in the acorns was leached out with water (which explains why acorn grinding holes were near rivers and streams). Some holes like those shown were documented to have been used by California tribes. When I say documented, I mean they were still being used for that purpose into the early 20th century.
amazing theories, thanks got three more to thin k about a)candle wax maker/cup molder. b) Honey or oil cure table.. c)or mabye an egg offering-nooks?. really going to keep an eye out for these so cool
Good stuff, Scott. I’ve only ever found two here in N Illinos. Both I found this year. I thought billet sharpener myself. Considering what you’ve just laid out I’m not by any means convinced of it. I wonder if they would resharpen or repeck the holes to keep them sharp? Considering none of them are smooth. They must have needed a rough hole? Anyway, the mystery continues. Thanks for putting this one together. Maybe we; as a community, can gain some ground on the answer. ✌️
it was a game piece used while waiting for the mammoth to finish cooking, sort of like the little triangle block of wood with the golf tees in it at a truck stop grill. : )
Agree with you about them being used as nutting stones. As someone who has been around his share of walnut shelling I know you don’t need a special stone to do it.
As @grim noted: color mixing: for decorating pottery. The many in one was a ‘palette’ of various colors. No need to have a definate order to the cups. As they were just a palette. The pottery maker dipped their frayed stick or paint applying tool in the color they wanted.
Great video. Egg cooker? Seed germinator? A measure of some type? Game board? Teepee pole holder or something to hold a pole in a particular place? Maybe they were grinding up the rock itself to use the minerals. IDK...very interesting. As a container, it seems a good chance they were used with some type of liquid.
You guys forget that they smoked a lot of wacky tobacco back then. Stoned a lot of days they would use these stones to make and crush down fine tobacco for the peace or war pipe. Pioneers long ago after seeing and finding many of these stones coined the term "being stoned". This is were that term came from. Also they look very similar to modern day plastic paint holders that i have today. So, in theory they had multiple uses for them.
An in-depth microscopic analysis of the holes might produce particles of whatever they were doing with them. Trace elements should also be present to determine if in fact they were used for grinding material(s). Happy hunting! 😊
maybe it was all the kids using them to make those balls or marbles to play with that you find. Love the channel. Thanks for teaching us stuff and keeping us entertained along the way.
I’ve found 2 and some arrow heads around our land WV. One was large to big to practically carry. It has 2 holes and staring and 3rd. 1 hole opposite side. The top was much different color and weathered differently form being exposed than the back side. The second I found fits in your hand. Has 3 holes same depth and evenly spaced. We do have walnut tress and they fit perfectly. One evening I came To visit 88 years young grandmother, cracking walnuts on the larger one. lol. I think they stated a new hole when it got deep enough to start supporting the shell instead of cracking the nut
Great channel a lot of early history on the Ohio valley river system, have been hunting artifacts for years now. Found a nutting stone about 3’x4’x 18” thick has 23 nutting cuts in it and odd layout pattern of the cuts. It’s on the current Big Sandy river edge , the river was down a lot lower in that time period. But cool find.
I love these videos that cover artifacts that are outside of the norm. These stones occur all over the world. In my humble opinion, they are a form of art or one of the earliest types of communication. I have many examples that have much smaller holes, less than a quarter of an inch along with holes that are two inches or more in size. Most of the examples I have are in hard stone like granite.
@@mariogismondi7712 I have some with small holes as well, they are a total mystery. Just when I think maybe I have figured something out, another question comes along
Definitely a multi tool fire starter paint mixer grinding nuts in it. But I think mainly for re shaping the hammer end of a antler for napping tools I have some myself iv found
They have proven the white marble Greek statues were once colorfully painted because they have special light that can detect painted pigments left behind on the marble. Sandstone would def hold pigments, that would be easily proven if it were for paints by scientific analysis.
To start a bow-drill fire, you first have to condition the end of the spindle, if it is too smooth, there is too much friction, and it would not turn in the wood socket. Each time you want to start a fire, you texture the tip if your spindle. Now look around for smooth quartz socket stones.
Many interesting theories in here Mr Clegg! Disclaimer: I've never seen one of these up close. In my opinion, the fact they made these from very thick stones tells me they were made to be hit hard . Hickory nuts have thick,super hard shells that are sharp when they are broken. If you hit a hickory nut a second time after it is cracked, I believe it will make the pecked out appearance in the sandstone. Then, as the hole gradually deepens, the nut sits too far below the surface to be hit by the hammerstone so you have to start a new hole. PS thank you for the great videos❤
I believe they used the ones that fit in hand to start fires but not the way you described I believe they used them as the top piece in a fire bow to hold the spindle.
After I watched your show on this, I realized I had found some of these holes in a creek bed in an out crop of limestone. It is a old walnut Grove. That’s probably been there for eons certainly hundreds of years possibly so I don’t know.
I found quite a few of these on my land. I always thought that they were used as a base for strong sticks to be rotated back and forth with a bow and a string (gut) and the upper end of the stick (pole) would have a piece of dry would held against the spinning pole. The friction would start an ember on the underside of the dry wood. I found large stones with multiple divots and small ones with single divots. Some of the smaller ones had divots on BOTH sides almost equilateral to each other, so I assumed that’s just how the small sandstones would fit in the hand. The only part of this that doesn’t align is the MULTIPLE divots on larger stones and why they wouldn’t just use the same hole over and over. That parts tends to lean towards medicinal mixing to separate products. Of course could have just been a game of sorts, because I have also found many rounded stones (like bocci balls) in the same area and who’s to say that these people didn’t enjoy a bit of fun to pass time? 😊 One day, in the distant future, they will find something like a pickleball paddle and try to explain that as a tool as well!
Maybe a healers rock for grinding different herbs. I've got a really nice one here in Pike county Ohio. Has 10 pits on one side and 4 on the other. Probably a 20 pound rock. I'll get a pic of it and share it. Always enjoy your videos also😊👍
I always thought the shells or for making paint. Could be a multi tool. Or to use for holding the end of a stick for maybe looming material. It’s hard to tell.
Hey clegg! Been a fan for awhile I’m from Ky so not far from you. Was curious how you get places to sift on the river. Do you ask permission for private land or is it land you own. Thanks in advance!
It seems like if used to grind anything harder than sandstone the hole would become smooth and the multi hole artifacts would probably have a variety of smoothnesses. Additionally if they were used to grind soft grains it seems like the tool used would over time also cause a smoothining of the hole. If the artifact was used to make something, for example a marble, wouldnt there be many more marbles found than the tool used to make them? And were so many marbles needed that they had so many Of these artifacts? This is a very interesting and complex question, thanks for your content, I am a new subscriber and I look forward to checking out more from your channel.
@@stevenmccrickard1401 You think like me. I don’t see anyone going through the trouble, using stone tools, to make those holes for a purpose that some think. I think with the pecking, something was striking it over and over. Once a hole got so deep, they’ve started a new one. I think they were actually a biproduct of doing something. They are very common. Said to be from early Archaic times.
Hi Mr. Clegg I love your videos! Found a very small square stone like sandstone with a small divot out of the top and a small ferric looking inclusion. It measures almost exactly one inch by 3/4 of an inch and 5/8 thickness. Very small maybe portable? There is no rock like this on the Gulf Coast that I know of. Also there was nearby a few broken points and many sharp finish flakes. And also a soft red stone that is not hematite but… makes a red paste! You tell me..
