A friend of mine found this carved rock in Shannon County, Missouri and would like to know if it is an artifact or ? I am including a few images photographed from different angles - front, side and back.
Thank you.
Looks like you have a museum in your town. Here is the contact number for The Shannon County Museum 573-247-8706.
I hope it is something neat! It reminds me of something a late family member used to do to rocks when bored, carving neat patterns into them. At one point the intent was to make jewelry out of them, but that never happened, sadly.
Post back what you learn!
I would email the pictures to Jeffrey Ferguson, assistant professor of archeology at University of Missouri with the information you provided here. Good luck! fergusonje@missouri.edu
There are several tribes of Indians that roamed the lands before they were ever developed. This could be from one of them. The only real way to find out is to contact a museum in the area and show the piece there.
A neat find no matter the outcome.
Since you have a museum and a university link you should be able to find out all about this rock.
I would be interested to know what kind of rock even if the carving is not 'old'.
I don't know whether you were able to determine what your friend found, but to me it looks like a layer of clay on top of a flat stone. The top, incised layer is not the same color and there appears to be identifiable edges around the incised portion of the find.
