Found a wierd rock. INGOers want to help with ID? millstone ? lots of pics

[jamil]

What about the wear pattern on the "teeth"? Looks like the bottom half is wore from some kind of use.

That can't be wear.

 

[CountryBoy19]

I'm voting not a mill stone, gear or even part of a column... but rather something used to make parts of a column... as to why does it have the radial holes and why is half of it worn?

I guessing, due to the close location of the quarry, this may have been some sort of "guide" or "pattern". They may have had some sort of stone grinding machine that worked similar to pantograph in which it had a "follower" that followed the shape of a "master pattern" to cut the new stones. The radial holes were for some sort of dowels or pegs that held the "master pattern" in place during grinding and the wear was from the repeated use it had over many years of cutting columns...

That's just a guess though... I don't know much at all about stone cutting...

 

[eatsnopaste]

I'm gonna throw another vote in for aliens.

 

[williamnewman1]

A guy I work with does work for the Reed family that owns the Reed Quarry so I sent them pics as well. Its been 2 days and I simply can't handle not knowing what this thing is anymore.

 

[1775usmarine]

well thats 2 votes for aliens so far .......

Make it 4. I just watched an X files episode where this same situation happened Scully almost died and someone was trying to get all firearms banned. Spoiler Alert:....... it was aliens who made this object which crushed all those who opposed firearms.

 

[Indy_Guy_77]

I'm thinking, along with CB19 above, that it's part of some kind of stone-cutting apparatus.

 

[selinoid44]

Don't let this get out to the FBI!! They will come in and set up camp and try to say you illegally obtained it and will confiscate it from you.

 

[hoosierdoc]

Sure seems like some sort of mill, but possibly not simple corn or wheat. What other crops did we mash around here? Any sugar cane ever grow around here?

edit: ooohh... can you picture this being the negative of that? Though I suspect this was a vessel and the stone rotated around the top, not the edges

Fire At Will: Nikon D800 & 85mm F1.8G lens

 

[pudly]

I can't believe all those people voting for aliens. It is obviously part of the lost island of Atlantis.

For what it's worth, I'm going with part of a stone column.

 

[williamnewman1]

hoosierdoc, i can't find any records really of other crops in the area but that doesn't of course rule it out. And that last pic you posted of the suger cane extracter looks like it really could be the mate to mine. other than it being granite and mine of limestone of course

 

[hoosierdoc]

Looks like we used to do some sugar cane back in the 1800s

Annual Report of the Indiana State Board of Agriculture - Indiana. State Board of Agriculture, Indiana. Geological Survey - Google Books

page 268

OOOH.... you need one more and then you build this. Put one stone upright and the other flipped to alternate the teeth

http://savannah.for91days.com/2011/01/24/ebenezer-home-of-the-salzburg-lutherans/

I sent this thread to the IU Department of Anthropology. Hopefully they'll take a look.

 

[williamnewman1]

awesome hoosierdoc, I have sent pics to a few different places now : Spring Mill, Reed Quarry and the PN Research place . I hope someone responds before I have an anxiety attack ... as soon as I get some free time Im going to try to see what other artifacts I find.

 

[singlestacksig]

it is a section of Ionic Column.
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Architecture: Classic and Early Christian, by T. Roger Smith & John Slater.
see fig 67

 

[Rookie]

Have you asked the beard of knowledge?

 

[hoosierdoc]

If a column, why the holes drilled circumferentially around? And wouldn't that hole go all the way through?

 

[singlestacksig]

the holes may have been put in to hold the pattern, or for lifting.. of made after the fact... or from prior drill holes in the stone before that item was made.. many possible things...
Since it was found in a field it probably was a reject part.

 

[hoosierdoc]

the holes may have been put in to hold the pattern, or for lifting.. of made after the fact... or from prior drill holes in the stone before that item was made.. many possible things...
Since it was found in a field it probably was a reject part.

that's a decent thought for lifting it up.

 

[williamnewman1]

I only disagree with the holes meant for lifting because they aren't placed well for that , they are much closer to one edge making a weak point, at least I would think so. However it does have the same amount of "scallops" or points as the diagrahm of the Ionic Column.

Of course if mine is a pattern or an end piece that was meant to be tossed after the column was made then perhaps the holes make sense ?

 

[printcraft]

That looks incredibly dangerous. ^


Also, column section has my vote.

 

[singlestacksig]

I only disagree with the holes meant for lifting because they aren't placed well for that , they are much closer to one edge making a weak point, at least I would think so. However it does have the same amount of "scallops" or points as the diagrahm of the Ionic Column.

Of course if mine is a pattern or an end piece that was meant to be tossed after the column was made then perhaps the holes make sense ?

It probably had a life as something else after being rejected as a column section, like grave marker or road sign.. the holes may have held wood rods to hold it up..
Check with the state to see if there has been an archaeological dig in that area..