Help identifying this artifact- arrow straightener?

[Don Stokes]

I found this interesting device while strolling the property earlier this week. I've not seen anything like it before. The hole is almost certainly man-made because it tapers from 1/4" on one side to about 3/8" on the other. If it's an arrow straightener, the shafts would have been pretty small. In profile, it resembles a vulture's head (thunderbird?) It appears to be made of sandstone.    Anyone know what it is? There was a large Native American village not far from here, and my relatives have picked up boxes full of arrowheads, etc. in the past.

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[Otto]

Don Stokes...there's a name from the past.  I remember you from the old days of the internet archery forums.  Life treating you well??

[SouthMDShooter]

some sort of jewlrey?????

[Ray Hammond]

I don't believe its a shaft straightener. Those are usually two pieces, with grooves running across them like an overhead view of runways at a big airport...you place the shaft in one you are holding in your palm, and then place the other stone over that, and clamp with one hand.

The other hand pushes and pulls the shaft while the clamping hand provides soft, then greater pressure as the sandstone straightens, and just as imporant smoothes the shaft removing twig butts and knots to create a smooth straight shaft.

[Don Stokes]

Yeah, Otto, I've been around for a while. I got burned out and quit the chats for a long time. A lot has happened while I was laying out, including some things that I don't get, like extreme FOC.    

Ray, it's interesting that no one markets a shaft straightener along those lines today. Or at least I haven't heard of one. I've tried various commercial devices, but haven't found anything that works as well as sighting down the shaft and bending it across the heel of my hand.

SouthMDshooter, the artifact seems to be a bit irregular for an ornament, but that's my best guess. BTW, that Robert Frost poem in your signature had a big influence on my life. Great work by a great artist.

[Killdeer]

Sometimes rolling a piece like that around in the hand will whisper a clue to you. The diameter is a bit small for smoothing hickory shafts. There were arrow straighteners that consisted of a hole in a bone or some such, which acted like the heel of the hand technique, but with more leverage. I wonder if there was a call for quarter-inch dowelling, for backrests or weaving or such. We need to know more about the people(s) and times that might relate to the origin of this construct. Do you know anything about the probable time of the nearby village? Who was there? How they lived?

I love a good mystery!
Killdeer

[Don Stokes]

Killdeer, Ishtehotepah, the King of the Cherokee Nation lived about 10 miles from here, when the Cherokee ruled from the gulf coast to Pennsylvania. It may be a Cherokee artifact, but have no way of knowing for sure, since different tribes inhabited the area at different times. I live near the town of New Albany in north Mississippi, and when the town was settled at a river crossing, there was a group called the Alabamos who inhabited the area. I don't know what tribe inhabited the village that was about a mile from here.

A branch of the Natchez Trace passed through this area, following the Tallahatchie river. The Tallahatchie is about a half mile from my place. The origins of the Natchez Trace are lost in antiquity, but the Trace was used by everyone who traveled through the area, white settlers and Natives alike. Now the whole length of the Trace is a National Park, and I drive it regularly, 50 mph speed limit and all! It goes from Natchez, MS to outside Nashville, and originally went further north.

Whenever I hold the piece, the resemblance to a bird's head is what comes through most strongly. The taper to the hole makes me wonder if maybe it was used to smooth and shape small pieces, as you suggest.

[Stone Knife]

It is probably a weight for fishing or a fishing net.

[Bear Heart]

What did the terrain look like where you found it?  Could be a fishing net weight.

[George D. Stout]

Look at this url Don, I believe it was a  weight.

 http://www.dirtbrothers.org/tool/tool2.html

[Ray Hammond]

after thinking about it I believe its a piece only partially completed.

I have many artifacts with holes drilled in them but only ONE of those has a "roughed" in hole...all other pieces are smooth, single dimenson holes, rather than what I see in your piece as you say, tapering from 1/4 to 3/8.

It will be interesting to hear what you finally determine, that's for sure. Is the village near you a moundbuilder or more modern era village?

[Don Stokes]

It was on a steep hillside, more than half a mile from the river bottom, but the hole looks just like the one in the weight on George's link. It's odd that it has the pointed end, though. The nocks in the picture are 5/16, and would not fit very far in the hole from one side, but went in nearly all the way from the other.

I'm not sure if the village had mounds or not. The site has been farmed for generations, and the farmers sometimes removed the mounds for ease of farming the land. There are some good mounds within a few miles, so it could have been.

[trapperDave]

more than a half mile from where the river is now....back then, might have been on the banks.

[Don Stokes]

I received an e-mail message from Bob with a picture of another one, practically identical to mine! It doesn't show in my pictures, but held so that you're looking through the hole, there are connected flats made into the stone on top, the end away from the point, and bottom. For his and mine to be so similar, they must have been made for a particular purpose. His is just a little larger than mine, by a quarter inch.

The mystery deepens...

[Bob Barnes]

...and I found mine at school in a pile of gravel that had been dumped to prevent erosion...  
Bob

[Bjorn]

I have a similar stone with a hole too, and I always thought it was a weight for a fishing net. I found it along the shoreline.

[Bjorn]

I found this on the Internet recently:
 

.........and I know where there is a large set up of these carved into a large rock-4 or 5 grooves cut into the stone to straighten and smooth several arrow shafts by different workers at the same time.
There are also several 'cups' cut into the same large stone for holding liquids.
The rock is about the size of a compact car.

[Molson]

My guess is it's most likely a net weight or a cord anchor.  Most of the ones around here have tapering holes.  Probably used a bow drill to make the hole and as it drills, the shaft on the drill tapers.  Wouldn't be much need to continue drilling once the exit hole was big enough.

[Ray Hammond]

all my net weights are from the northeast...and are in something that looks like soapstone...read that as "easy to make" and they have a 'belted' channel around the perimeter for the net to wrap around. No hole in it.

Mine was probably fresh water...I would think salt water or strong river nets would have to carry heavier weights though.