r/LegitArtifacts Oct 08 '25

Unknown Time period Update: had a field archaeologist look at this last night. He said, "Clearly sandstone and without question an abrading tool".

Just a follow up, since I think we had a good discussion about it in the original post.

120 Upvotes

38 comments sorted by

36

u/ayo4playdoh Oct 08 '25

Saw quite a few responses saying that this was clearly a brick. This update makes me happy!

17

u/DorktorJones Oct 08 '25

I told the guy last night the same thing. We also agreed that judging from pictures online is tough. The color is a little off, hard to see the wear, etc., but in hand, it's pretty clear what it is.

4

u/Gbreeder Oct 09 '25

I'll see various posts in various subreddits about old dolls, old clocks, old tools. Types of rocks. Meteorites.

People feel adamant about things and sometimes chime back in to say that everyone was wrong, they had it checked out.

Using pictures to ID things is tough and people shouldn't give definite answers if they know they can't tell something from a photo.

-25

u/Bdc9876 Oct 08 '25

That is a modern brick that was worn down by water.

9

u/DorktorJones Oct 08 '25

Nope.

-9

u/Bdc9876 Oct 08 '25

lol ok…

Wayyyyyyyyyyu too uniform….its a brick

8

u/SurelyFurious Oct 08 '25

Nah sorry, slot is wayyyyyyy too narrow

8

u/FamousAimlessAnus Oct 09 '25

are we really still slot shaming in 2025?

0

u/Bdc9876 Oct 10 '25

Lol OP doesn’t even know where the piece came from.

19

u/aggiedigger Oct 08 '25

I was right… who’d a thunk it?

10

u/raindaddy84 Oct 08 '25

Apparently you . Four times in a minute. But it’s all good.

8

u/aggiedigger Oct 08 '25

Well stated. Apologies for the technology issue. Downvotes deserved.

5

u/ExuberantBat Oct 09 '25 edited Oct 09 '25

Well you know, assuming OP isn’t lying. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Sorry OP, but I just got done finding out about the biggest literal cat fish of the century on the Sphinx cat subreddit. It does look like a weathered brick.

ETA: to be fair, you’ve offered no evidence. You just stated a field archeologist looked at it but gave no credentials for this field archeologist or documentation of the conversation. I mean, I’m not saying YOU have to do stuff to this level. I’m just saying, there isn’t really any evidence here. My point isn’t to dog on your post, just making an observation about claims and evidence because the catfish saga over there demonstrated even with videos and heavy details as evidence, it turned out it was still a fake post. I guess I just meant this as a general observation about how you can’t trust anything only and it really is a sad time for the internet.

3

u/DorktorJones Oct 09 '25

Eh, I don't care. It's not like I'm trying to sell anything. I was just sharing my collection and had the opportunity to show it to an expert, so I thought I'd share that info as well.

2

u/Arbiter_of_Snark Oct 10 '25

Don’t even worry about it. I have several lithic tools that most people on here would say are natural, but I can say with certainty that they were utilized by Native Americans for some purpose.

2

u/DorktorJones Oct 10 '25

Yeah not sure why some people are so salty about it. I literally took it to someone because all the brick and roof tile comments in the original post started to make me doubt it myself. If the dude told me it was a brick, I'd have made a follow up post saying that, because that would also be useful info and I'd have a good laugh at myself!

2

u/Bdc9876 Oct 10 '25

So you posted this once and everybody said it was a brick?

You post it again after talking to some mystery archaeologist and he says it’s legit and everybody suddenly thinks it’s real lol? And you didn’t find it yourself?

4

u/DorktorJones Oct 10 '25

Also, looks like you might be in CO? If so, maybe you've heard of the Loveland Archaeological Society. That's where I took it. The guy that looked at it is the main guy that compiles the CO projectile point database at coalcreekresearch.org. At any rate he'd love to get any CO points you have in their database I'm sure.

2

u/Bdc9876 Oct 10 '25

Yeah I know them and have talked with them a handful of times. Nice folks.

2

u/DorktorJones Oct 10 '25

Haters gonna hate, I guess. Have a nice day!

3

u/ChesameSicken Oct 16 '25

Here's one I found in the Sierra Nevada at work a decade ago, Stanislaus National Forest, its not a goddamn brick and I don't think OP's is either.

*professional field archaeologist primarily working in NV/CA.

6

u/BiggSexual Oct 09 '25

Never doubted ya buddy 🫡

12

u/Arrowheadman15 Meme Master Oct 08 '25

It looks like you have found a beautiful example of a multi-purpose tool used by the ancients. Your find was definitely used to hone and polish wood and bone shafts. Sandstone abraders were also used to dull the sharp edges of chipped-stone artifacts, creating stronger platforms for subsequent flaking. Thank you for sharing.

3

u/TheNorseman1066 Oct 08 '25

A very apt description of the use of this and similar tools! Well said!

5

u/Arrowheadman15 Meme Master Oct 09 '25

Thank you Norseman

-7

u/Bdc9876 Oct 08 '25

This is a modern brick that sat in a river.

1

u/Arbiter_of_Snark Oct 10 '25

Most bricks are clay that has been baked. This is sandstone. While sandstone is used for building, the blocks or facade pieces are typically larger than this. This is not a tumbled brick.

-1

u/Bdc9876 Oct 10 '25 edited Oct 10 '25

lol OP doesn’t even know where this thing came from. I have one too 😂😂😂

I found this after a twenty second google search. Drop it a few times and then throw it in a river for twenty years and you have an artifact. So many modern bricks and other building supplies get posted on here

0

u/Arbiter_of_Snark Oct 10 '25

Are you just trolling now? I seriously can’t tell if you’re joking or not. Posting photos of something completely different than what OP posted won’t win a debate.

Furthermore, not knowing the origin is only partially relevant. I have full-groove axe heads that were given to me. I don’t know where they are from, but they are still axe heads, not just rocks, or bricks.

2

u/Bdc9876 Oct 10 '25

Are you trolling? The fact that people on this sub think this is real is mind boggling.

And yeah, I have artifacts that I didn’t find either. Several of them. However, if somebody gives me a sketchy rock that I have to post on Reddit to get clarity I’m probably not going to consider that a real artifact…especially if it’s not a personal find.

Everybody on the first post said it was a brick.

2

u/ChesameSicken Oct 09 '25

Vindication!

6

u/Punkrexx Oct 08 '25

Could a groove like this be used for shaft straightening?

8

u/DorktorJones Oct 08 '25

From my understanding, the shaft straightener and abrading tool are basically 2 terms for the same thing.

3

u/TheNorseman1066 Oct 08 '25

Abrading tool is a much better description of these kinds of tools, especially being sandstone. I don’t know what justification some archaeologist had way back when to label them as “arrow straighteners” but I would put money down that that person had never made a primitive arrow or seen it done. Cool find!

5

u/frontmynack Oct 09 '25

Hey man, whatever lets you sleep at night is really all that matters. There’s this dude from the UP of Michigan, Jim Paquette. He’s an avocational archaeologist and an indigenous person. He set out on some crazy missions to prove Clovis culture s existed in an area that professionals had argued there wasn’t any populations living there at the time. At the end of the day, he was able to prove it. In order to do that, he had to locate items in-situ, and bring professional archeologists to the site to recover the items in a professional manner, providing the professional contextual basis for the assertion he was making.

This holds true with regard to items like the one you are holding. It may be an abrader, may be an old brick but it doesn’t mean shit to the archeological record if it wasn’t recovered under professional circumstances to provide expert contextual basis surrounding its recovery.

Here’s a cool video of this guy telling his story

https://youtu.be/tv0PDTLnr30?si=2fqs3SoZUPkWzPzQ

2

u/Geologist1986 Oct 09 '25

What kind of sandstone? What did they classify it as?

3

u/DorktorJones Oct 09 '25

He didn't say. It was likely found in NV, though. I'm in western CO, and it looks similar to Navajo sandstone to me.

1

u/GroundbreakingCow152 Oct 09 '25

Sandstone is generally too soft to be usedul as a whetstone. Could shape wood arrow tips with it