A Artifact I found in Texas

I do not know how to get a picture of something to come up here on this post that I have on my computer .if someone would help that would be cool.


I found something where I live here in Texas when I was bottle digging one time.It was not found in the dump where I was digging but off to the side of the dump in a creek area where a washout area was dropping stuff off a cliff into a creek.The head I found was sticking up (water had washed it out so it was visible) it would have washed into the creek with a few more heavy rains.
I did some digging from the townspeople and they said that the area just above that was rumoured to be an old Indian artifact site or burial mound.

I took this head all over to all the Universitys in Dallas Ft Worth .
One of The Archelogist teacher at one of the Universities checked everything he had and every book he could find and said that there is nothing to compare it to .He said it did not look like any of the known artifacts that he had known and studied.He said he has no idea what it is or what known tribe it could have been from (Like wasnt Asian,Wasnt Mayan etc)
I even took it to the Dallas Museum of Natural History.
The guys who check dinosaur bones and all told me that it was sandstone,was definately sundried so was before they had kilns
It was also hand made as in with the hands .And they said they had no idea about it either.But it was not MODERN .And could even be from the stoneage time (at least in their opinion)
I then sent a picture of it to Christys and the Smithsonian Institute
The letters from them were not helpful at all .They said they had not seen anything like it .And they had no idea.(I have the letters and can prove that to you all if you dont believe me)
I called one more place I had not talked to here in Dallas and that lady was not very nice at all and said that she wanted me to bring it to her and then asked if it was found on private property or not I said yes ..then she said she would take it from me if it did turn out to be something very old ..
So I just stopped asking anyone at that point.

Anyway after reading the rock from space thread ..I thought maybe I would share it with you and just see what yall think..And what you think I should do with it .



The description of it is
It is a head of some sort it also has a neck like a body was made then a head added or something like that .It has no ears ,it has like eyes that are similar maybe to an alien lol .it also is hollow .the nose has nostrils and you can see it is hollow within.It also has a very pointy chin .It is definately petrified.Some said it could have had paint on it at one time (Like eyes painted etc) They also said it could have been a jug lid,or a ceremonial staff with a head on the end .

I dreamed that it was a ceremonial piece.


[edit on 4-9-2008 by Simplynoone]

Sounds interesting....have you got a picture of it on your pc?

Sounds cool, I'll await a picture, here's how to link them:

Make account with a image hosting site, I use photobucket:
photobucket.com...

-Create an account
-Upload pictures, very easy, but gives helpful tips
-Once uploaded, use the 'direct link' URL, it will copy automatically
and paste in desired post, frame the URL with image and /image framed in []

Sorry if this isn't very well explained.

EMM

[edit on 4-9-2008 by ElectroMagnetic Multivers]

Ok it is on photobucket




[edit on 4-9-2008 by Simplynoone]

Well that took some effort lol
But here it is
What do you think ?

reply to post by Simplynoone


Looks crazy, wouldn't say alien looking, but it definetely ain't normal, i'll wait for Byrd et al to have a peak, they no far more than I do.

You say sandstone? anyone know if this is common? I would have thought sandstone to be fragile for an object like this, especially hollow?

How big is it?
Hole in the base of neck? or sealed?

EMM

Edit: I've e-mailed hanslune, he knows more than me on this type of stuff

[edit on 4-9-2008 by ElectroMagnetic Multivers]

looks like a sheila na gig, take a look at this wiki page, see the similarities?

also reminds me of medieval art, but thats just because of the simple form, i think. have you still got this thing? have you a digital camera? i'ld like to see the back and the base, even if they're blank.

Because of the way the neck is shaped, I would guess that it's some kind of baby doll's head, where you tie the cloth body onto the bottom of it. I would do some research about antique, pottery faced dolls and see what you come up with.

Looks like a prehistoric face of an Indian doll to me, think I have seen other examples somewhere, but can't quite place it. Seems almost like Asian moon face doll methinks.

[Looks crazy, wouldn't say alien looking, but it definetely ain't normal, i'll wait for Byrd et al to have a peak, they no far more than I do.]

It is sort of slant eyed and the long pointy chin (it is sort of crooked so it really was made by hand no mold used )

[You say sandstone? anyone know if this is common? I would have thought sandstone to be fragile for an object like this, especially hollow?]

Yes they all said it was sandstone for sure .its not fragile because it is pertrified
They said it would have to be tested to see if it was known sandstone from our area.They also told me that way back whenever Texas was a route everyone took down the rivers creeks and camped on their way north .And it may have broken and they tossed it away which would explain why it isnt from these parts (They said it was not anything local )It helps explain then why it is here.

[How big is it?
Hole in the base of neck? or sealed?]
No hole in base it is like sealed and broke off .
I read that a long a long time ago they used to make a body first (when making dolls) then create the head on top of it and smooth it all to be like a whole body.
Its a little bigger than a golf ball.but heavier
(The fact that it is petrified is why its so heavy)

Originally posted by pieman
looks like a sheila na gig, take a look at this wiki page, see the similarities?

also reminds me of medieval art, but thats just because of the simple form, i think. have you still got this thing? have you a digital camera? i'ld like to see the back and the base, even if they're blank.

Wow look it has no ears just like my head
I went digging deep on the web and looked at just about every collection and museums I could ..found nothing that had no ears.

I cringed when I read this at that site pieman
[The Divine Hag of the Christian Celts]
LOL because as you know I am a Christian and I really dont believe the Celts do.Not to mention the word HAG lol ...

I have more pictures I will work on that ok.Will take me time to dig for them in my closet .


[edit on 4-9-2008 by Simplynoone]

[I would do some research about antique, pottery faced dolls and see what you come up with.]
I did went to every single site online (Dug into at least the top 100 on several sites) I have been looking HARD for info or even something similar for 10 years now lol .
It really looks more like a ceremonial piece or An antique dealer once said maybe a top of someones cane maybe some old man in the cave man days .

Its pretty rounded ...and very smooth .Would work great to hold the head while walking with the cane .


[Looks like a prehistoric face of an Indian doll to me, think I have seen other examples somewhere, but can't quite place it. Seems almost like Asian moon face doll methinks.]
Yes it is prehistoric and one time I did a search on ebay and saw a head similar faced but that one had ears ...he has a whole collection of heads and only that one looked similar ..But he had no idea where any of his heads came from .So that was not helpful.The Asian we can rule out .The University of Texas guy was very familiar with Asian and he said no .
He even went through all his books and found nadda.


[edit on 4-9-2008 by Simplynoone]

Well, if it's hand made and one of a kind it's obviously going to be difficult finding a similar or identical doll. But it does have some of the same kinds of characteristics found in dolls. The neck for instance.

It's a very nice design, though, and whoever did it was quite an artist.

[edit on 4-9-2008 by Nohup]

To me it looks like an idealized version of a Noh or Kabuki mask. Such 'doll heads' were made in occupied Japan for the tourist trade starting in 1946.

You say it is pertrified. I believe you are using the wrong word as sandstone cannot be petrified, wood can be but not stone. Do you mean vitrified? If so why did (whomever said so?)



[edit on 4/9/08 by Hanslune]

Thats really neat .
How old is that doll ?
If this was a dolls head it was a very long time ago
The dinosaur guys at the Dallas Museum said it had to have been from at least about the same time as Dinosaurs (mainly because of what they knew about pertified sandstone.Seriously thats what they told me.

Ok I found the rest of my pictures.I have to scan them first
so be back soon.

(To the poster above me )
I am pretty sure they said petrified because I asked them you mean like wood does ..And they said yes .
Its very very hard (wont break if you try)
You cant even scrape off unless of course you try really hard.with a razor maybe .

[edit on 4-9-2008 by Simplynoone]

"The dinosaur guys at the Dallas Museum said it had to have been from at least about the same time as Dinosaurs (mainly because of what they knew about pertified sandstone." Seriously thats what they told me.

Hans: They wouldn't have been able to tell you that. They may have been refering to when the sandstone might have been laid down but not when the mask itself was made. Two different events.

If you want to find out how old it is one way is to take it to a person who knows how to date/catogorize materials based on microscopic identification of the markings from its manufacture. These markings will tell you if the sandstone was shaped with a modern tool or by older methods. However, if by older methods that doesn't mean it was made in olden times just that someone used more traditional carving techniques.




[edit on 4/9/08 by Hanslune]

I scanned them all in but I am not real familar with my Photo Studio (where I scan it to) so I dont know how to crop it and take the white out and make them smaller .I would be happy to email anyone who knows how.I would send them to you.

Nope too big.
I dont know what to do now.


By the way thank you all for your help
It will be interesting to see what yall come up with .
This beats all the arguing lol thought we needed a change and the rock post was awesome and made think about this head again ..Now I will be obsessing again to try and find out.Oh yeah I also sent many pictures around the web to Archeolists ...several actually ..still nothing .



[edit on 4-9-2008 by Simplynoone]

Hanslune
Hi,I dont know anyone like that and I dont want anyone to get it from me .
I had to stop going to people after that call I made to a University here and they told me they would have to keep it if it really was old old .
I am not giving to anyone lol.

They all said that it was molded all by hand
You can put your finger between his nose and mouth and it fits perfectly and you can see where it had somewhat of a finger impression on it.
The nose is crooked and so is the chin.So they ruled out any tools used .Which is why they said it had to be old back before tools OR someone did it at home playing with clay making statues like we did as kids .Well some of us did lol

This may be totally mad, but in the ice age a load from siberia made it to america and hunted some stuff (to extinction as usual) is there anything similar in siberia? I say this because you said it was pre kiln.

Hi redled
No actually I havent done any digging in that direction.Good idea I will do some checking.
I did dig for months on several collections and databases at many of the Auction and Antique sites (the big ones) but didnt see anything that had no ears and was even similar to his face.I even dug into the Olmecs and Neolithic etc etc ...
for years I have searched obsessively lol.