A Artifact I found in Texas

Um, dont buy that anyone can take it from you theyd need a court order. And they dont take arrowheads from people lol. No judge would do that on a personal find. All the art I know of has been purchsed or loaned to a musem. Trust me I used to sit infront of paintings and art sculptures for hours for college classes. You shoulda called her a few choice words.

Musta been that retards time of the month. It belongs to you. Id most definately encase it in in something to protect it.


And I believe Clearskies has found your answer, it was off of a drinking cup. Atleast thats my opinion. Id find out for sure what its made of.
I dont know how sandstone could hold together for so long. Looks like clay to me.

Nice find

[edit on 5-9-2008 by Memysabu]

If it is older than a hundred years old, then you should have been arrested under the Federal Antiquities act. I do not understand why this is still in your possession.

Originally posted by groingrinder
If it is older than a hundred years old, then you should have been arrested under the Federal Antiquities act. I do not understand why this is still in your possession.

Can you quit flame baiting please?

Next time I find an old clay bowl Ill be sure and call the police on myself.
I know Ive stepped on a few. Oh and I broke an arrowhead last week! OMG im going to jail!

Thats not for single finds, now if she was building a house on top of it and there was more artifacts thats another story. Chances are this was all thats there.



[edit on 5-9-2008 by Memysabu]

The weird thing is, the heads look similar to Sumerian art. However, I have also seen stuff like this from the Norse peoples.

Asians often used sandstone for their head carvings, etc.

It is a real mystery.

BTW you might wanna read over that act before you talk about it.
This was also found on PRIVATE property.
She didnt go down to the public park and start digging.

The Act was intended to allow the President to set aside certain valuable public natural areas as park and conservation land. These areas are given the title of "National Monuments." It also allows him to reserve or accept private lands for that purpose. The aim is to protect all historic and prehistoric sites on United States federal lands and to prohibit excavation or destruction of these antiquities. With this act, this can be done much more quickly than going though the Congressional process of creating a National Park. The Act states that areas of the monuments are to be confined to the smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected. Some areas designated as National Monuments have later been converted into National Parks, or incorporated into existing National Parks.

I dunno about you but the last time I tryed to call President Bush they wouldnt let me talk to him. Goodluck with that one

Antiquites Act


[edit on 5-9-2008 by Memysabu]

reply to post by Simplynoone


You do not have to convince me...
I had an almost precognitive concept of your piece as I opened the thread. It is as I thought and furthermore what I suspect is that it is a piece shot out hundreds of miles away from a comet strike millions of years ago. It most probably sat on the deep floor of the ocean prior to that.

Take good care and could you please describe the piece a bit for us?

reply to post by SailorinAZ


Wow nice find ....I am going to do some reading into that ..thanks a bunch
That one is a little crude though compared to mine ...

reply to post by pieman


Is that word origin for the Aussie term "Sheila" ? That would be funny.

Originally posted by groingrinder
If it is older than a hundred years old, then you should have been arrested under the Federal Antiquities act. I do not understand why this is still in your possession.

Let me tell you what happens to the Native American Sacred Burial sites in Arizona.
First they move in with back hoes and bulldozers, then once the spotters discover a bone or better yet piece of pottery sticking out from the dirt, they stop all machinery and begin to hand dig tossing aside bones to look at either the head area or the feet for precious antique jewelry, pottery and other precious remnants of the respectfully buried.
I will stop her, but suffice it to say, NEVER, never notify the authorities in a case like this!
The OP needs to come up with a very good story and claim it was found on HIS property! Period.

Originally posted by Memysabu
Um, dont buy that anyone can take it from you theyd need a court order. And they dont take arrowheads from people lol. No judge would do that on a personal find. All the art I know of has been purchsed or loaned to a musem. Trust me I used to sit infront of paintings and art sculptures for hours for college classes. You shoulda called her a few choice words.
Musta been that retards time of the month. It belongs to you. Id most definately encase it in in something to protect it.
And I believe Clearskies has found your answer, it was off of a drinking cup. Atleast thats my opinion. Id find out for sure what its made of.
I dont know how sandstone could hold together for so long. Looks like clay to me.

Nice find

[edit on 5-9-2008 by Memysabu]

That women was mean ..I wont call her again ...I dont have it incased but it is all wrapped up and put away in a small box...I dont hold it much at all ...I try to just leave it alone so the oils on my hands dont mess it up..
Everyone told me it was for sure sandstone ...but hey they could be wrong ..
And I thought the same thing when I saw the drinking cup ...it could very well have been one of those ..

Those statues from Mississippi and Nashville look similar too though ...
I will dig more in that direction too and see what I can find ..

What I found odd about this whole ordeal ..Is that the Smithsonian didnt have a clue ....why not ? arnt they experts in prehistoric stuff ?

Originally posted by groingrinder
If it is older than a hundred years old, then you should have been arrested under the Federal Antiquities act. I do not understand why this is still in your possession.

Well, i should go grab my phone and start dialing 911... My home is over 200 years old. Ill be serving life!

Seriously though, I really personally believe its probably part of a bowl. It just seems to fit so well.

Nice find.

Well artwork varies when cultures interact etc... I mean look at Byzantine (sp?) art. Romans meet the east etc... Some features change. Does it look like it has a bottom that could have attached to a cup? Get the dimensions of the cup. But all in all you are going to have to look at it under a microscope. Or have someone examine it. Personally Id wanna be right there with it.

It could be influenced, say some tribe moved to TX from TENN. Or a woman was abducted from a TENN. Tribe and taken to TX. Happened quite a bit when they made war back then. That is if its clay. Im not sure if it is though I cant see it lol.

I agree with one of the other posters, they dont give a dang about skeletons they look for the valuable stuff and will totally pollute grave sties. This looks like someone just dropped it or youd have found more.

What they do is cordon off an area and pay an archeologist like 40-100k to come in and scratch some dirt around and say "nope nothing here" lol! Thanks for the cash!
And I dont think, the city would be to happy about paying for that. You could go and see if anything else shows up, if it does call the city and just say you didn’t touch anything.
Best to let the dead rest though.

I know this from the field I work in, we have to call them all the time. If someone says something anyhow. We specifically tell people not to say "Oh look its an arrowhead!". And make sure they see what they see first. Because even when its spoken allowed we have to pay thousands of dollars and stop everything. And in my line of work, we arent the ones that disturb the land.






[edit on 5-9-2008 by Memysabu]

Originally posted 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 petrified sandstone.Seriously thats what they told me.

Either they were pulling your leg or you misunderstood. It is likely Terra-cotta if old and Native American or Porcelain if it is modern and the weathering left it textured like sandstone.

The bottom of that neck does make it appear to be a dolls head and modern. Modern being the last few hundred years.

If it is indeed sandstone it is carved and not "petrified". If they honestly said that they need fired or like I said they were pulling your leg.

It is most likely a toy made for a child and may well be the same age as the old bottles you were digging for. Toys R Us just was not around and people often made toys for their children themselves. The odd look could be just a representation of lack of skill.

Originally posted by groingrinder
If it is older than a hundred years old, then you should have been arrested under the Federal Antiquities act. I do not understand why this is still in your possession.

Its not that simple. If found on a homestead patented prior to 1870 something (I've forgotten the exact year) it could be OK to possess if it is not Native American in origin. They tried to enforce that in Montana. They actual kicked in doors and literally took peoples family heirlooms. They took it all to the Smithsonian and then lost in court and had to give it back. The sad part was they damaged many pieces and lost quite a few. I know some of the victims. I say lost, but should have said conveniently lost. These losers actually confiscated Native American heirlooms from Native American homes Much of the best stuff was reported lost of course.

The government will lie about this, so you may just be believing their purposeful misrepresentations. They even tried to steal Lucy the T-Rex from the owners. They have no shame and the law means little to them. Most people are to cowardly to fight and they know it, so they often get away with it. It all boils down to where it was found.

To date I know of not a single agent serving even one day in jail for those illegal home invasions and thefts. They just said oops. It was reported in little page twenty single paragraph blurbs in newspapers, but I doubt many noticed. Lucy got good coverage, but not the heirlooms confiscation in Montana.

Interesting. I don't have much to add, other than to mention that it looked oddly yet extremely familiar to me for some reason. So much so that I'm very surprised that no one else here found anything even remotely similar to it.

Sheela Na Gigs? Good Christ! Here, we need to put these horrible little beasts stretching their labia apart somewhere. I know! How about on the churches? The lord will really appreciate that! Anyway, thanks for sharing that, I never knew about those. Gargoyles, yes. Vagina-monsters? GADS!

Just my opinion, but it looks like an old Asian or American Indian person. If you watch the movie Baraka there's a guy who resembles your find in there. He appears sitting down and quite toothless. Went looking for an image but could not find one. Just thought i'd throw it out there, maybe it re enforces the nature and age of the find a bit. Also, check this guy out from the ancient Middle East. It's a skull encased in clay. Just thought it bore a passing resemblance.-messiah

Sorry, didn't post the link to the clay skull. here it is faculty.evansville.edu... Hope this helps a bit.

Apparently that link did not work... here's another www.paleolithicartmagazine.org... -messiah

Originally posted by Simplynoone
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.

Good for you, just don't pay the plane fare on my say so.......... there should be carbon traces in the sandstone, if you could get to them. I suppose you'd have to be very lucky to get a fragment of skin's worth.......

Have you guys heard what the head of the Art Inst. of Chicago has to say? This guy wrote a book on who "owns" archeological pieces. Scary stuff. And quite unfair in my opinion. Check out the link: www.chicagoreader.com...