Creek rock with letters carved into it

Pbj ak

Pbj ak

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I wasn’t exactly sure what to title this as but wanted to ask for opinions on here.

A few weeks ago, a member of my family found this rock in the creek. It has a few letters carved into it but we’re not able to figure out what it says. There are letters on both sides and the rock looks to be carved into a 6 sided shape as well. We were thinking it might be a grave stone but I wanted to see if anyone had any ideas on what it says or what it is. Also if there was a way to make the letters more legible? We tried putting paper down and rubbing the paper lightly with coal, crayons, and lead from pencils to try to see if it would come through but that’s not working so far.

If anyone has any ideas I would greatly appreciate it and I thank you in advance.

Zack

Edited to add- this was found in Wilkes county in a creek near longbottom road.

6E2CB323-516A-42AE-AD99-53B2E69AFE81.jpeg706B2753-276C-462A-8AC9-49679082F56A.jpeg 993856A7-22E4-4D22-9084-93CECA7BA0E4.jpeg 5FD7377C-F910-47B3-A785-FFA51D502731.jpeg 993856A7-22E4-4D22-9084-93CECA7BA0E4.jpeg 85FDFA06-1C42-4BF7-8B19-9A8ABDAD5608.jpeg
 

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Get it to a IT person and see what they can do.

They can scan it, chance background colors, enlarge letters, worth a try.
 
Could be a grave marker fragment. Lots of old lost cemeteries out there in the woods. Marker falls over, breaks up over time, gets washed off into the creek due to erosion or flooding.

S2vOZ37.jpg

Here's my attempt.

Common words on 1800's era tombstones:
-Months
-Days (numbers), Ex: "fifth day of so and so month"
-Relation to the people who buried them or who they were buried with (mother, father, daughter, son)
-"death", "life", "beloved", "died", "born", "mourn"
-And of course names

The font looks late 1800's to me.

Compare late 1700's:
12829067_10154085300979797_4078235240880752813_o.jpg


Mid 1800's:
LostAtSea1.jpg


My two cents.
 
If it is flat enough try shining a light across it in a dark room.
That may give enough contrast to the letters that they can be read.
 
Tim said:
https://archaeology.ncdcr.gov/

Give those folks a call.

Seriously, given NCs long history, you may have something as old as Colonial times. It's worth treating properly.
Click to expand...


charliesgrave said:
Could be a grave marker fragment. Lots of old lost cemeteries out there in the woods. Marker falls over, breaks up over time, gets washed off into the creek due to erosion or flooding.

S2vOZ37.jpg

Here's my attempt.

Common words on 1800's era tombstones:
-Months
-Days (numbers), Ex: "fifth day of so and so month"
-Relation to the people who buried them or who they were buried with (mother, father, daughter, son)
-"death", "life", "beloved", "died", "born", "mourn"
-And of course names

The font looks late 1800's to me.

Compare late 1700's:
12829067_10154085300979797_4078235240880752813_o.jpg


Mid 1800's:
LostAtSea1.jpg


My two cents.
Click to expand...


Thanks @charliesgrave, any idea why the writing on the back?

@Tim good looking out, I’m going to email these guys and see if they might be able to shed any light on the situation.

@Inglis that's what my had said, maybe they could play with the lighting. She also mentioned playing around with the pic on the iPad.

@Goofyfoot2001 what program did you use to get that image?

@ronn47 ill give that a shot as well.


Thanks again guys and to anyone else with any ideas, we’d love to hear them. I’ll be sure and post any info, even if it’s just an old pets tombstone.
 
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Pbj ak said:
Thanks @charliesgrave, any idea why the writing on the back?

@Tim good looking out, I’m going to email these guys and see if they might be able to shed any light on the situation.

@Inglis that's what my had said, maybe they could play with the lighting. She also mentioned playing around with the pic on the iPad.

@Goofyfoot2001 what program did you use to get that image?

@ronn47 ill give that a shot as well.


Thanks again guys and to anyone else with any ideas, we’d love to hear them. I’ll be sure and post any info, even if it’s just an old pets tombstone.
Click to expand...
Not unheard of to have double sided markers, though usually it's the obelisk shaped markers, and they're a lot thicker and squared.

If it wasn't natural stone I would almost think it's a manufacturers mark, like on a brick.
Whatever it is, it's an extremely cool find.

If you're on Reddit, you might try https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/. Maybe someone can come up with a better hypothesis.
 
Try chalk. Rub the stone with it then wipe it off the high spots. That's actually what archeologists use if they do something like that, or used too.
 
charliesgrave said:
Not unheard of to have double sided markers, though usually it's the obelisk shaped markers, and they're a lot thicker and squared.

If it wasn't natural stone I would almost think it's a manufacturers mark, like on a brick.
Whatever it is, it's an extremely cool find.

If you're on Reddit, you might try https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthisthing/. Maybe someone can come up with a better hypothesis.
Click to expand...

We just moved and I have zero cell service and the internet isn’t hooked up yet but I’ll try to make an account on reddit and check that out.

Sucks because the only time I can get on the forum is when I’m at work. Didn’t realize how much I get online until I couldn’t.

@chiefjason ill try that as well. I was hoping not to mess it up and take away from it like refinishing an old gun. Figured I’d do something dumb and as soon as I did would find out I destroyed a museum piece. That’s my luck anyways.

I did just send an email to a lady at the site @Tim mentioned so hopefully I’ll hear something back in a day or two.
 
As a guy is carving his and his girlfriends initials into a rock ... "You know, there are times when I really wish your name wasn't Virginia Davis.".
 
There several old graveyards up Longbottom rd. There was a graveyard and small community flooded in 1916 out near there that had a lot my distant lin folks in it. Located below The Caudill Cabin up Wildcat Branch or Basin Creek
 
Pbj ak said:
I was hoping not to mess it up and take away from it like refinishing an old gun. Figured I’d do something dumb and as soon as I did would find out I destroyed a museum piece. That’s my luck anyways.
Click to expand...

+1 Don't do anything with it until you've given the experts a go.

Yes, many academics and .gov types are idiots, but in the area of hard sciences I think they're the real deal.
 
Rubbing flour on it is an old cemetery trick for reading old headstones that won’t damage the stone.

Could be piece of a survey marker?
 
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Dan said:
There several old graveyards up Longbottom rd. There was a graveyard and small community flooded in 1916 out near there that had a lot my distant lin folks in it. Located below The Caudill Cabin up Wildcat Branch or Basin Creek
Click to expand...
A pregnant woman who died in the flood is buried in the middle of the primitive campsite.
 
Dan said:
There several old graveyards up Longbottom rd. There was a graveyard and small community flooded in 1916 out near there that had a lot my distant lin folks in it. Located below The Caudill Cabin up Wildcat Branch or Basin Creek
Click to expand...

Basin creek is about a 10 minute drive from the house. Been there many times.
 
Here is the response from the site @Tim mentioned. I’m going to see if I can decipher the letters and I guess go from there. I’ll post any other findings for anyone interested.

Thanks again to everyone.



Hey Zack,



Thank you so much for reaching out to our office! We have seen plenty of interesting rocks but none quite like yours. I could not fully make out the word(s)/letters that were carved into the rock but it is interesting that someone took the time to carve them in the first place.



Artifacts located in bodies of water are typically displaced from their original locations and contexts. Oftentimes, erosion and weathering changes the artifacts enough that it is difficult to determine their original use. However, the type of rock that you picked up has the potential to occur naturally in your area. The smoothed edges would indicate that it has spent considerable time in the creek. What may be difficult to determine is whether or not the rock was carved before it was eroded in the creek or if someone picked up an existing river rock and then took the time to created these carvings.



If I had to make an educated guess based on the size of the artifact and the placement of the carving, I would say that this artifact was carved on an existing river rock and would be placed in a historic context based on the shape of the carving resembling letters. The rock itself seems to fit well in your hand (as shown from your pictures) and would therefore be easy to hold and manipulate during the carving process. I haven't come up with a logical reason for why an individual would carve a rock such as this but it may have been something as simple as adding decorative flair to a porch or simply a way to recognize a given person or place. It would certainly have taken some time and skill to carve this rock by hand without causing extraneous damage to the rock itself.



If you are able to puzzle out the carving and happen to decipher the carved word or words, they might give you a launching point to investigate further. I played with the image quality a bit but I couldn't come up with anything definitive from your photo documentation. If you end up with a place name or family name you might be able to link your artifact to something nearby or upstream?



Sorry that we couldn't narrow your artifact down any more than that but we really appreciate that you were willing to reach out and share it with us!





Best,



Casey ********
 
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Looks to me like it has a couple of bolt holes in it. Could it have been a weighed stone for a balance, with the weight carved into it?
 
Looks like it says POODLE. Just a grave marker for a pet with a boring name. :D
 
Pbj ak said:
Thanks @charliesgrave, any idea why the writing on the back?

@Tim good looking out, I’m going to email these guys and see if they might be able to shed any light on the situation.

@Inglis that's what my had said, maybe they could play with the lighting. She also mentioned playing around with the pic on the iPad.

@Goofyfoot2001 what program did you use to get that image?

@ronn47 ill give that a shot as well.


Thanks again guys and to anyone else with any ideas, we’d love to hear them. I’ll be sure and post any info, even if it’s just an old pets tombstone.
Click to expand...

used photoshop. I tried changing hues and saturation etc, but that didn't do much. Then I just started selecting shades with the dropper and making a new layer out of that selection and deleting unneeded stuff around the letter and then turned on all the selection layers. Still not enough info from the pictures.
 
Pull me up! I can’t breath!
 
Could be a landowners marker from early 1800s. If it is, there would be many and one would be placed in a pile of rocks.
 
Steal and old trick used by people who checker gun stocks. Direct lighting is not always a good thing. Shaded light that comes from one side or the other can often create a shadow causing the lines they are cutting to show up better. Play around with different light coming from different angles.
 
Pbj ak said:
We just moved and I have zero cell service and the internet isn’t hooked up yet but I’ll try to make an account on reddit and check that out.

Sucks because the only time I can get on the forum is when I’m at work. Didn’t realize how much I get online until I couldn’t.

@chiefjason ill try that as well. I was hoping not to mess it up and take away from it like refinishing an old gun. Figured I’d do something dumb and as soon as I did would find out I destroyed a museum piece. That’s my luck anyways.

I did just send an email to a lady at the site @Tim mentioned so hopefully I’ll hear something back in a day or two.
Click to expand...

Done it to this one for years.

http://judacullarock.com



Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Ferrisfan said:
Rubbing flour on it is an old cemetery trick for reading old headstones that won’t damage the stone.

Could be piece of a survey marker?
Click to expand...
This works with fat girls, too.
 
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