One of my unprocessed images from a trip long ago. This from the arches area, unsure if this is naturally carved. Perhaps @Douglas Sherman has an idea what this is.
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Curious
- Thread starter Jameel Hyder
- Start date
Sure looks man carved. How large is it? Is this just something you found?
AlanLichty
Moderator
Very curious indeed. If it's artwork it doesn't match anything I am familiar with in that area and looks too well eroded to be anything modern. Possibly random lines from sharpening sticks?
Douglas Sherman
Staff
The only thing that I can lend to this discussion is that this is not formed by natural processes. It has to have a human origin but I have no clue what it is. Alan might be on to something. At first I thought it might be due to the development of ice crystals in the sand in very shallow water but the patterns don't look right. Any way it is a very interesting artifact, Jameel.
It was a largish size shot at around 30mm to fill a full frame sensor from about 6-8ft away.
Thanks Alan. That's what I thought and considered this natural but then there are also some man made lines - in the middle of the image, I see letters H and A for example.
Thanks Doug. Interesting thoughts. We can all speculate.
I am a little fuzzy about the location - it was almost a decade ago. Going by the time stamp of images in sequence to this one, it has to be close to the double arch (3 mins time difference between this and the double arch image). It was in the open and stuck to surrounding rock i.e. not moveable.
Douglas Sherman
Staff
Monika and Alan seem to have a viable explanation. I found this article after a bit of research. Congratulations you two. The author of the article seems a bit skeptical but it seems to me that he forgets that the grooves would get wider as sharpening continues thus necessitating other sharpening grooves.
https://jeffpeachey.com/2016/06/21/neolithic-knife-sharpening/
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Fascinating read Doug. Thanks for sharing.
MonikaC
Well-Known Member
When sharpening a knife on a flat stone, one holds the blade at different angles: 1st around 30 degrees then, for the cutting edge, around 15 degrees which could account for the more obtuse angle seen on one side of some of the grooves. I am, of course, assuming that modern people just rediscovered what ancient people had done millennia ago.
AlanLichty
Moderator
Actually we never really forgot. H. Saps (and earlier) have been keeping things sharp ever since we figured out how cool it was to work with sharp tools
