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Help me identify this: Is it a pottery fragment or just a rock?

Help me identify this: Is it a pottery fragment or just a rock?

Is it man-made or naturally occurring?

Can you help identify this object? Is it a pottery fragment or just a piece of smooth stone?

Is it natural or man-made? I found this object in a stream bed while hiking in middle Tennessee and thought it was just a curious piece of stone — but i’m not really certain. What’s your opinion?

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Can you help identify this object? Is it a pottery fragment or just a piece of smooth stone?
Can you help identify this object? Is it a pottery fragment or just a piece of smooth stone?

~ Keith

11 comments

  1. We found something similar in a middle Tennessee creek bed. Did you have any luck finding out what it is?

    1. Hello – No I have never received any further information about this fragment. Please let me know if you learn anything else.

  2. Same!! I find this stuff all the time here in Middle TN! I’ve asked several people and no one can tell me what it is.

  3. Found a piece in Abrams creek headwater this weekend

  4. This is a piece of clay pottery usually seen in old jugs used got carrying liquid. You can still see the old glazing. Probably salt glazing.

    1. Thank you!!! You’re the first person with an answer.

  5. I found some on the Saint John river in florenceville Canada

  6. Hey, I am very late to the game, but it looks like a piece of pottery! The smooth edges are probably because of having been in the water for a while. It is actually quite common for pottery pieces to have a different coloured inside or core. I work with medieval pottery, and some of them have three different internal colours! The core material looks to be some kind of porcelain or stoneware, though, with the natural corrosion, I can’t really say that with any kind of certainty. A fun, though perhaps not entirely accurate, way to check if something is pottery or rock is actually to compare the sound it makes when you hit it (you can try yourself between a regular rock and your sherd). I am not sure it would work with the sherd you have, but some kinds of fabric (the material the piece of pottery is made out of) are very porous so licking it to see if it sticks to your tongue is a very genuine technique to use when you lack more sophisticated means.

    1. Thank you — a very helpful reply!

    2. Chris Jones says:

      I found a peice almost identical to yours but mine has ribs on it, found it in near Ashland city Tennessee

  7. Carol Fulkerson says:

    I just found something similar in my backyard in Northern California.

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