Object identification

vit

Might be the wrong place to ask about this, but I'm not sure where else to ask.

There are several objects I found about 15 years ago while living in Russia. No one I asked so far could give me a clue about what they are.

The objects have been found an a heap of clay and silt raised while drilling a 10-metre deep water well, along with belemnites and some petrified pieces of wood.

There are several spheres up to about 7 cm in diameter, several sphere segments of 60, 120 and 180 degrees, and some egg-shaped objects and broken "rods". All of them are made from the same mineral: uniformly black with uniform fine-dispersed composition with dull "sparkles", somewhat resembling cast iron. The surface, where it is not broken, looks fritted, resembling orange skin in texture and lustre. Some segments have 1 or 2 concentric shallow "troughs" or "ridges" on their sides.

Do you know what these are or can be? Are they of any scientific interest? If yes, is there anyone I can show them to?

pueblo

I'm wondering if this could this be iron slag? does it attract a magnet?

...though if it was iron slag what would account for the 'shaped' appearance of many of the pieces?

possible meteorites?

vit

No, it's not magnetic. And I could not find any picture of slag or meteorites that looks even close to this.

slowburner

vit wrote: »

The objects have been found an a heap of clay and silt raised while drilling a 10-metre deep water well, along with belemnites and some petrified pieces of wood.

Could you describe the context in more detail: i.e. were these objects found at a depth of 10m and in the same stratum as the belemnites and petrified wood? What formed the silt?

Fries-With-That

I think this article might explain what they are. personally I think they are a nice talking point in any collection of objects.

http://ncse.com/rncse/28/1/mysterious-spheres-ottosdal-south-africa

vit

slowburner wrote: »

Could you describe the context in more detail: i.e. were these objects found at a depth of 10m and in the same stratum as the belemnites and petrified wood? What formed the silt?

I found them on the top and sides of a big pile of silt, just lying along belemnites, after the well has been dug up. So I would presume they were taken from the same stratum, from the very bottom of the well.

The silt looked black in color, the type that you would expect in lakes, for example.

redbaron_99

I would think the spheres are either for food preparation (to ground down seeds, etc), or are projectiles that are shot from slings of some sort. The half-circle object could be anything really. I would fashion a guess that it was used in some sort of manufacturing; it's too bulky for hand held weaponry.

Very interesting stuff.

John_Rambo

redbaron_99 wrote: »

Very interesting stuff.

+ 1... fascinating stuff. Haven't a notion about this stuff, but can't nature produce sphere's and stuff? @ Vit, fair play for picking them up.

redbaron_99

John_Rambo wrote: »

+ 1... fascinating stuff. Haven't a notion about this stuff, but can't nature produce sphere's and stuff? @ Vit, fair play for picking them up.

There's a possibility that they were created naturally, but I have a feeling they are man-made. Would love to know what they are.
The spheres remind me of the large spherical stones that are all over the island of Rhodes. They are leftovers from the crusader city that was based there. They were used in huge slings for the wars.

Pretzill

Hi all (newbie to this forum)

Very interesting find as a complete uneducated guess I'm wondering if they are all part of the same structure like a mill stone the segmented semi circular pieces look like they could've fit together. Are they weighty?

redbaron_99

Pretzill wrote: »

Hi all (newbie to this forum)

Very interesting find as a complete uneducated guess I'm wondering if they are all part of the same structure like a mill stone the segmented semi circular pieces look like they could've fit together. Are they weighty?

Sounds very plausible. I was saying earlier that they could be used in grinding down grain or wheat. Could well be the case.

vit

Pretzill wrote: »

Very interesting find as a complete uneducated guess I'm wondering if they are all part of the same structure like a mill stone the segmented semi circular pieces look like they could've fit together. Are they weighty?

Not sure if they really fit together. I need more samples to try that. The measured specific weight is 2.1 g/cm3.

slowburner

Given that these objects were found in context with belemnites and petrified wood, and considering the post by Fries-With-That, the probability is that these objects are natural.

redbaron_99

The half circle appears to be man-made. It's possible that it occured naturally, but I reckon it was manufactured.

carlpasha

[font=arial, sans-serif]Polymetallic or manganese nodules... to be found on the deep ocean floor and the next big thing in sea bed mining. [/font]

[font=arial, sans-serif]Belemnites are the fossil remnants of  Jurassic/Cretacious squid-type ocean dwelling creatures and your finding these spherical objects alongside belemnite fossils makes me think 'nodules!'[/font]