Native American, Midwestern to Southern United States, Eastern Woodland, Archaic period, ca. 1880 BCE. A fascinating and rare discoidal made from pottery with firing clouds and markings across the surface. The convex faces are lightly incised with narrow linear patterns evenly spaced across the faces and circumference edge. Most Native American disc artifacts are hand flaked and polished from stone, but occasionally ceramic examples like this emerge, likely due to the lack of readily available hardstone in the area. Broken pots or fired shards might have been polished and repurposed into discoidals rather than creating a fully new object from clay. While their full use remains unclear, the most popular suggested use for these enigmatic discs were as gaming pieces for "chunkey" which had many different rules and styles of play. Size: 4.25" Diameter x 1.5" W (10.8 cm x 3.8 cm)
This piece has been tested using thermoluminescence (TL) analysis and has been found to be ancient and of the period stated. A full printed and bound report is available to the buyer upon request.
Provenance: private Kansas City, Missouri, USA collection; ex- John Townsend collection, formed in the 1970s and earlier.
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#161929
Condition
Surface abrasions and 2 older losses to both faces with soft edges. Two TL holes on rounded face on opposite edges.