Pendant ID help

[shbowers2002]

I found this on Terlingua Ranch in West Texas a little over a year ago and I've been attempting to narrow down a time period and possibly tribe for this with no success. Hoping someone here will have seen something similar and can help.

[kentlangreder]

first off , welcome to the forum !!! that is a very nice pendant i see !!! with tally marks !!
is it stone or shell??? and as far as tribes go i think you are dealing with prehistoric time here on your artifact probably in the 5000 year old range just a guess though did you find any other artifacts associated with this artifact? it might help narrow down an age in Texas prehistory !!!!

kent langreder

[Steve Valentine]

My guess is being from west Teaxs it may be an Anasazi artifact which would make it from around 600 to 1300 AD I believe.

Very nice looking piece with some nice tally marks on it.

[shbowers2002]

The pendant is made from stone. My brothers and I found flint chips scattered around the area but I couldn't find any points.

I was mildly excited when I found this on an outcropping nearby

but after looking at the pictures a year later I'm fairly certain that its actually more an example of erosion than a grinding hole. On a previous trip we did find a grinding hole on the rim of a canyon quite a ways from the pendant site and that one looked quite authentic when compared to examples I'd seen at the Lake Amistad site.

[Wichita]

Cool find! Welcome.

[DesertWalker]

Hi, welcome to the forum. Interesting call on that, Steve. Very nice artifact, whatever culture it is from!

[arrow719]

I don't think the Anasazi made it to Texas. Your best bet to finding an age on it would be to find some diagnostic points in the same area. This won't work either if it's a multicomponent site, but it's the best you could do. Awesome pendant!

[DesertWalker]

Originally Posted by DesertWalker

Hi, welcome to the forum. Interesting call on that, Steve. Very nice artifact, whatever culture it is from!

Also interesting are the two parralel lines on the side, may have been used for abrading..

[shbowers2002]

From what I've been able to dig up on the adjacent Big Bend area, the region has been home to man for several thousand years, so I wouldn't be surprised if any points found in the area didn't cover several periods.

A quick search for Anasazi showed that they didn't quite make it into Texas although a contemporary group did make it, albeit further West than the area where the pendant was found. I'm an absolute amateur when it comes to this but I was assuming that the pendant was quite likely a trade item as the type of stone used to make it isn't to my knowledge from this area. I'd hoped someone might have seen something like it and could give me a ballpark reference so I could catalog it properly. Thanks for all the views and comments, I'm really happy I happened across this site.

I've a trip to Terlingua Ranch coming up in July and you can bet I'll be combing our property and the road cuts to see if I can find any evidence that could help at least point to a particular group. The area is also swarming in fossils so the hiking is always enjoyable if a tad warm.

[mrchadcopeland]

Any chance its a net weight ??? Or sinker so to speak ?