Lake Winnipesaukee mystery stone
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The mystery stone from Lake Winnipesaukee is an alleged out-of-place artifact (OOPArt) found in 1872 while diggers were digging a hole for a fence post. It is a mysterious carved stone about 4 inches long and 2 1/2 inches thick, dark and egg-shaped, bearing a variety of symbols which remain open for interpretation. The stone's age, purpose, and origins remain unknown.
[edit] History
The stone was found embedded in a lump of clay in 1872 by workers digging a post-hole near Lake Winnipesaukee in Meredith, New Hampshire. It garnered immediate attention due to its unusual ovoid form and the carvings on its surface. Seneca Ladd, a Meredith businessman who hired the workers, was given credit for the discovery. Upon Ladd's death in 1892, the stone passed to one of his daughters, who donated it to the New Hampshire Historical Society in 1927. The stone is currently on permanent display at the Museum of New Hampshire History.
The item has come to be known as the "Mystery Stone" since, to date, no definitive answers about the stone's origins have come to light.
[edit] Symbols
Carvings on one side of the stone show an ear of corn and several other figures, including what looks like a deer's leg. The other side is more abstract, featuring inverted arrows, a moon shape, some dots and a spiral. There are holes bored in both ends of the stone, apparently driled with different size bits.
The American Naturalist of November 1872 suggested the stone "commemorates a treaty between two tribes." A letter to the New Hampshire Historical Society in 1931 suggested it was a thunderstone, which, the writer said, "always present the appearance of having been machined or hand-worked: frequently they come from deep in the earth, embedded in lumps of clay, or even surrounded by solid rock or coral."
A state analysis of the stone was performed in 1994. State archaeologist Richard Boisvert suggests the holes were drilled by power tools from the 19th or 20th century. Boisvert reported, "I've seen a number of holes bored in stone with technology that you would associate with prehistoric North America. There's a certain amount of unevenness ... and this hole was extremely regular throughout. What we did not see was variations that would be consistent with something that was several hundred years old." Scratches in the lower bore suggest it was placed on a metal shaft and removed several times.
The analysis concluded the stone is a type of quartzite, derived from sandstone, or mylonite. This type of rock is not common in New Hampshire, though state geologists said it could well have originated in the state.
[edit] Sources
CNN article on the Mystery Stone
