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Found on a beach on Baltic Sea


Mopsgirl89

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I found several interesting things while walking the beach last month just south of Visby, Gotland Island, Sweden.  I wasn't even seriously looking, but these caught my eye.  Three I can identify, but one has me scratching my head.  It's been suggested it's a fossilized sea urchin, a bead from the Viking age, and perhaps a whorl used in spinning thread.  All old, but I'd really like to know what exactly this little gem could be.  It's about the size of a Cheerio, rock solid and smooth with a hole started on both sides.  

baltic.jpg

urchin1.jpg

urchin2.jpg

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It's not letting me upload a photo of the other side.  Says I've maxed capacity.  The other side is very similar.  

Edited by Mopsgirl89
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25 minutes ago, Mopsgirl89 said:

Interesting.  Here's a photo from https://textandtrowel.wordpress.com/
As my find is more ring shaped than cylindrical, could it have been manipulated into this shape by man?

Natural beach wear could be sufficient (and some crinoid columnals are shaped more like that to begin with) but it's certainly possible. Yours hasn't been perforated though, so perhaps the old Gotlanders were inspired by and maybe utilised similar natural ones?  

Tarquin

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I the last photo you posted, I can see what appears to be four columnals heavily worn. Since there's no hole in the middle, this suggests natural wear as opposed to manmade although there is a very slight chance of work begun but not completed. However, there's no way to prove that so . . . . 

 

 

Mark.

 

Fossil hunting is easy -- they don't run away when you shoot at them!

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