Ice age mammal ID needed – evidence of human processing?

[Jon C]

I found this in the dunes near the beach in an uninhabited point off the coast of South Carolina in Charleston harbor.  The US army corp of engineers periodically dredge the harbor to make it deeper and dumped the tailing at the tips of islands which is where this was found.  The area is where people go to hunt for meg teeth, and you can also find many pieces of fossilized ice age animal bones.  Occasionally, bits of stone tools are found there too.

 

Anyway, I’m wondering what animal this might be.  More importantly, it looks like humans may have processed it, but I’m not positive. 

 

1.      The hole through the middle of the bone is cleanly drilled, straight, and symmetrical all the way through.  

2.     The bottom is perfectly flat as if it’s been cut and ground down against something.  The rest of the bone is not weathered in the same way.  The outer edges of bone on the bottom are polished all the way around. 

3.     The mud/dirt on the flat bottom filling the pores in the bone is also perfectly flat and fossilized in place.  For mud to fill the pores, the bone would have needed to be cut flat prior to fossilization. 

4.     There is evidence of wear around the hole that’s hard to see in the pictures (along the top of the bone, along the inner edges of the hole on both sides).  The wear spots match where a string would go if this were tied to something.

 

Does anyone have an idea what animal this is?  Could a natural process could have created both the hole and flat bottom?  Could this be evidence of paleo indians processing the bone?

[Al Dente]

Looks like a large fish vertebral process. Here is a thread with similar ones.-http://www.thefossilforum.com/topic/87585-fossil-from-summerville/

[Fin Lover]

I didn't recognize this since so much is missing, but I agree with Al Dente.  I find these often in Summerville.

[Jon C]

You're right!  Thank you both.  Well good to know, even if we don't know the species.  I thought it was a mammal bone, but wasn't thinking large fish.  The very odd perfect hole threw me.  I wonder what cut it so cleanly to make that one edge completely flat.... maybe something bit it.