Look what we found....
- Thread starter Tetters
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ZIGS????
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Come on Tetters, out with it, there's more to this story?
Nope....not as far as I know. The woman my mate was working for stepped back in horror evidently, and said ''just take it away'' so that`s how it turned up at my place - for my ''weird corner'' he said. I think he meant my stumpery. 
The stones were collected from a place in Canterbury somewhere near to the cathedral. There is an indentation on one half of the stone (which is very chalky) that looks like the shape of an amonite (I think that's what they're called)
It may well be a joke. Obviously chalk is very soft and easy to carve .... but I don't think I could do it
The stones were collected from a place in Canterbury somewhere near to the cathedral. There is an indentation on one half of the stone (which is very chalky) that looks like the shape of an amonite (I think that's what they're called) It may well be a joke. Obviously chalk is very soft and easy to carve .... but I don't think I could do it
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Oh, and I was going to go all bad cop and scare you into taking it back to Pompeii.
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I want Zigs to weigh in on this--he has vast experience with stone and old churches. he can probably shed some light on your find.
JBtheExplorer
Native Gardener
Blimey...
It reminds me of prehistoric carvings of fertility gods/goddesses but if it were carved, how did it get back within the stone?
Organic matter such as sponges and sea urchins are usually replaced by either silica (flint) or travertine (calcite)
That doesn't look like either....
Any chance of a pic of the other side of the broken stone @Tetters ?
It reminds me of prehistoric carvings of fertility gods/goddesses but if it were carved, how did it get back within the stone?
Organic matter such as sponges and sea urchins are usually replaced by either silica (flint) or travertine (calcite)
That doesn't look like either....
Any chance of a pic of the other side of the broken stone @Tetters ?
Aah, those pics are useful 
It's a worked bit of masonry. The first pic shows a recess that would have taken an iron or lead masonry clamp to fix it to the next stone.
At some stage it got broken, you can see it's not a perfect fit and there's a bit of weathering on the break.
Then someone decided to carve the figure and in all probability it was put back together and used in the building.
It's probably a form of ritual protection, this was quite common in buildings, dark spaces had to be protected against evil spirits. Masons would carve things never intended to be seen by anyone, i've come across an elaborate cat's head corbel that was supporting the main beam on a church tower.
Only folk working on the church would ever get to see it.
Other offerings were shoes, mummified animals and used items such as spoons and clothes.
It's worth a lot of money to the right collector
It's a worked bit of masonry. The first pic shows a recess that would have taken an iron or lead masonry clamp to fix it to the next stone.
At some stage it got broken, you can see it's not a perfect fit and there's a bit of weathering on the break.
Then someone decided to carve the figure and in all probability it was put back together and used in the building.
It's probably a form of ritual protection, this was quite common in buildings, dark spaces had to be protected against evil spirits. Masons would carve things never intended to be seen by anyone, i've come across an elaborate cat's head corbel that was supporting the main beam on a church tower.
Only folk working on the church would ever get to see it.
Other offerings were shoes, mummified animals and used items such as spoons and clothes.
It's worth a lot of money to the right collector
No worries Local small finds curator might be interested
https://finds.org.uk/
Might be able to confirm or deny my thoughts on it
Part of my college course covered ritual protection, if you want to protect any dark spaces in your home, you need something personal to your family to conceal.
Masons might have been building churches for the Christians, but they still gave a nod to the old gods, hence the green men you find in churches. There's only one named one as far as I know, Silvanus - Roman God of the forest.
I was working on Francis Drake's old gaff down near Plymouth and I found several carved into the wood work, i'll get some pics of some when I can get my puter to recognise my camera again
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If I had to guess, i'd say 12th Century. The masonry looks Norman and the quality of the carving is very good.