What are these rocks/gravel lookalikes in my front yard soil?

[ss107]

We got this place recently and are planning to put sod in the front yard. We know that the previous owner had grass in the front yard before and a big tree. They remove the tree about 5-6 months ago as its root was damaging the water pipe and since then the front yard was all mulched up. After removing the mulch you can see the dead grass root patches and if dig a bit more into the soil you see lots of small tree roots and grey rock/gravel look like chunks in the mud. Are these gravels (not as hard as the stone, can be easily crushed with shovel) intentionally left there for certain reason, like curbing the tree root/weed? Do we need to remove them all before putting in sod?

 

[Chuck]

Gather up a handful of them and pour on some charcoal lighter fluid and see if they will burn. It might be activated charcoal put there to enhance the soil as charcoal is known to help turf grasses. I would leave it alone. If it were some type of chemical it would have already disappeared. You might want to research "biochar"'.

 

[Beth_B]

Dried up dog poop?

Honestly that was my first thought when I saw the pic, but Chuck is probably right.

 

[Becky]

Chuck is probably right.

Agreed

Welcome to the forum @ss107!