Please Help Identify. Can Not Find Anything Like It?

[Heb]

8 hours ago, jasong said:

I showed the photos to a couple researchers at a regional geology/paleontology museum. They came to the same conclusions as me basically: fossil-like, but not quite a fossil, concretion-like, but not quite a concretion, anthropogenic but not quite anthropogentic. Also agreed it was some clastic chert type rock. But the conclusion was "no idea". 

If it wasn't for the weathering rind and difference in rind between top (presumably exposed to sun/water at different times front/back) and the bottom, I'd be leaning more towards modern human carved. But the weathering indicates some serious age and sitting out in the elements (even appears to have some semi dendritic growths on the broken part), and the lines are so smooth and organic/natural that it's hard to see that being a carving by any ancient humans, no tool marks, and chert is very hard so it'd be difficult to work smoothly without conchoidal fracturing while carving with any ancient tools not from the modern era. I suppose it could be some CNC milled modern hoax type thing, but chert isn't easy to artificially weather quickly, and the weathering on it appears legit.

It's one of those things that you kinda need to examine in hand, with a loupe/microscope, to look for more hints, I think. Firstly, eliminating anything made by human tooling/paints/etc. Do you know the finder personally and are sure it was found in the middle of the desert for sure?

That area has been peopled for almost longer than anywhere else on the planet, it's a small area, so it's hard to imagine there are concretions like this laying around unnoticed for millennia. 

Whatever it is, I'm not often completely stumped, and if I could give a little emoji reward for the most intriguing "what is this rock" posted here so far, this would get it. ?

 

 

The mystery needs to be solved! Thank you for checking with some other experts im intrigued more than ever. It’s literally been used as a door stop so I’m glad I’ve finally started to try and work out this little puzzle. My dad actually found it himself whilst out on a safari trip. I’m trying to get it looked at the British Museum but it’s a bit techy, they want papers as documentary evidence. I guess there are ethical issues and implications if it was a valuable Ancient Egyptian find. So my next bet would be some kind of geology lab? Someone from a fossil forum also suggested the national history museum as they believe it could be a particularly impressive example of banded flint and they would be interested however he said he wasn’t sure and wanted to promise to let me know the outcome of the mystery once solved haha

[jasong]

If they ID it and it turns out to be something fairly normal, I still want to buy it. I need that thing in my life. ?

Gun to my head, if I had to take one guess, I'd say it's just a very unique and strange chert nodule. 

Potentially the outside patterning is some sort of cast of...something. I've found chert nodules that are cast into all sorts of odd shapes, including limb casts. I'm officially out of ideas though, and a chert nodule perhaps exhibiting some sort of surficial cast feature is my final answer.  Looking forward to a definitive answer if you get one. 

[jasong]

Ok! Mystery solved after half a year - these are called "Westerstetten" patterns and often - as guessed here - occur as chert concretions or nodules. Or, as this book says - are chert nodules with secondary growth.

Still, there is no clear concensus on formation mechanism it seems.

"

Here is another from Tennessee. Another geologist mentioned these patterns in reference to this rock, and I think he is spot on, and it's also how to classify the mystery rock OP posted to this forum.

Another example (diagram source): https://www.thefossilforum.com/topic/87174-unidentified-object-from-east-tennessee/

Wiki: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westerstetten-Muster

[Jim in Idaho]

Great work, Jason!

Jim

[jasong]

1 hour ago, Jim in Idaho said:

Great work, Jason!

Jim

Thanks, it was actually the geologist on another forum that posted about those patterns though, so he solved it by proxy. ? I just ran into it on the net and recognized it. 

Not often I learn something completely new, but this was one I really had no idea about. Even knowing the term now, I still can't find reference to it in any hardcopy books I own. That's why I enjoy these rock ID's sometimes, if it's something I don't recognize immediately, I usually learn something new that I wouldn't have learned otherwise. 

[Jim in Idaho]

Yup, we should never stop learning. Take books, and the 'net away from me, you might as well throw dirt on me...LOL. You did good recognizing that, in any case.

Jim

[Heb]

I think you have in fact solved the case! Thank you. Has been an interesting journey. I’m still going to tell people it’s an ancient alien mummy but we’ll know the truth ? seriously though, great job 

[Christina]

I know nothing about rocks but this looks like a relic to me. The patterns aren't random or predictive as most rock patterns are. This looks like the ridges are formed and planned, like art. My 2 cents.