{"it":{"id":"W16A02","kind":"artifact","sub":"Disputed","name":"Lake Winnipesaukee mystery stone","place":"Ica","mat":"quartzite (recent analysis)","dims":"about 100 mm long, 64 mm thick","loc":"Museum of New Hampshire History (NH Historical Society)","acc":"not in opened source","find":"Reportedly found 1872 in Meredith NH by workers digging a fence-post hole (Seneca…","flag":"uncertain (likely 19th c)","src":[176,491],"lat":-14.065,"lon":-75.729,"tags":["Disputed"],"sum":"A dark stone egg carved with a face, corn, arrows and a spiral was reported in 1872 near Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire. It matches no known culture.","why":"A carved stone egg dug up in New Hampshire in 1872, made of rock foreign to the state and matching no known culture.","nfacts":3,"nsrc":2,"yt":"Measure the drill bore.","rel":["W11A31"],"hook":"A carved stone egg dug up in New Hampshire in 1872 matches no known culture."},"S":{"176":["Wikipedia Lake Winnipesaukee mystery stone","https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lake_Winnipesaukee_mystery_stone&oldid=1379967878"],"491":["Wikipedia: Lake Winnipesaukee mystery stone","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Winnipesaukee_mystery_stone"]},"rec":{"id":"W16A02","alias":[],"ms":[{"a":"length","v":"100","u":"mm","unc":"about","by":"","yr":"","m":"","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W16M003","s":["W16S17"],"c":"Wikipedia Lake Winnipesaukee mystery stone","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lake_Winnipesaukee_mystery_stone&oldid=1379967878"},{"a":"thickness","v":"64","u":"mm","unc":"about","by":"","yr":"","m":"","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W16M004","s":["W16S17"],"c":"Wikipedia Lake Winnipesaukee mystery stone","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lake_Winnipesaukee_mystery_stone&oldid=1379967878"},{"a":"find_year","v":"1872","u":"year","unc":"reportedly","by":"","yr":"1872","m":"","b":"S","t":"MEASUREMENT","id":"W16M005","s":["W16S17"],"c":"Wikipedia Lake Winnipesaukee mystery stone","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lake_Winnipesaukee_mystery_stone&oldid=1379967878"}],"lab":[{"k":"Materials","v":"quartzite (recent analysis; earlier said magnetite-type)","b":"S","s":["W16S17"],"url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lake_Winnipesaukee_mystery_stone&oldid=1379967878"},{"k":"Lab test","mat":"borescope of drill holes","v":"holes look power-drilled (19th-20th c)","m":"borescope","by":"R. Boisvert (NH state archaeologist) 1994","b":"S","s":["W16S17"],"url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lake_Winnipesaukee_mystery_stone&oldid=1379967878"}],"eng":[],"ori":[],"gaps":[],"dat":[],"aa":[{"id":"AA240","a":"Carved egg of unknown/ancient origin","who":"popular mystery lore","main":"1994 borescope: holes look power-drilled, 19th-20th c (Richard Boisvert)","ms":"W16S17","st":"supported-explained","n":"Hole diameters not confirmed in saved text this pass.","nl":"1"}],"ac":[],"me":[],"ci":[],"cq":[],"sd":[],"art":{"claimed_anomaly":"Carved egg of unknown/ancient origin","mainstream_reading":"1994 borescope: holes look power-drilled, 19th-20th c (Richard Boisvert)","provenance_flag":"uncertain (likely 19th c)","current_location":"Museum of New Hampshire History (NH Historical Society)","find_circumstances":"Reportedly found 1872 in Meredith NH by workers digging a fence-post hole (Seneca Ladd); donated 1927 by Frances Ladd Coe","claimant":"popular mystery lore","status":"supported-explained","dimensions":"about 100 mm long, 64 mm thick","material":"quartzite (recent analysis)","date":"","culture":"","museum_accession":"not in opened source","b":"S","s":["W16S17"]},"sub":[],"src":[{"id":"W16S17","t":"Wikipedia Lake Winnipesaukee mystery stone","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lake_Winnipesaukee_mystery_stone&oldid=1379967878"},{"id":null,"t":"Wikipedia: Lake Winnipesaukee mystery stone","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Winnipesaukee_mystery_stone"},{"id":"VW16A02-3","t":"New Hampshire Historical Society: The Mystery of the Mystery Stone","u":"https://www.nhhistory.org/Research/Online-Exhibitions/The-Mystery-of-the-Mystery-Stone"}],"sum":"In early June 1872, workmen digging a post hole in Meredith Village, New Hampshire, where Lake Waukewan drains toward Lake Winnipesaukee, turned up a dark carved stone shaped like an egg. It went to Seneca A. Ladd, and the New Hampshire Historical Society now holds it.\n\nThe society describes the stone as just under four inches tall and about two and a half inches across. It bears nine carvings, among them a face, a teepee, an ear of corn and geometric designs. A hole runs through it from end to end, bored from both ends with bits of different sizes.\n\nWhat is hard to explain is the stone itself. A geological study in the 1990s found it is quartzite or mylonite, rock not native to New Hampshire. A State survey looked at the stone again in 1994, without settling where it came from. The find was reported in the New Hampshire Patriot of July 17, 1872, and in The American Naturalist that November.\n\nThe society sets out the main theories. Some take it for a Native American artifact; a 1931 letter called it a thunderstone; others suggested a lodestone. Some suspect a hoax by Ladd himself. After Ladd died in 1892, his daughter Frances Ladd Coe gave the stone to the society in 1927. Its maker is still unknown.\n\nIf it is a hoax, who carved it, and why bury it where workmen would dig?","qs":["The stone's hole was drilled from both ends with different bits. What can tool marks tell us about who made it?","The rock is not native to New Hampshire. How might it have got there?","The finder's own family is a suspect. What would a hoaxer have gained?"],"gal":[{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/Lake_Winnipesaukee_mystery_stone_at_the_New_Hampshire_Historical_Society%2C_Concord_NH.jpg/1280px-Lake_Winnipesaukee_mystery_stone_at_the_New_Hampshire_Historical_Society%2C_Concord_NH.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lake_Winnipesaukee_mystery_stone_at_the_New_Hampshire_Historical_Society,_Concord_NH.jpg","title":"Lake Winnipesaukee mystery stone at the New Hampshire Historical Society, Concord NH.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 3.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0","by":"John Phelan","cap":"Lake Winnipesaukee mystery stone at the New Hampshire Historical Society, Concord New Hampshire"}]},"img":null,"md":null,"hh":[{"v":"about 100 mm long","h":"Recorded dimensions: about 100 mm long, 64 mm thick","s":[254]},{"v":"Quartzite","h":"Made of: Quartzite (recent analysis)","s":[254]}],"hs":{"254":["Wikipedia Lake Winnipesaukee mystery stone","https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Lake_Winnipesaukee_mystery_stone&oldid=1379967878"]},"lh":{"s":"img/h/W16A02.webp","w":1280,"h":960,"o":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/76/Lake_Winnipesaukee_mystery_stone_at_the_New_Hampshire_Historical_Society%2C_Concord_NH.jpg/1280px-Lake_Winnipesaukee_mystery_stone_at_the_New_Hampshire_Historical_Society%2C_Concord_NH.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail"}}