As an avid rock collector, I just have to say,“I want!”
I’ll grab some as soon as I can - and if you want to pay the postage, I’ll send you one.
I am totally on board with this plan and will happily pay the postage.
And when people ask me, it is my intention to tell them each a different one of the explanations proffered. Oh, and I’ll probably throw in ‘meteor’, too. My friends will be amazed. I am especially fond of the hammer tool idea, but it needs embellishment, in my opinion. I’ll have to think about it.
Also, I don’t believe I’ll mention it to my spouse, I’ll just let it arrive in the post, that should be fun!
Thanks so much for doing this, I really appreciate it. You rock!
I would’ve wagered hammer, too
A WAR hammer.
Some Stone- or Bronze-age warrior could tie that stone to the end of a stick and crack some skulls, easily.
I made it to the beach this afternoon. The tide was fully in, restricting my search a bit, but I found about a dozen flint pebbles/rocks with holes in them - none quite as large as Racer1’s example, but that was mostly because the stones were generally smaller on this beach - if I’d visited one where there were flint cobbles, I’m sure I could have found something bigger.
However, they are the same kinds of rock and the same kinds of holes - here’s what I found:
Specimen 1 is probably the closest to the OP’s rock in terms of surface colour - the hole is about the size of a pencil, but does not fully perforate the rock.
Specimen 2 has a straight through hole about 9mm in diameter.
Specimen 3 is pierced by multiple smaller holes.
Specimen 4 - again, pierced by multiple holes, in a configuration superficially resembling a skull.
Specimen 5 has one pencil-thick hole straight through, intersected at right angles by a toothpick-sized hole (not visible in this picture) and small, blind hole.
Specimen 6 has multiple blind holes opening into a pitted concavity.
Specimen 7 has an olive-sized concavity with a toothpick-sized hole through the bottom, out to the other side.
Specimen 8 is roughly conical with a pencil-thick hole straight through axially.
Specimen 9 - flattish, with a pencil-sized blind hole.
Specimen 10 has several small holes, and a larger one that follows a curved path through the rock.
Specimen 11has the largest hole - almost big enough to jam my little finger into.
Specimen 12 is roughly spherical with a hole opening into a hollw centre, in which remains what appears to be part of a fossil sponge.
I was also lucky enough to find this fossil urchin.
That urchin fossil is SO cool! I found a beautiful little white arrowhead when I was a kid (on the Saskatchewan prairies), but I think my parents sent it to a museum so I don’t have it any longer.
I’m a rock collector too, elbows. I can spend hours on a pebbly beach, looking at all the rocks and picking up the interesting ones. I have rocks from all over North America (and finally got the big idea of actually labelling them).