I have found gizzard stone on sites, including a notable cluster from what
I believe to have been a charm bag from a feature associated with a
slave-occupied building in Raleigh, NC. A half or a quarter of an inch is
large for the gizzard stones I have seen, with an eighth of an inch being
closer to a more normative size. 

Pat Garrow


> [Original Message]
> From: Dan Allen <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 4/28/2006 5:26:17 PM
> Subject: Re: Gaming disks vs. chicken stones
>
> Sorry so late, been deep in the field:) Chickens require "grit" in their 
> crop/gizzard in order to sorta pre-digest their food. Sounds awfully
large 
> for a gizzard stone to me but then again, I'm no chicken farmer, simply
an 
> archaeologist.  I have seen ceramic sherds from a Mid-Tn site that
underwent 
> "adaptive reuse" (a term borrowed from you architectural historians out 
> there:) by chickens as stones on historic sites but all I've seen were
much 
> smaller than .5 inch and usually less than .25.  Sorry, no readily
available 
> jpegs.  Perhaps chickens are much bigger where your site is?
>
> Dan Allen
> Cumberland Research Group, Inc.
> and GRA; the Center for Historic Preservation @
> Middle Tennessee State University.
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Mark Branstner" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 26, 2006 4:10 PM
> Subject: Gaming disks vs. chicken stones
>
>
> > Ok, we're past April Fool's Day, so you can assume that this is a
serious 
> > question ...
> >
> > In the past 30 years, I have seen a number of small disks that have
been 
> > created from decorated historic ceramics, either chipped and/or ground 
> > round, with color pattern on one side and white or undecorated on the 
> > other.  My graduate school mentors described these as "gaming disks", 
> > created for games where an odds or evens scoring system was assumed. 
> > Usually these are about 0.5 inch or slightly more in diameter.  I have 
> > seen them in both historic period Native American and Euroamerican
sites. 
> > As such, I have always assumed the categorization logical and valid.
> >
> > I recently found one of these in what appeared to be a mid-nineteenth 
> > century agricultural assemblage (actually, a blue flow specimen on a
very 
> > hard white paste).  Mentioned the gaming piece conclusion tomy client,
and 
> > he scoffed, dismissing it as a gizzard stone from chickens.  Which 
> > reminded me that I have heard similar attributions in the past.
> >
> > Anyone care to hazard an opinion about gizzard stones ... Do they
really 
> > exist?  How big a stone would a chicken ingest?  Or anything else
germaine 
> > to gaming stones and such.  I will be glad to e-mail a photo of my
example 
> > to anyone interested.
> >
> > Thanks.
> > -- 
> >
> >
> > Mark C. Branstner
> >
> > Illinois Transportation
> > Archaeological Research Program
> > 209 Nuclear Physics Lab, MC-571
> > 23 East Stadium Drive
> > Champaign, IL 61820
> >
> > Phone: 217.244.0892
> > Fax: 217.244.7458
> > Cell: 517.927.4556
> > [log in to unmask]
> >
> > "There is also an artificial aristocracy founded on wealth and birth,
> > without either virtue or talents ... The artificial aristocracy is a
> > mischievous ingredient in government, and provisions should be made to
> > prevent its ascendancy."
> >
> > - Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
> >