Hello, my name is Ron from upstate NY and i collect native American indian stone tools.. I found these 2 stones last year on a old indian campsite and need help identifying them. Im sure these stones were brought to this site by the natives for some unknown use... Stones are very heavy for there size and have a brownish crust around them thats flaking off in many areas. A magnet is slightly attracted to the stones. Chondrules are present and under a magnifying glass are black and smooth almost gem shaped..30 years of picking up stones ive never seen anything like these and hoping for some help.. Thanks Ron
My best bet would be that the black xls are Melanite a varity of andradite garnet, most likely also some magnetite there. 
I agree with Sigurd. Perhaps a pre columbian mineral collector? Waterworn stone might have been used with slingshots? Did the erosion exposing the crystals happen before or after they got to the campsite? Where did you find them? Is there a garnet locality nearby? Thanks guys, i dont think they came from nearby were i found them. Nothing in our area like this that i ever seen.. Im from the catskill park "catskill mountains,ny" . All bedrock in the region consists of reddish to greenish colored sandstone, shale and conglomerate. Our streams and rivers are full of round smooth cobble stone nothing like these and the American natives never used a slingshot.. Im thinking the corrosion happen some time over the last several hundred years or so after the natives used the stone for what i think as a sanding tool.. Notice the flat spots on the bottom of both stones.. I found a nice drilled atlatl weight and a nice spear point along with them.. Thinking mabey they used these to smooth and polish the atlatl weight... Is there any chance of them being meteorite? Some pics of atlatl and spear point..
Ok i washed one and cleaned it with a soft toothbrush and the brown crust seemed to be dirt and most of it came off. Since i have 2 i cut one in half <:(>..No clear crystals just black. The smaller stone weighs 139.5 grams larger one is 157 grams..
Copyright © Stephen E. Fritz
But when cut the interior is red and then I saw this in the gallery:
regards,
stephanie :-)Very Nice Find !!
Trade is a possibility as materials that could be used for pigments or other utilitarian use were often transported out of the NJ area. Not sure if Dr. Phil Laporta views the mindat site but he is certainly interested in the use/transport/trade of any of the local NJ materials out of the state. Dr. Phil Betancourt is an archeologist and mineral collector who might also have an interest in this find also.
Steve. The Marmoraton Iron Mine, near Marmora, Ontario is a source of similar-looking melanite garnets. The associated magnetism and red oxide colour would also support this as a possible source locality. A possible natural explanation for the rounded nature of this material might be that they were glacially transported. During the ice age, it may be possible that material from the Canadian Shield was transported southwards into your district. Further checking would be required to confirm the relative ice-flow directions and extent to see if this even a possibility. However, there may be other sources up-ice of your location. Some detective work may lead to the bedrock source, if they are confirmed not to be native artifacts. I think u guys are on to something, :)-D the Lenape indians are most likely the makers of most stone tools found in and around our area and they largely inhabited the NJ area up into my area of hudson valley ,NY . After doing some searching on the Ontario mine though it seems some examples closely resemble mine.. I posted the link to this subject on another forum that some guys are trying to help me out.. I truly appreciate all your expertise. In my humble opinion this looks more like Franklin material than Marmora which are garnets rather than spinel group, although they are both in the same crystal system. Marmora material often has epidote associated as well. There is not a good representation of franklinite/zincite mixed pieces in the gallery for some reason. Usually there is more calcite with them than the ones above. The glacial theory does makes sense, but these were found with other native artifacts, and with lack of epidote, so I am going to side with the trading theory with Franklin area as the source material, rather than glacial transport from Marmora. Just my 2 cents.
regards,
stephanie :-) 
Doesn't look like anything from Marmora that I have ever seen, nor Ontario for that matter. Copyright © 2009 Hershel Friedman, all rights reserved.
hope this helps.
surely some Franklin experts will chime in eventually...
regards,
stephanie :-)
I thought that rock looked familiar. I have no doubt that these are, as others have stated, zincite and franklinite from the Franklin Mining District in NJ. Thanks guys, i went and polished it up a bit because under a magnifying glass i thought i seen what i think is copper.. after polishing it up a bit it sure looks like copper to me.. Would this change anything could it still be from the Jersey mines if it is copper?
16th Jul 2014 01:45 UTCA. M.
Yes, check for any short wave or long wave fl. Nice spear point by the way! Have you pinpointed the type. Resembles a Virginia Dalton Type. Nice finds. I would venture to say the piece may be Franklinite and Zincite, since it was exposed on the surface in the Buckwheat Pit area, and may have found it's way into the trading loop. Photos n1 and n2 look like pyrite, unless the color is off. Since we are on the subject i thought i would ask about this other stone i found in Walden, NY while metal detecting near a stream. Im sure this is flint but not 100% . If i flick the black spot with my fingernail it pings like glass.. If it is flint im sure its a trade item or brought here by the europeans....Any ideas?
flint/chert - basically the same thing. Could be "native" to the area, if it is underlain by sedimentary rocks. Certainly not brought in by Europeans. Sure looks like flint. Don't rule out a European origin, due to those balast practices. There was a recent thread about flint in that general direction that you might find interesting, see link below.
regards,
stephanie :-)
http://www.mindat.org/forum.php?read,11,327637,page=1 danged europeans......and their blasted...I mean balast. But seriously...balast droppings would likely be near a shipping port...did ships come to this area? Thanks for the link its sure looks exactly the same even shaped like a foot... Nearest beach would be about 60 miles but the hudson river is about 12 miles.. There are some old dumps along this stream probably from back in the 30's so maybe someone just tossed it out... Im going to save it and when i master my flintknapping im going to make a nice spear point from it...I also heard that the reason they used this flint for ballast instead of just plain old rocks was so it could be used for certain things in the new world like flint locks for muskets, etc .. I know of 4 or 5 old mine holes in the shawangunk mountains in NY , a few of these mines are only a mile or 2 away from the place i found the stones. .. They say few of these mines were rediscovered in the early 1800's by hunters..and some say they were excavated by dutch settlers others say the spanish.... The picture below is one i recently discovered and after a lot of research i cant seem to find any mention of this mine.. There is a lot of mentioning of the Ellenville,NY spanish mine and also the ones in Wurtsboro,NY but not this one.. I included a link about the mining practices for the one in wurtsboro and was wondering if its possible these stones may have come from one of these mines.. Thanks guys..
http://pubs.usgs.gov/bul/0978d/report.pdf
Buckwheat pit, Franklin Mine, Franklin, Sussex County, New Jersey, USA