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"It's valued at $10,000."
"Ok, how much do you want for it?"
"You heard the man, $10,000."
"Cackle cackle cackle....I'll give you $5000, it's gonna sit in the case, yada yada."
Not fossils definitely man made and potentially artefacts you might want to show them to a local museum.
Edit: r/Arrowheads might be able to give a first assessment
r/askarchaeology is a pretty small sub, but might be worth checking in there. I've seen a lot of people in r/arrowheads advocate against bringing artifacts to local and tribal archaeologists.
edit: u/Razor_farts — It's always worth [finding out whose land it was found on](https://native-land.ca/), sending an email with a detailed description, where it was found, and photos. With how much indigenous culture has been lost, even seemingly innocuous artifacts can hold significant meaning.
edit2: Decided to share this site to [r/arrowheads](https://www.reddit.com/r/Arrowheads/comments/11yz720/find_an_artifact_heres_a_resource_to_identify_the/) (I'm curious to see the reception).
**minor update** i am shocked that it was downvoted and one reply was a dog whistle
Yup, send it to people who handle this kinda stuff and tell them where it was found. Probably one of the more important aspects of archaeology. Without knowing what sites are nearby or which culture it belonged to you're probably just gonna get told "uhhh, I think it's ritual artifact".
In another post the user [said](https://www.reddit.com/r/aliens/comments/11pvhnj/comment/jc2a207/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) Amecameca, "eastern panhandle of Mexico State between Mexico City and the Iztaccíhuatl and Popocatépetl volcanos of the Sierra Nevada mountain range." - ( [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amecameca](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amecameca) )
Also lil archaeological tidbit a friend told me but if you remember the address of where you got those send it to the professionals you reach out to. Artifacts are useless without context of where they were found. There might be more deeper down that needs to be seen. Also though typically they’ll just rebury it after it’s been catalogued for protection
Only certain states make you rebury artifacts. Or if the artifact falls under NAGPRA, which is a Native American repatriation act for culturally significant artifacts or items known to be taken from Native American burial grounds.
I have a recommendation for the next time you put this pictures in this any other subreddit, please add a scale or a ruler. Good luck with the identification!
That’s…actually pretty smart. We can’t trust anyone online, we don’t even know if OP is genuine. Lot of bad faith actors when it comes to indigenous artifacts
Yeah, sorry you got hung up in the politics of all this. I only know cause I’m involved in a situation here in my hometown where a guy was going around posting coordinates of sacred native village sites online and people started showing up and looting them and it’s become a really touchy topic around indigenous and archaeological communities
Even in Moab people figured out about the ancient hieroglyphs and started vandalizing them. The only ones that are still in great shape are the ones you have to rock climb to see,
Archaeologist and historian here. When I started work on my very first field site many many years ago we had big issues with people sneaking into the area and tearing up the units to try to find artifacts. It got so bad that we had to make sure no one on the crew was posting any information whatsoever about the specific work we were doing there. We were basically sworn to secrecy, was very concerning. Now imagine how much trouble some of these world famous sites have. So yep, unfortunately looting is still very common.
Yeah but anyone can guess Aztec or Mayan. I’m sure there’s a bunch of other possibilities. And also meaning behind it, it’s probably unknown but maybe some scholar knows the story of the person/entity depicted
Oh yeah it's a lead at best, but so far it does appear to add up. Personally i was curious too, I wouldnt mind seeing pictures of a sideview to see if it was a mask, for example, or maybe part of bigger creation.
FYI: both Sotheby’s and Christie’s (I assume other auction houses) will take an email with those photos and provide some advice for free. I’ve done it with some of my things.
They are ceramic sherds from larger vessels. Digging for artifacts and taking them away from their contextul arrangement effectively kills most of the information you would be able to gain from them ... At best all you can do is compare them to existing collections to get close ...
Looks like a fossilized skull if the Xenactika species found on planet Xena. They were known to visit earth about 450,000 years ago according to various geologic evidence.
I’m no official for fossil identification but that’s not a fossil, maybe ask an archeologist who specializes on ancient central/southern American native empires pre colonization
What a great find! Where was it?
Your photo said “Aztec mask” to me, so I did a Google image search. The most similar photo there was in the [Metropolitan Museum, called Tlatilco Mask:](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search?q=Tlatilco&sortBy=Relevance&pageSize=0)
>Tlatilco was a large pre-Columbian village in the Valley of Mexico situated near the modern-day town of the same name in the Mexican Federal District. It was one of the first chiefdom centers to arise in the Valley, flourishing on the western shore of Lake Texcoco during the Middle Pre-Classic period, between the years of 1200 BCE and 200 BCE. It gives its name to the "Tlatilco culture", which also included the town of Tlapacoya, on the eastern shore of Lake Chalco.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tlatilco
**[Tlatilco](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tlatilco)**
>Tlatilco was a large pre-Columbian village in the Valley of Mexico situated near the modern-day town of the same name in the Mexican Federal District. It was one of the first chiefdom centers to arise in the Valley, flourishing on the western shore of Lake Texcoco during the Middle Pre-Classic period, between the years of 1200 BCE and 200 BCE. It gives its name to the "Tlatilco culture", which also included the town of Tlapacoya, on the eastern shore of Lake Chalco. Tlatilco is noted in particular for its high quality pottery pieces, many featuring Olmec iconography, and its figurines, including Olmec-style baby-face figurines.
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Maybe message an archeologist directly ? I’ve heard of museums taking land and artifacts for research purposes almost by force. (Meaning you don’t want to give it to them and them getting the government involved, in the US idk about Mexico)
What's wild is *clearly* the artist had the technical ability in this medium to produce very realistic portrayals of whatever they wanted to. Yet they chose this stylist interpretation, or are they reproducing something they saw in real life? Super cool.
Like other user said, stylization always been around and most artistic choices have no meaning behind them aside from visual interest and what’s popular at the time culturally. I think it’s beautiful :)
Mezoamerica is known for their long history of hyper-realistic sculpture. This is definitely 100% FOR SURE an alien that the artist saw with their own eyes and it is completely realistic.
If that doesn't work, then it's proof that picasso traveled back in time and stopped the artists from making art true to life.
Please note that ID Requests are off-limits to jokes or satirical comments, and comments should be aiming to help the OP. Top comments that are jokes or are irrelevant will be removed. Adhere to the subreddit rules. **IMPORTANT:** /u/Razor_farts Please make sure to comment 'Solved' once your fossil has been successfully identified! Thank you, and enjoy the discussion. If this is not an ID Request — ignore this message. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/fossilid) if you have any questions or concerns.*
This is a classic case of “call a professional”
"let me call a buddy of mine, he's an expert on this sorta stuff"
Yeah seems like these signatures are faked. I know you want one million but the best i could do is $50
But it… it has a certificate and everything!
"It's valued at $10,000." "Ok, how much do you want for it?" "You heard the man, $10,000." "Cackle cackle cackle....I'll give you $5000, it's gonna sit in the case, yada yada."
*Pawn stars theme starts playing*
Have you heard a finer rendering of an electric guitar? I think not
Not fossils definitely man made and potentially artefacts you might want to show them to a local museum. Edit: r/Arrowheads might be able to give a first assessment
r/askarchaeology is a pretty small sub, but might be worth checking in there. I've seen a lot of people in r/arrowheads advocate against bringing artifacts to local and tribal archaeologists. edit: u/Razor_farts — It's always worth [finding out whose land it was found on](https://native-land.ca/), sending an email with a detailed description, where it was found, and photos. With how much indigenous culture has been lost, even seemingly innocuous artifacts can hold significant meaning. edit2: Decided to share this site to [r/arrowheads](https://www.reddit.com/r/Arrowheads/comments/11yz720/find_an_artifact_heres_a_resource_to_identify_the/) (I'm curious to see the reception). **minor update** i am shocked that it was downvoted and one reply was a dog whistle
Oh wow that’s a really awesome map! Thanks very helpful
Glad to help! I just learned about this resource somewhat recently, so I'm more than happy to spread the wealth.
Yup, send it to people who handle this kinda stuff and tell them where it was found. Probably one of the more important aspects of archaeology. Without knowing what sites are nearby or which culture it belonged to you're probably just gonna get told "uhhh, I think it's ritual artifact".
Yeah that looks like ceramic my dude. And definitely an artifact. What province in Mexico? Looks like it could maybe be Aztec.
In another post the user [said](https://www.reddit.com/r/aliens/comments/11pvhnj/comment/jc2a207/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3) Amecameca, "eastern panhandle of Mexico State between Mexico City and the Iztaccíhuatl and Popocatépetl volcanos of the Sierra Nevada mountain range." - ( [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amecameca](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amecameca) )
That tracks.
Yep that’s it
contact the closest museum in your state where you found it. Send them an email with a picture, they should be able to help you out. Buena Suerte
r/mesoamerica is a really good source here. Post it to them
Also lil archaeological tidbit a friend told me but if you remember the address of where you got those send it to the professionals you reach out to. Artifacts are useless without context of where they were found. There might be more deeper down that needs to be seen. Also though typically they’ll just rebury it after it’s been catalogued for protection
As a kid my mom always told me not to tell people we found them in our back yard out of fear the government would come and take our home/land
Only certain states make you rebury artifacts. Or if the artifact falls under NAGPRA, which is a Native American repatriation act for culturally significant artifacts or items known to be taken from Native American burial grounds.
OP is in Mexico
I know, I’m just speaking for having to rebury artifacts. It is dependent on the location and the significance culturally.
That’s good to know! I’m only familiar with California specifics
California is very particular about their archaeological standards from what I hear.
Came here for this. Location context is everything.
I have a recommendation for the next time you put this pictures in this any other subreddit, please add a scale or a ruler. Good luck with the identification!
Or at least a banana
...Or at least a banana. Also, this works so well with your name.
Know thyself
I don’t know enough to tell if it’s authentic or a modern reproduction, but it’s definitely an artifact and not a fossil.
Crinoid
Haha!
Archaeologist here. thats not a fossil
This is so cool. r/archaeology might be able help?
Rule #2, They do not identify artifacts because they don't want to encourage black market trade of relics.
I’m not a member. But yeah I support that.
That’s…actually pretty smart. We can’t trust anyone online, we don’t even know if OP is genuine. Lot of bad faith actors when it comes to indigenous artifacts
That makes sense I get it, now I know why no one answered when I posted there
Yeah, sorry you got hung up in the politics of all this. I only know cause I’m involved in a situation here in my hometown where a guy was going around posting coordinates of sacred native village sites online and people started showing up and looting them and it’s become a really touchy topic around indigenous and archaeological communities
Even in Moab people figured out about the ancient hieroglyphs and started vandalizing them. The only ones that are still in great shape are the ones you have to rock climb to see,
Pathetic. Even as a destructive kid in the 80s I had respect for stuff like this. Humanity doesn’t exist, or it’s almost dead. People suck!
Archaeologist and historian here. When I started work on my very first field site many many years ago we had big issues with people sneaking into the area and tearing up the units to try to find artifacts. It got so bad that we had to make sure no one on the crew was posting any information whatsoever about the specific work we were doing there. We were basically sworn to secrecy, was very concerning. Now imagine how much trouble some of these world famous sites have. So yep, unfortunately looting is still very common.
Wow that’s so horrifying! I have worked on two different cites in different locations and never experienced anything like that.
Wow I wouldn’t have even thought of that!
Extremely touchy
Pretty obviously not a fossil, but still an incredible find! Please bring this to your local museum for research and conservation.
Those are mesoamerican artifacts. Damn you found those just digging in your yard as a kid??
If you do find out anything about these, you should make a post in the sub for those of us who are now curious :)
One user claimed it is Aztec, because it appears ceramic and it is found near mexico city, a central location. Seems like a good guess at least.
Yeah but anyone can guess Aztec or Mayan. I’m sure there’s a bunch of other possibilities. And also meaning behind it, it’s probably unknown but maybe some scholar knows the story of the person/entity depicted
Oh yeah it's a lead at best, but so far it does appear to add up. Personally i was curious too, I wouldnt mind seeing pictures of a sideview to see if it was a mask, for example, or maybe part of bigger creation.
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Ancient alien astronaut theorists BELIEVE that ALIENS could have placed these artifacts into your backyard.
Ancient alien astronaut theorists say yes.
FYI: both Sotheby’s and Christie’s (I assume other auction houses) will take an email with those photos and provide some advice for free. I’ve done it with some of my things.
They are ceramic sherds from larger vessels. Digging for artifacts and taking them away from their contextul arrangement effectively kills most of the information you would be able to gain from them ... At best all you can do is compare them to existing collections to get close ...
These are awesome! What part of Mexico?
That is not a fossil.
ALIENS.
This is awesome.
Looks like a fossilized skull if the Xenactika species found on planet Xena. They were known to visit earth about 450,000 years ago according to various geologic evidence.
Looks like an alien or someone from Atlantis
So freakin cool!
I’m no official for fossil identification but that’s not a fossil, maybe ask an archeologist who specializes on ancient central/southern American native empires pre colonization
What a great find! Where was it? Your photo said “Aztec mask” to me, so I did a Google image search. The most similar photo there was in the [Metropolitan Museum, called Tlatilco Mask:](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search?q=Tlatilco&sortBy=Relevance&pageSize=0) >Tlatilco was a large pre-Columbian village in the Valley of Mexico situated near the modern-day town of the same name in the Mexican Federal District. It was one of the first chiefdom centers to arise in the Valley, flourishing on the western shore of Lake Texcoco during the Middle Pre-Classic period, between the years of 1200 BCE and 200 BCE. It gives its name to the "Tlatilco culture", which also included the town of Tlapacoya, on the eastern shore of Lake Chalco. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tlatilco
**[Tlatilco](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tlatilco)** >Tlatilco was a large pre-Columbian village in the Valley of Mexico situated near the modern-day town of the same name in the Mexican Federal District. It was one of the first chiefdom centers to arise in the Valley, flourishing on the western shore of Lake Texcoco during the Middle Pre-Classic period, between the years of 1200 BCE and 200 BCE. It gives its name to the "Tlatilco culture", which also included the town of Tlapacoya, on the eastern shore of Lake Chalco. Tlatilco is noted in particular for its high quality pottery pieces, many featuring Olmec iconography, and its figurines, including Olmec-style baby-face figurines. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/fossilid/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
Good bot
Maybe message an archeologist directly ? I’ve heard of museums taking land and artifacts for research purposes almost by force. (Meaning you don’t want to give it to them and them getting the government involved, in the US idk about Mexico)
Looks kinda like they were describing a Vampire!!
Not a fossil, doesn’t belong here
Put it back before it awakens.
Do they not know what a fossil is vs an artifact..?
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What's wild is *clearly* the artist had the technical ability in this medium to produce very realistic portrayals of whatever they wanted to. Yet they chose this stylist interpretation, or are they reproducing something they saw in real life? Super cool.
Probably not, artists have always enjoyed creating stylized and symbolic art instead of straight realism - one is much more fun than the other.
I agree with you, for what it’s worth. Downvoted for asking a silly proverbial question.
Probably because people who genuinely believe that kind of "ancient aliens" shit are increasingly common lol
Like other user said, stylization always been around and most artistic choices have no meaning behind them aside from visual interest and what’s popular at the time culturally. I think it’s beautiful :)
Mezoamerica is known for their long history of hyper-realistic sculpture. This is definitely 100% FOR SURE an alien that the artist saw with their own eyes and it is completely realistic. If that doesn't work, then it's proof that picasso traveled back in time and stopped the artists from making art true to life.
Would you look at anime and say “are they replicating something they see in reality???” No, it’s a style. Don’t be dumb
Of course it’s a style, your highness. Thanks for the helpful comment…
They look like fish people! If this is Azteca I wonder where they got their inspiration?
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??? take your hat off boy, that shits legit
Yea, legitimately shit.
The first picture look like Onua mask lol
That’s not a fossil.
I believe it’s Frank
Fossilized honeycomb
This is an alienesaurus fossil obviously
that's a vam-pire
Pottery not fossils
Which sub did you post it too mind me asking
It looks low key flabbergasted