Have you ever discovered a treasure or sought to solve a mystery? Well this wonderful little discovery is a mystery waiting to be solved.
I have a box of shells that I use for crafts, some are from the west coast, others I purchased at garage sales and yet others from bags of shells from the Dollar Tree. I was looking through the shells in search of what I needed for a craft project and I decided it was unlikely I’d use one particular odd shaped shell that was mixed in with the others.
I was just about to toss it to the side, when I noticed something peculiar! It almost appeared as if the shell had grown onto or around a small piece of what looks like petrified wood. I’m no expert by any means but this little thin smooth brown edge does makes the ting sound that petrified wood makes or it could just be a natural growth aspect of the odd shaped well-worn remains of a shell. I was interested in how the shell seemed to have grown around it and then I realized there were marking on it. I went and got my glasses to be sure I was actually seeing what I thought I was seeing. You can imagine my surprise! There it was, a tiny little message. Who carved this or wrote this and when?
I love a good mystery and this is certainly that! I will have to have someone take a look at it, but who? I looked up ancient scripts and found similarities with alphabets or symbols from Samaritan, Norse, Early Greek, Anaichi, Elder Futhark Runes,Viking Rune and I also found similarities with Ancient Baltic like the symbol for sky.
So many unanswered questions! Is it a piece of petrified wood grown in to the shell or part of the shell itself? Who added the markings and when? What do these symbols really mean and where did this shell originate from?
When I look at this shell, I can’t help but wonder if it’s an ancient secret message or perhaps its a tally of gold! How wonderful it is to imagine it’s past or purpose. I could spend hours considering the endless possibilities and for that joy alone, it is a priceless treasure to me!
Starrcreative.ca 
I found some ancient shells in Florida, and have a shell (two actually) with the same thing… It looks like some sort of turkey wing shell. I haven’t looked into it yet, but it’s the same!
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Big thanks!
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You’re welcome. Next time I am out at one of the museums I will be on the hunt for some of those shells. I think they are so pretty because we really don’t see a lot of shell art here in Arizona.
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Yes – nothing funner than a great find and a mystery to solve!!
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It really is. Thanks for checking it out!
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Yes, they are. I bought them here in Stockholm, two or three times. They are very good, even do a bit too sweet.
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What a fascinating find! 🙂
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Wow… I think this is amazing, and yes, it could have picked up a piece of petrified wood—I would have it checked out. What a fun mystery!
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So fascinating, I love finding treasures like that, they are everywhere, if you look!
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That sounds fascinating. If you could get a picture that would be wonderful. Thanks so much.
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They look delicious!
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They remind me on the Belgian Pralines, one of my favourite chocolate, that are made in a form of sea shells. Btw, if you´re interesting about that, you can read it here (https://www.guylian.com/history/). Thanks for sharing! 🙂
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Whoops, forgot to explain shells here in the desert. They think we got ours from natives traveling to areas in Mexico close to the sea and that is why they found beautiful carved shells in the middle of a dry desert.
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This shell reminds me of some of the shells I see here in Arizona. They have carvings in them as well and turquoise along with other stones from around this area. The natives used to trade back and forth with other tribes. In Arizona we don’t really have places for shells (except tiny ones by the water canels the natives built a long time ago) anyway, this shell looks similar to that but I can’t remember if they used wood or craved into the shell. Next time I get a chance to visit one of our museums I will try to get a photo for you. Might be hard though because they keep everything protected behind glass. What a great find. Make sure you put that one away somewhere safe.
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Will do!
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Wow! That is so cool! Keep us posted when the mystery is solved.
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