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What is it? The curators at the Michigan Historical Museum are stumped by this mysterious artifact in their collection.
Jeremy Dimick describes this unknown item that was donated early in the museum's history, before record keeping is what it today (circa 1913). The artifact came from a mining ghosttown in Michigan's Upper Penninsula that is now Fayette Historical Townsite (www.michigan.gov/fayettetownsite). The artifact is now part of a small collection of unknown items in storage at the Michigan Historical Museum in Lansing.
The item is intricately made of wood, with a handle on one end. Small circles of wood are attached by nails to the top and formerly to the bottom. The item is about 6 inches tall and about as wide as it is tall. It is perhaps a foot in length and has a slight point on the end opposite of the handle.
Leave a comment below if you have any idea what this item could be.
Recorded on February 18, 2012 using a Flip Video camera.
Customer
It’s Folk Art, probably part of a larger piece.The type of nails and saw marks will date it
Customer
It’s twig art. Some eccentric person made some twig art.
Customer
It looks like a dreidel… At least that was my first impression.
Customer
In my opinion, have reproduced in miniature form the ship Noah’s Ark, the circles are the various species of animals..
Customer
It’s a thing to hold your collection of round wooden things. That’s what I’m thinking.
Customer
a wooden doodle
Customer
Oh good grief…. everyone is an expert, and yet no one knows what their talking about!!!!
Customer
they are
Customer
I hear ya. Sometimes I think that some dude 10,000 years ago was hacking on rock with another rock, kinda like whittling a stick, making nothing other than he’s bored and then some “educated” person finds it 10,000 years later and spends the rest of his life trying to figure out what it is.
Customer
I see what you mean, I’m satisfied just to say I don’t know what this thing is.
Customer
Clarification: According to the staff member, and from what I saw, there is no way to open the item up. There are no openings.
Customer
musical instrument, percussion, a wooden type of xylophone
Customer
I am going to guess that it is a musical percussion instrument. Hold it by the handle and you can spin it around to get different sounds while hitting it with some kind of stick.
Customer
@pocketspy I guessed correctly? Awesome!
Customer
@Big Al Lol! That is an awful lot of work to just be putting things together to see what happens 😉
Customer
what if someone was just bored and started putting things together
Customer
my first thought too, something like a miraka or however you spell it 😀
Customer
That was my first thought also but add some of the discs or rounded stones to the interior and you basically have a shaker but still a wooden percussion instrument.
Customer
Not that I know of. In the video, Jeremy describes what they know of the interior.
Customer
A bird trap is an interesting suggestion, but there’s no opening anywhere on the item if the bird is meant to be trapped inside.
Customer
my guess : “back scracher”
Customer
Looks like the front part of a big model ship
Customer
It’s a thing. That’s what it is. A thing.
Customer
Actually a thingy, is more accurate.
Customer
It’s the doohickey off of a thingamabob.
Customer
@stealthop THat is obviously a thingajobber not a thingamabob. Similar but different purposes.
Customer
@Bill Logan finally an expert on the subject of thingamabobs ! thank you for gracing us with your presence Dr.Doohickey :p
Customer
+Bill Logan Yes and I believe it’s an example of early whatchamacallit.
Customer
There is no mystery , they talk about these in the Voynich Manuscript
Customer
its music instument
Customer
It could just be a piece of non functional art.
Customer
this is a pattern for a copper smelting oven flue .this is from the refractory process . its built from materials at hand on the peninsula . it was not used yet and was likely a model that could be measured and scaled up etc..
Customer
I’m not saying it was Aliens but It was aliens!