Ceramics are grouped into these categories based on the density and firing temperature of the clay. A good way to start is by classifying shards into one of three categories: earthenware, stoneware, or porcelain. Yet due to the immense variety of ceramics, identifying sea worn fragments can be particularly challenging.

The majority of sea glass originates from mass produced utilitarian vessels, while tableware and art glass are less common sources. *Many thanks to Alice Lundgren for sharing her collection of concretions, and to Meredith Keating and Brandon Boas for their photography. The Shard of the Year Contest, which is one of the highlights of the North American Sea Glass Association’s annual Festival, would be ideal opportunity to view both natural and manmade treasures (this year’s North American Sea Glass Festival will be held in Wildwood, New Jersey on October 27 – 28). We are always seeking the next great find. However, theories of modern science suggest the concretions are fossils or meteorites.Īs beachcombers, we are treasure-hunters. Some cultures believe them to be holy stones while other cultures believe the stones bring luck, or perhaps represent the divine feminine. Having been formed millions of years ago from sedimentary rock, concretions have been significant and mystical to many cultures. Some of the concretions boast unique shapes, such as small cups, snowmen, and acorns while the tubular concretions often resemble coral, branches, and even small musical pipes (although they do not carry a tune))! Similar to sea glass, each concretion seems to carry its own story and personality. When we go exploring along our nearby beach, Alice, a seasoned concretion seeker, has the ability to spot the stone tubes instantly, yet the rest of us are not so fortunate, as the finds appear camouflaged to the untrained eye. The tubular concretions are iron oxide formations that reflect a pipe-like structure. Even more fascinating than the “pop rocks” are tubular rocks. These unusual rock formations date back to the late Cretaceous and Eocene eras.

Alice was a true inspiration to my family and me, and we soon joined forces to not only hunt for sea glass, but to eagerly search for concretions. The formations, in all their various shapes, are known as “concretions.”Īlice has a collection of well over a thousand concretions ranging in size from a quarter of an inch to about twelve inches, all of which she has gathered from the bay.

But it was not until we met another neighbor, and now long-time friend, Alice Lundgren, that the mystery was solved. Another neighbor told us that the formations (are) derived from ‘Indian paint pots” and that Native American tribes used the iron oxide inside the stones to paint their faces. We felt certain they were a type of ammunition for guns used during the Revolutionary War because George Washington had munitions created in the Principio Iron Works just a heron’s flight across the bay, near the port of Charlestown.īeing new to the area and excited to show our finds to our neighbors, our newly found friends chuckled and told us that the strange formations were called ‘pop rocks,” small hollow stones of which our neighbors would toss into beach fires and watch them explode. When my family and I first moved to the shores of the upper Chesapeake and roamed the beaches in search of beach glass, we also began to find peculiar, round, metal-like objects. These “formations,” resembling hollow rock balls, tubes, ocarinas, and more avant-garde shapes, are created from sand, clay, and iron oxide.

Unusual formations in the silt and mud began to take shape that would, millions of years later, reveal themselves and wash up on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay. Long, long ago, when dinosaurs roamed the earth and the skies were pierced with cries of enormous birds, something was happening geologically just below the water.

Shards of war north america