"What Is It???" Wednesday: New Smyrna Edition

I went down to visit Dot Moore and meet with the planners in New Smyrna Beach.  At the museum Dot showed me this artifact they recently recovered from a canal trench.  Dot has a good guess, but you'll have to wait until next week to hear.  So, what says you?

WHAT IS IT???

Top view of artifact with scale.

Underside of artifact with scale.

Who ever guesses correctly (or at least matches or betters Dot's best guess) gets an Archaeology of the New Smyrna Colony booklet.  I'll send you two if you can tell me the date of New Smyrna's archaeology ordinance (yes, they have one)!

LAST WEEKS WINNER!!!!

Thanks to Ralph Mills for giving us his best guess: a holy stone used for scrubbing the deck of ships!  I can't say with certainty that's what it is, but we appreciate turning us in the maritime direction.  We'll keep checking, thanks Ralph!

For reference I looked at a holy stone in the artifact case (below) from Piquant Photos: Portsmouth Dockyard Museum Photos blog taken by Bhaskar Dasgupta. 

Text and photos: Sarah Miller except last photo by Bhaskar Dasgupta viewed on 6/6/11.