Weird Old Wooden Object (pics)

[uair01]

Last week in the Rotterdam library there was an exhibition of school projects. Some were quite predictable but a few were very original. One project called "traces" was about objects that children had found in the city. I'm very interested in urban objects, so I was immediately captivated:

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e182/uair01/found_objects01.jpg

One of the objects was really weird. It was made from decayed wood and reminded me of one of those African fetishes you see in etnographic museums:

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e182/uair01/found_objects02.jpg

The note that goes with the object says:

- Where? Behind a tree near a field.
- 11:15 15-6-2005
- By whom? Harun Kargarslan (?)
- How did that thing get there?

I wonder what it really was?

Another original - though not Fortean - project was making prints from squashed objects that were found on roads:

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e182/uair01/found_objects03.jpg

 

[James_H]

Are you sure it's wood, it looks like it could be highly corroded iron or something.

 

[Jerry_B]

It just looks like a lump of eroded/rotting wood to me...

 

[Vardoger]

The second image looks like that thingamajig you use to seal opened wine and champagne bottles with after the original cork has been removed.

 

[Dingo667]

The second image looks like that thingamajig you use to seal opened wine and champagne bottles with after the original cork has been removed.

Damn, that was the first thing I thought. Someone is always faster...

 

[uair01]

The shape matches your theory, but the size does not. If you compare it with the car key in the first picture, it must be at least 10 cm long and 4 cm wide. That's too big for a bottle.

Could it be something that plugged a wooden barrel? But then it would be very old indeed.

 

[Dingo667]

Culd be a butt-plug...

 

[Anome]

Ow! Splinters!

 

[uair01]

The buttplug theory looks plausible, at least it I look at famous local sculpture:
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afbeelding:Kabouter_Buttplug.jpg

 

[JRMapes]

Looks like an old wooden doorknob or pull knob that we have stumbled across from time to time when tearing down old barns and houses.