Rattenraw (socket)

3D Model

3D model made from 4 photographs taken from above. Best view is matcap and virtual underside to show the profile of the hollow. The hollow occurs in a stone slab (possibly quarried) found during excavation of a Romano-British settlement at Rattenraw, Northumberland, UK. Usual debate: is it archaeology (artifact) or geology (natural). If the latter, is it the hollow left when something has been eroded out? That something perhaps being a naturally-formed concretion, nodule or fossil. Why has it left such a smooth internal surface? The geology here is the Tyne Limestone Formation (limestone, sandstone, siltstone and mudstone), sedimentary rocks laid down in shallow carbonate seas of the Carboniferous period. I’m on the side of geology (I usually am unless proved otherwise).