Edmonton couple finds potential obsidian artifact in front yard
Global News
"As Hector was digging out the front, I was out here around and about, and he came to me with a big black rock, and he said: 'What's this?'"
An Edmonton couple might be living on a piece of history.
Last year, Jennifer Yeoman and her husband Hector Lomack were doing some landscaping in their yard when they found a curious-looking black rock.
“As Hector was digging out the front, I was out here around and about, and he came to me with a big black rock, and he said: ‘What’s this?’” said Yeoman. “It’s the oddest piece of rock I’ve ever seen in my life. It’s a sheer big piece of glass.”
That black rock was a 4.6-pound chunk of obsidian core — which is volcanic glass that forms when lava cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth — and not usually found in Alberta due to the lack of, well, volcanoes.
The largest obsidian core in the province is on display at the Royal Alberta Museum.
“It turned out there’s only one other rock found that size in Alberta to date, and it happened to be our rock,” said Yeoman.
It’s an extra exciting discovery for Yeoman as she’d always dreamt of being an archaeologist but plans changed when she became a mom.
Now that her kids are grown up, her dream is being reignited.