manuportn.
/ˈmanjᵿpɔːt/, U.S. /ˈmænjəˌpɔrt/ Archaeology.
A natural object, esp. a stone, that has been carried and deposited somewhere by humans but has not been artificially shaped.
ΚΠ
1966 Current Anthropol. 7 98/2 It was urged..that the archaeologist plot and save every object uncovered in an occupation situation, since even a natural stone (manuport) may be important if it can be proved..that it must have been brought from a geological source some miles away.
1973 Nature 27 Apr. 575/2 Large artificially introduced unmodified natural stones (manuports)..not present in any of the excavated or surface samples.
1979 M. Leakey Olduvai Gorge 60 Natural cobbles brought to the site by man (known as ‘manuports’) were particularly abundant.
1991 Ann. Rev. Anthropol. 20 177 Some of the utensils and manuports found in base camps are very heavy, such as large basalt vessels, weighing up to 100 kg and more.
This is a new entry (OED Third Edition, September 2000; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1966