I am reaching out to the internet for help in solving a 50-year-old mystery: what on earth is this object?

It looks like a petrified apple. It weighs 76 grams, is about 5cm in diameter, and appears to be made of stone. It is dark brown, hard, partly hollow and it sinks like a brick in water.

I am 99% certain it is a natural object – not manufactured.

If my memory can be trusted (and I am not sure that it can be), I found the petrified apple when I was about 12 or 13, under an apple tree in the back yard of a house in suburban Adelaide, South Australia.

That memory is extremely vague, and it may be completely wrong. It may just be that I have retrospectively associated the object with the apple tree in that yard. I can’t be sure.

However I came by the object, I know that I have owned it since I was a child. And I have never worked out what it is.

To complicate matters, somewhere along the way I acquired a second, similar ‘petrified apple’. The second apple is much like the first, except that it has been cut by some unknown person, then patched with some kind of filler to make a paperweight.

Again, my memory is vague, but I think I bought the second apple in an antique shop in the South Australian Riverland about 35 years ago. Presumably I bought it because I had a similar one at home.

This is not the first time I have tried to identify the object. I have posted pictures of it on various fossil-related Facebook Groups. Some people have been intrigued, some have made suggestions, some have even mocked or abused me. But so far no-one has offered a convincing explanation.

What I have found on Google:

I have also carried out quite a few Google searches, taking me down many rabbit holes. The results have done more to confuse than to enlighten.

It seems other people, in other countries, have found similar objects, and have also reached out to the internet for help. None of them have landed on an explanation I regard as persuasive.

Below are links to my Google findings:

Blackburn Museum Blog, 9 March 2012 – A UK regional museum posted an image of a very similar looking object, which it says was identified in the 19th century as a ‘petrified apple’. The museum asked if anyone disagreed with that identification. “Ian” from Australia responded, saying it was indeed a petrified apple, and that he had inherited two of them from his late grandfather who was given them in World War 2 whilst serving in Darwin, Australia.

Archaeobotany archive, 5 March 2015 – Professor Marijke Van Der Veen from the University of Leicester posted several images and a description of a very similar looking object, seeking help from the archaeobotany community to identify it. There were several replies to the post, which can be found by scrolling down here, but (to my mind) no convincing answers.

The Fossil Forum, 1 May 2015 – A post by someone identified as ‘tunie’ from Southern California, sought help to identify a similar (but more brightly coloured) object which they also had for “about 50 years”.

The Naked Scientists, 26 August 2016 – A post by someone identified as ‘JohnNZ’ on a forum called ‘The Naked Scientists’, sought help to identify an object which appears very similar to mine (albeit about twice as heavy).

Wharfedale Observer, 4 May 2017 – A local newspaper report announced that a “petrified apple” found in the ruins of Pompeii was on sale at an antiques fare in Harewood, West Yorkshire, UK. Regardless of what you think about its supposed Pompeii provenance (pardon my scepticism), the pictured object appears very similar to mine.

Pinterest, 2020 – A post on Pinterest depicted a “petrified apple with a wormhole”, which it claimed was discovered at the bottom of a coal mine in Pennsylvania in 1747. I don’t know how Pinterest works, nor what to make of this post.

Source Vintage Antiques, 13 June 2025 – A UK antique seller posted images and a description of a similar object on various social media outlets (Facebook, YouTube, eBay etc), apparently for sale.

Worthpoint antique website, undated – A “fossil petrified apple” was listed for sale.

What my ‘petrified apple’ is not:

Helpful people on Facebook and elsewhere have made suggestions as to what the ‘petrified apple’ might be. I have looked into them, and none of them fit.

Here is a list of some things I am sure my ‘petrified apple’ is not:

• Oak gall
• Conker / horse chestnut
• Wood apple
• Bradford pear
• Camelia fruit
• Japonica fruit
• Artificial (glass / ceramic / stone facsimile).

What I am hoping to achieve by this blog

Quite a few of the links above are related to attempts to sell ‘petrified apple’ objects. That is not my interest – I just want to know what the objects are.

It would be really nice if someone happened to read this blog and got back to me with an explanation. However, I am not really expecting that (sadly my little blog does not reach very many people).

More realistically, I hope that next time someone googles ‘petrified apple’ or ‘Pompeii apple’ or some such thing, this blog will come up. At the very least I might save that someone a bit of searching time, and perhaps they will have more luck than me in solving the mystery. If so, please let me know.

If you want to contact me about this, you can do so via applepetrified@gmail.com