Antiques and Fossils - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

What is the difference between an antique and a fossil? If an antique gets to be old enough, does it qualify for fossilhood?

It has been suggested to me that an antique, however old it might be, forever remains an antique because it was created by human hands. Some measure of artisanship was required to have created an antique while a fossil comes into being through natural processes that do not involve human intervention.

Still, the Cro Magnon cave paintings are sometimes referred to as fossil art even though someone had to do something by hand to bring those images into being. Prehistoric spear tips are also the results of creative activity but they too are sometimes called fossil artifacts.

So then, what's the threshold? When and by what criteria did those and/or other entities make the transition?