Jan van Es collection, Roermond, The Netherlands
Bird head looking left with full human face on side of bird's head
Bird-human combination from The Netherlands
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Mammoth Spring, Arkansas, bird form finds defy probabilities of natural coincidence
This bird form is one of several found in the context of other likely sculptures in the back yard of Mammoth Spring, Arkansas, resident Jeff Vincent. The discovery of multiple bird form stones in such a small area defies probabilities of natural coincidence and points toward motivated human agency.
Side 2 of bird form, from Jeff Vincent
Shaped birds identified by Jeff Vincent
Jeff Vincent collection
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This Jeff Vincent bird form was featured in an earlier posting on this blog
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A granite bird figure from the SDM Site in Kent County, Michigan
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A feline, bovine and human polyiconic flint figure stone from Wingst, Germany
A feline, bovine and human polyiconic flint figure stone
Nelly Sloan find, Wingst, Germany
Nelly Sloan find, Wingst, Germany
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Human "creative explosion" occurred on the order of hundreds, not tens, of thousands of years ago and probably along with the emergence of the genus Homo (J. Feliks)
Homo erectus image on an Acheulean scraper interpreted by Ken Johnston
This Acheulean scraper I noticed in a French Paleolithic tools collection (Calvados, Normandy, West of Paris Basin, est. 550,000 to 300,000 years BP) must be considered for a possible early human facial profile in retouch work on the flint made on a "head-with-neck" shaped stone.
As rock art scholars Robert Bednarik, John Feliks and James Harrod have demonstrated, collecting and creating rock material with meaningful visual properties was well under way by hominins hundreds of thousands of years ago. The capacity for symbol, language, ideological constructs and religion may be observed from nearly two million years ago. The concept of a "human cognitive and creative explosion" around 35,000 years ago is now fully refuted by archaeological evidence presented by these gentlemen. It is time for archaeologists, museums and collectors to re-evaluate even their oldest lithic samples for iconic properties like seen in this example.
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A petrified wood Wood Bison, bird and human combination figure stone from Westminster, Colorado
Chris Schram find and interpretation as a Wood Bison figure, Westminster, Colorado
Chris Schram has interpreted this as a worked piece of petrified wood in a representation of the body of the Wood Bison. It was found in the context of many petrified wood portable rock art objects. While researching bison, Chris came upon the Wood Bison and noticed it had a prominent vertical hump above the shoulders and a straight, sloping, back strikingly similar to the one seen on the figure stone.
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French and American sculptures may depict creatures looking left split with bird head profiles looking right
Stacy Dodd and Rod Weber find, site #23JP1222 in Missouri.
Possible feline-like head looking left with bird head facing right
The Old Route 66 Zoo site, a portable rock art megasite
Please compare to the France example below
Acheulean or Clactonian, Mouthiers, Charente, France, photo by Pietro Gaietto
Human with prominent jaw looking left (Gaietto) and bird facing right (Johnston)
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Possible canine stone figures from Germany and Colorado
Flint tool from a north Germany collection may have been intentionally worked to remove selected patches of cortex for eyes and a nose so as to affect the visage of a canine on the tool
Side 2 of tool with possible canine decoration
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Chris Schram compares this photo to the stone above it
Chris Schram find, Westminster, Colorado. Petrified wood object identified as a worked stone invoking canine imagery and found in a portable rock art context including other animal figures.
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April 4 bird form finds from Jeff Vincent at Mammoth Spring, Arkansas
Jeff Vincent found bird sculpture, April 4, 2014, Mammoth Spring, Arkansas
More stone birds from Jeff Vincent's back yard, April 4 finds
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Illustration of a Paleolithic stone bird figure from M.A. Kiriyak, Early Art of the Northern Far East (Siberia)
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A toothy horse from The Old Route 66 Zoo site, Jasper County, Missouri
Horse figure, Stacy Dodd and Rod Weber, site #23JP1222
Horse teeth "in the right place" identified by Dodd are a giveaway to the animal being depicted here
Przewalski's horse teeth
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Eyes and mouth make faces
Pebble with face. Jeff Vincent find, Mammoth Spring, Arkansas, in the context of other portable rock art objects
Macario Solis find, Yakima County, Washington
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Arkfeld site in Virginia reports portable rock art and carved ivory from a tusk of the now-extinct gomphothere in current issue of Pleistocene Coalition News
Adam Arkfeld find, near Clear Brook, Virginia, registered site #44FK732
photo from Pleistocene Coalition News, March-April, 2014, issue (link pending activation soon)
Landowner and amateur archaeologist Adam Arkfeld with assistance of Jack Hranicky, RPA (Register of Professional Archaeologists), recently reported on this possible engraved stone among many suspected art objects from the Arkfeld farm site in Pleistocene Coalition News. The art objects described from the site include a suspected baby mammoth figure and a gomphothere tusk with what appears to be a carved horse's head as well as many other horse-like objects.
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Texas flint with two facial profiles on its edges in the Acheulean tradition
Texas flint with facial profile on upper right edge identified by Bill Waters
Eye, two nostrils and (smiling?) mouth worked into this same Texas flint (side 2) as a human head left profile, interpretation by Bill Waters, Bill Waters collection
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At some point in time, North American Archaeology will have to explain and account for the existence of Lower and Middle Paleolithic "Old World" art forms being found here.
This human facial profile on the edge of this Texas handaxe from the Bill Waters collection was featured in an earlier posting on this blog. This is a known expression of the Acheulean tradition in Western Europe and has been documented by several serious amateurs there and by early art scholar James Harrod, Ph.D. at OriginsNet.org
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Master flint knapper and figure stone investigator Bob Doyle of Maine created this flint with a human facial profile on it as an experiment in "replicative archaeology." Bob uses the word "carve" to describe his work on the face details.
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One eye open, other eye shut, feline and human faces in micro-art on a pebble from the Columbia River valley
Micro-art feline face
Isolated image from the pebble of a one eye open, other eye shut or missing feline face (with tongue out) interpreted by Ken Johnston. The right eye is a small cluster of quartz crystals and the left eye contains some empty space, affecting the known one eye open art motif. Figure stone find by Dennis Boggs at Irrigon, Oregon.
Dennis Boggs find, Irrigon, Oregon
One-eyed human and feline figures have been described from Eurasia as well as North America on this blog. Jan van Es of Roermond, The Netherlands, taught me what to look for in Paleolithic micro pebble art and this North American figure is similar to those van Es has shared from Lower and Middle Paleolithic archaeological sites he is familiar with from northern Europe.
The typical context for Mr. Boggs' finds include worked pebbles like at left and center, as well as suspected manuported exotic stones like at right. A number of stones appear worked to access quartz crystal inclusions and will be featured in a future posting here.
Left is the figure stone featured in this article. Right is another Dennis Boggs human head figure stone featured earlier on this blog. One may see the similarity in the stone working technique/technology used in the manufacture of the eye elements on both figures.
Feline figure as the stone fits most comfortably in the hand, as if the cat is reclining on outstretched front legs. The "front legs" feature is very smoothed as if worn by rubbing and accomodates the thumb perfectly when held like this.
Feline face looking out from the "cave" created by the human hand when it is held as a "rubbing stone."
African lion with tongue out like feline on the figure stone (left eye illustrated as missing)
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A carved gomphothere tusk horse sculpture from the Arkfeld site, Clear Brook, Virginia
Arkfeld farm site, #44FK732, fossil gomphothere tusk with horse carving
length 38cm, diameter 7cm at large end, weight 2.4kg
Photos by Adam Arkfeld, Clear Brook, Virginia
Adam Arkfeld writes, "This tusk was recovered in a wet clay bed formed by runoff from limestone bedrock. The ivory has been completely mineralized. It appears that the horse was carved when the tusk was still "green." The level of carving detail would not be possible on limestone."
Close up of horse head and neck, including incised lines
Adam Arkfeld notes the Virginia carved horse head has a stylistic similarity to this horse head petroglyph image from Chauvet cave, France
I propose the incised lines illustrated by the white marks on the gomphothere tusk may represent a simple bridle and rein on the horse figure. Pleistocene human control of the horse is suspected in Eurasia but not in North America. With this interpretation of this find, it may be worth considering this possibility here.
Horse head carved on ivory, Hohle Fels, Germany, ca. 30,000 years BP. (image flipped for a more direct comparison to the Arkfeld site example)
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Tip of a mammoth tusk carved as two reindeer depicted one behind the other; 13,000 years old approximately; Montastruc, France, © The Trustees of the British Museum
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"Birds in flight" from Arkansas, Ohio and the German Swabian Alps show a consistency of art forms despite geographic distance and different raw materials
"Bird in flight" coarse stone figure identified by Jeff Vincent, Mammoth Springs, Arkansas
"Bird in flight" flint figure, made of Vanport chert, Flint Ridge, Ohio, identified by Ken Johnston in an earlier posting on this blog
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Sleeping duck sculpture with an eye and feather detail from Jeff Vincent, Mammoth Springs, Arkansas
Jeff Vincent find, Mammoth Springs, Arkansas
Sleeping duck
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Flint bear head figure manufactured around a quartz crystal lined cavity serving as its back lighted eye
Ken Johnston find, Flint Ridge, Ohio, identified as a bear head figure worked around a quartz crystal inclusion and worked to manufacture a back lighted translucent "eye"
Vanport chert bear head figure, Flint Ridge, Licking County, Ohio
Bear head figure translucence demonstrated by my desk lamp.
There appears to be a defined-by-the-artist hexagon shaped area around the eye opening with stone removal to allow light passage through the stone.
The translucent "eye of the bear" in sunlight. The natural crystal-lined cavity penetrates the stone to a depth of 2cm.
Side 2. There is deliberate work to expose the translucence on this side of the stone.
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Southern Ohio cupule stone find confirms earlier interpretations of mammoth form symbolism in some of these artifacts
Anonymous mushroom hunter's Springtime find in Pike County, Ohio, is a "cupule stone" where the outline of the stone is an abstracted geometric representation of a mammoth facing left and a simple zoomorphic face profile is depicted on the mammoth's posterior facing in the opposite direction
Two cupule stones from the Buckeye Lake area, Licking County, Ohio (left), and Perry County, Ohio (right), have been featured earlier on this blog as examples of mammoth iconography. The Pike County cupule stone featured here is especially like the example seen at above right in its representation of the mammoth silhouette.
The presence of a zoomorphic face in this posterior of the mammoth position, even though crude and faint, helps confirm this known element of mammoth depiction motifs as seen in other portable rock art pieces. You may use this illustration to help identify this interpreted face on the unmarked photo at (top). The feline presence here on the mammoth posterior may reflect its position as a "helper" in creating access to mammoth as a food resource in the form of carrion.
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Colorado petrified wood artifact with "tally marks" likely a mammoth silhouette figure
Chris Schram collection, Westminster Colorado, interpreted as a mammoth figure
This artifact has about 10 "tally marks" or parallel groove markings across its side. The stroke marks may indicate more meaning given to this object than its possible function as a scraper tool or the like. The stroke marks are comparable to the marks seen on the mammoth tusk carving of two reindeer at bottom. The marks help confirm the interpretation of a mammoth figure here.
This carved reindeer sculpture and the Colorado mammoth figure may be exhibiting a symbolic marking scheme which was made in a broad tradition which spanned from North America into Western Europe.
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More Pages to Explore .....
