Hoard #7 of 7: a sculpted flint and crystal owl, with a bird in flight depicted at its right eye and a still bird depicted at its beak

Buckeye Lake, Ohio, sculpture hoard #7 of 7 is a sculpted flint and crystal owl, with a bird in flight depicted at its right eye and a still bird depicted at its beak.

Ready to fly. View from reverse

Owl face. The head of the owl has been rounded off and shaped.The crystals have been worked to enhance the shape of the eyes and the beak. The artist recognized potential in the natural stone material and finished it off with final shaping. 

The bird in flight at right eye and the still bird at the beak may be seen here. (click photos to expand and compare)

 Markups of where the two other birds are depicted

The owl has built in hand holds. The two small arrows at left point to substantial grooves which accept the left hand index and middle fingers while the left hand holds a knob in the flint. The right arrow points to a smooth surface which fits perfectly on the open right hand to support the weight of the sculpture. It seems the owl was capable of being held or carried securely.

 "Whoo doesn't love Flint Ridge, Ohio?"

-kbj

Hoard #6 of 7: an "n-sculpture" form like ones identified by Boucher de Perthes, in 1847, and recently described by author Pietro Gaietto

Buckeye Lake sculpture hoard #6 of 7 has been interpreted as an example of a Janus-like figure depicting a jawless skull and a bearded man facing away from each other, one in left profile and the other in right profile view, seen respectively above. This form was originally described by Jacques Boucher de Perthes in France and has been further described most recently by art scholar and author Pietro Gaietto of Italy.

side 2 of hoard sculpture #6 of 7

A gouged and drilled hole demonstrating the artificiality of this flint object

An image of a bearded (goateed) man in right profile view was found on the sculpture only after I read Gaietto's interpretation of this sculpture form as having two human heads. When I looked, this face was seen as predicted by Gaietto's work. The rough oolithic surface of the flint was ground until it was smooth to create the skin component of the face in the image. Gouges have been made in place for an ear and an eye, and there is an incised line in the place of the mouth. Please see illustrations below for markups of these features.

Photo image Copyright (c) Pietro Gaietto, All Rights Reserved. The above sculpture (Gaietto #5.24) was found and interpreted by Pietro Gaietto, at Campo, Liguria, Italy.

A fair visual comparison of Ohio votive hoard sculpture #6 here to Gaietto’s #5.24 example of the same letter “n" shaped type, demonstrates even further compelling evidence of a European cultural influence on the maker(s) of the Ohio sculptures. According to Gaietto, it represents a skull without jawbone with a second human depicted on the rear of the skull, facing away, Janus-like.

I thought Buckeye Lake hoard #6 of 7 had some quasi-zoomorphic features and a gouged and then drilled hole on side 2 of the piece which demonstrated its artifactuality. When I came across this piece identified as an intended sculpture by Gaietto, I recognized the strong similarity to the Ohio sculpture. They both share a snout-like aspect on the left in these views, an arched gap in the base line and a squared off aspect on the right end.

The Ohio #6 sculpture cannot exist wholly independent, however far in time and distance, of influence from the peoples who made sculpture #5.24 found at Campo, Liguria, in northern Italy. The morphology is too complex, so tied to deep culture, spirituality-- and so very similar, that Ohio #6 cannot be an artifact of independent invention or coincidence.

Illustrations Copyright (c) Pietro Gaietto, All Rights Reserved.

SCULTURA ANTROPOMORFA PALEOLITICA (2012) by Pietro Gaietto

(click photos to expand and compare)

Gaietto's descriptions of letter “n" shaped or "two-headed" sculptures, first identified by Jacques Boucher de Perthes in 1860, helped identify a bearded man right facial profile image on #7, which was not detected prior but found in place by Johnston as predicted by Gaietto. The successful interpretation of the Ohio sculpture using previously described methods helps confirm its status as a European influenced American art sculpture. Likewise, Gaietto's descriptions of proto-art, pre-sculpture and early sculpture of hominins, which is not accepted by mainstream archaeology, is validated by being applicable (replicable) and informative to this case and must be so credited and duly recognized.

Original illustrations by Boucher de Perthes (1847) of the letter 'n' shaped sculpture form.

Number 18 illustration of Boucher de Perthes demonstrating similarity to the Buckeye Lake sculpture hoard #6 of 7

"Common sense tells us that the primitive people who made haches and tools were able to make figures... ...As to the Symbols and Figures, although I have gathered of these some types which may be seen at my house to-day, numbering about fifty analogous shapes on which the human work is evident, I have converted very few people, and of the number, not one Englishman. Why-they say to me-are you the only one who finds Figure Stones ? Have they never been found anywhere else than at Abbeville ?-and-mention one collection besides your own in which they have been seen ...To-day, Sir, your examples will be questioned, I do not say that I shall have gained my cause, but Truth will have made one more step, and will strike forcibly by coming from two sides."

- From a lettter from Jacques Boucher de Perthes to Victor Chatel, Oct 20th, 1866

The "two sides" Boucher de Perthes was referring to are of the English Channel, France and England. I propose the "two sides" may now be expanded to be taken as "two sides of the Atlantic Ocean" to include Europe and North America.

Jacques Boucher de Crèvecœur de Perthes

   -kbj

Hoard #5 of 7: a literal bifacial human head sculpture with hearing like a mammoth and vision like a Bighorn

Licking County, Buckeye Lake, Ohio, sculpture hoard #5 of 7 is a two-sided human head. This shows a face in left profile view

(click photos to expand)

This is the head in right profile view. The rounded out conchoidal fracture bulb of force in the upper center of the sculpture is the ear, with the funnel-shaped elephant head to the right and the eye just to the right of that. The pointed aspect on the upper right of the artifact is the nose and the pointed aspect in the lower right is the mouth (upper lip). Please see marked up illustrations below highlighting the facial features depicted.

There is an inclusion of crystals in the flint at the peak of the two faces

As all of the sculptures in the Buckeye Lake, Ohio, hoard do, this piece stands up in correct viewing orientation on a designed base. This is the only flat surface on the sculpture and the only surface it will stand on.

Bob Doyle, a master flintknapper and Stone Age tool replicator, found this near Portland, Maine. He identified this item as a worked, intended, human head sculpture in right profile. When I saw this art piece Bob has identified, I recognized a similarity to the right facial profile seen on the Buckeye Lake, Ohio, sculpture hoard #5 of 7. They seem to be representations of the same, idealized, human facial image. It is a form which likely had meaning to its makers.

The face in right profile has an elephant-like ear with elephant head attached. Elephants are known for keen hearing and this sculpture may have been given the power of good hearing by its creator. The human head and the small elephant head share the same ear which is comprised of a bulb of percussion in the flint.

(please click photos to expand and compare)

The face in left profile is depicted as combined with a horned animal, where the human head and the horned animal share the same eye. In researching possible animals depicted here, I settled on the ewe Bighorn sheep because it has a curved shorter horn like that shown along the top right of the sculpture in this view. While reading about the Bighorn sheep, I learned it is an animal known for its exceptional vision, able to spot predators up to a mile away.

I propose this bifacial sculpture was symbolically given hearing like a mammoth and vision like a Bighorn.

-kbj

Hoard #4 of 7: rabbit or rodent polymorphic sculpture sharing the same stone inclusions as teeth

Buckeye Lake sculpture hoard #4 of 7 is a rabbit/rodent polymorph with an animal depicted on each side. The teeth are protruding at the far left point of the artifact in this view.

Side 2 has a more rabbit-like appearance. The teeth are the far right in this view.

A view from on top of the artifact with scale, rabbit on top of center ridge line, rodent on bottom

(click photos to expand)

The rabbit in right profile view with head at right end. A crystal lined cavity in the belly of the figurine seems to have been featured by the proto-artist. (click photos to expand)

Close up of the teeth shared by the animals on both sides of the sculpture

LMTO

Stacy Dodd and Rod Weber find from the "Old Route 66 zoo" site in southwest Missouri. The site has produced dozens of sculptures including several analogs to other finds identified as sculptures by amateur archaeologists and artifact collectors. Many more sculptures and tools are awaiting excavation by qualified archaeologists at that site. 

Ken Johnston find from Flint Ridge, Ohio, about 10 miles from the find location of the Buckeye Lake sculpture hoard of 7 artifacts. The flint material for both artifacts is Vanport, from Flint Ridge.

A final picture of the Buckeye Lake, Ohio, sculpture hoard #4 of 7

-kbj

Hoard #3 of 7: split and chipped flint boulder with zooanthropomorphic qualities, which has analogs from Germany and Oregon, U.S.A.

Buckeye Lake, Ohio, flint sculpture hoard #3 seen here has analogs identified separately by two amateur archaeologists as humanly worked iconic artifacts, one in Germany and one in Oregon, U.S.A. To my mind, the Ohio sculpture somewhat resembles a bear's head like in this view.

Reconstruction of Arctodus simus Sergiodlarosa: the now extinct American short-faced bear

This side is covered in crystals. One of them is reflecting the sunlight here.

In the upper right is a possible skull form similar to the one identified on the hoard sculpture #1, human head in the round and as identified by Luigi Ciapparoli in cliff rock art in Italy. Please see the posting for hoard sculpture #1 for more about this skull form. The circle highlights a possible eye marking. In the lower right, the crystals have been ground to present eyes, nose and mouth in distressed visual relief with an arch in the stonework representing the top of the head. Please note the angle of slope of the right side of the sculpture because a similar type of slope is seen on the German and Oregon sculptures pictured below.

Reverse side of hoard sculpture #3 is a sculpted anthropomorphic head seen in right profile view

Can you see the worked face in the crystals? Refer to markups in the photo above left to locate features on the picture at right. The left eye is a crystal with modification of surrounding crystals to make it more clearly stand out in visual relief. The left eye was a crystal ground down by the artist to create a cloudy and flatter presentation than the right eye, perhaps in the known "one eye open, one eye closed/missing" motif in world palaeoart. (click photos to expand view) Toggle between photos in the slideshow to allow the markups to show how the work on the crystals creates the subtle face.

Gross Pampau, Germany

Buckeye Lake, Ohio

Photo at TOP is Copyright (c) Ursel Benekendorff, All Rights Reserved. Do not copy or distribute in any way. Used with permission. When I saw this identified as a sculpture by Ursel Benekendorff, I immediately recognized a strong similarity to the Ohio hoard sculpture #3. Please note the like angle of slope of the right side on the sculptures in this posting. In the milky color in the upper right of the German sculpture, one may see faces or masks, one skull-like looking to lower right and one face-like looking to the lower left. The heads are joined at the nape of the neck, looking somewhat like the common presentation of the modern masks of comedy and tragedy. The milky area appears to have been worked to finish off the faces with the needed elements not provided fortuitously by the lithic material. The Ohio example has also been interpreted to have a skull form and face form in relief rather than manipulation of thin layers of differing flint coloration to achieve the images. This German example is from the Gross Pampau site identified by Benekendorff.

The Buckeye Lake, Ohio, sculpture with a find identified as a worked figurine by 50 year amateur archaeologist Dennis Boggs, at Irrigon, Oregon. Dennis found his portable rock art objects between the foothills of the mountains lining the Columbia River and the valley floor.

Despite its smaller size, note the similarity in form of the Oregon figure to the Ohio and Germany examples. It has an angled slope on the right side as well.

Side 2 of the Oregon zooanthropomorphic figurine with interpretive markups. 

Find by Dennis Boggs, Irrigon, Oregon, and generously gifted to portablerockart.com.

-kbj