Twydall, Kent, 'crude core tool' may be a more meaningful mammoth figure combined with a feline head figure in an early example of this motif at ca. 400,000 YBP

'Mammoth left profile and feline head right profile'

Twydall, Kent, U.K. 'crude core tool' may be a more meaningful mammoth figure combined with a feline head figure in an early example of this motif at ca. 400,000 YBP. This motif may have persisted for a couple-hundred thousand years and into North America which would be unbelievable if were not for the already demonstrated persistence of the Acheulean handaxe for nearly one million years.

Interpretation by Ken Johnston and another example of iconic materials already existing in museum or private collections which are very old but which have not yet been recognized. The high point on the left of the figure is the peak of the mammoth head and is also the peak of the stylized feline's ear.

"A crude Lower Palaeolithic Clactonian core tool, made from banded brown flint, measuring 75 x 101 mm/2.9 x 4 ins. Some retouching around the edges, although of irregular shape, the tool fits nicely in the hand. Found at Twydall, Kent, around 1908.

Side 2, feline head looking left, mammoth looking right

Ex Peter Negus Collection. Clactonian tools date back to around 400,000 years ago and represent some of the earliest artefacts found in Britain."

In North America, please reference this feline head and mammoth combination on a large rock outcrop formation in the state of Virginia.

Blog reader Katie Bretsch observed that by rotating the figure 45 degrees left a nice badger head left profile is depicted. I think this is an excellent observation. There may be a crude human face profile on far right edge of the sculpture where the badger head becomes a long flowing hairdo.

At 400,00 years before present these humans had the cognitive ability and cultural stimulation to manufacture something (a stone) which could also be several other things at once- mammoth, feline, badger and human in a kind of optical illusion, just depending how one focuses visual attention on the piece.