Ken Johnston find, Licking County, Ohio
This sculpture was found in soil disturbed for landscaping purposes and within 50 yards of a few other mammoth and human combination sculptures which have been featured on this blog. It was found directly on the advancement line of the Wisconsin glaciation and terminal moraines are visible from the find location of this sculpture.
The sculpture stands upright on a flat base which has been created by grinding
A rock patina created by human fingers contact while the base was ground flat
This mammoth figure from the Avdeevo, Russia, archaeology site was featured in Bahn and Lister's book Mammoths: Giants of the Ice Age. The mammoth is facing left and I interpret a faint but present icon of a human face on the posterior of the mammoth in right 3/4 profile. Dates given for Avdeevo are 22 800 ± 160, 23 140 ± 430, and 23 400 ± 700. Adam Arkfeld noted a similarity of this artifact to mammoth sculptures from his Clear Brook, Virginia, archaeology site.
I propose the motif seen in both the Ohio and Russia examples implies some kind of cultural or traditional relatedness spanning at least 4,600 miles.
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