Hopewell tradition mica cutout remnants found eroding from path along Kenawah River, West Virginia

Hopewell mica cutout remnants found at Ansted, West Virginia

(click photos to expand)

This Hopewell tradition mica was found by Lyn Niday eroding from a path along the Kenawah River at Ansted.  Lyn collected what was exposed at the surface and noted the mica appeared to have been cut.  Because of the delicate nature of mica in thinner sheets, it is amazing the "lobe" represented by the three sections at right remained in tact.  Maybe this mica is a small part of what was a larger piece of art work. The mica is thought to originate in the Carolinas and to have been moved into the Hopewell sphere via a system of trade and exchange.

 Hopewell tradition mica cutout artifacts include bird claw and bear tooth icons.  The Hopewell are dated from 200 BCE to 500 CE.

This mica was found in the area of the Armstrong expression of the Hopewell interaction sphere. There is an excellent museum at Hopewell Culture National Park at Chillicothe, Ohio

Hexagon Rock

Hexagon Rock

Ansted, West Virginia, find by Ken Johnston

(click photo to expand)

This six-sided platter was found among suspected crude stone tools and two possible bird head sculptures in a 30 meter surface sample of the Shady Creek bed at Ansted, West Virginia.  The bird heads have been the subject of two recent postings on this blog.  I searched the internet for images of hexagon shaped rocks and could not find any other than the kind of hexagon basalt formations from well-known Giants Causeway in Ireland and other sites.  I then began to ponder the statistical probabilities of a natural rock having six sides of relative proportional equity.  Not being a statistician, I thought I'd post it here for others to consider and comment on.  

A similar looking, hexagon-shaped, stone from the Gault, Texas, site has a grooved double pattern which clearly identifies it as an artifact.  The West Virginia hexagon rock has no such visible etchings but was found in a cut from a geologically recent creek bed and may be water worn.  The Gault artifact appears to have had a break on the right side as pictured here and, if so, plausibly could have had a more equitable hexagon shape prior to the break.  The lower right corner hints at an angle of the former edge of a more proportionally shaped hexagon rock.

The Gault site engraved plaque could have been a more proportionally uniform hexagon shape at one time and then broken as the red line drawn on the West Virginia hexagon rock illustrates.  A foot-long ruler is pictured across the rock.

For those people familiar with geometry and aesthetics, perhaps there is something to this piece.  Having found no images of hexagonal rocks on the web and finding this in a possible tool and art context, make it a candidate for possible artifactuality, perhaps a functional platter like object, but maybe intentionally made with six sides for the novelty or some culturally mediated or aesthetic purpose.  I note the outline as seen in the diagram below somewhat resembles the profile, in an angular, stylized way, of a right side of a mammoth or mastodon which is sometimes represented by its simplest features in paleoart.

Mammuthus columbi, Columbian mammoth palentologist's photo reconstruction with white markups made by me to highlight major visual lines of the extinct animal and how they form a hexagon in rough proportion to the Ansted, West Virginia rock and possibly the Gault, Texas, engraved art piece.

Bird head shaped limestone plaque considered in context supports possibility it was shaped in prehistory

Limestone plaque with possible bird head profile, from near Hawks Nest state park, Ansted, West Virginia, near the confluence of the Gauley and the New rivers. The park is named for the large numbers of birds of prey which nest in the old stone cliffs in the rich riparian environment.

  

Artifactuality is not evident on the tablet itself but its context, find location and possible imagery make it a candidate for recognition by someone in prehistory resulting in it being among crude tool lithics on the valley floor.  The discovery of two bird heads in a small survey area make it possible some more could found in the immediate locale with a closer look, and this could reinforce the liklihood of artifactuality here.

Right profile bird head silhouette image

A human shaped stone from the survey site, 30 meters along a West Virginia creek bed

side 2 of human shaped stone exposed by Shade Creek

A suspected duck head figure stone found in the same 30 meter surface survey of Shade Creek in Kanawah County, WV.  Even though the subject of this posting does not have any plainly evident signs of human agency, having found it in a cluster with this duck head and tools, make it possible it was worked into form or perhaps at least recognized as being bird like and manuported to a cultural site.  The duck rock was the subject of an earlier posting found here:

http://portablerockart.blogspot.com/2011/07/relative-ubiquity-of-portable-rock-art.html

An unnatural number and proportion of triangular or rhomboid shaped flat stones, enough to demonstrate a pattern of human agency to me, were found in a sampling of the current bed of Shady Creek, Ansted, West Virginia.  The creek bed cuts 1 to 2 meters into the valley floor, exposing suspected crude tools and a couple of bird figure art artifacts.

click photos to expand

My interest in crude and opportunistic stone tools led me to observe patterns of human agency on non-tool artifacts and artifacts which resembled simple images of people and animals.  This led to my study of portable rock art.  In West Virginia, I was able to find an abundance of worked stone material and two possible bird head sculptures from a random stream-cut valley floor location in the hollow.  Thanks to Bill Niday family for allowing me access to their land.

The rhomboids were often made on tabular stone blanks using buffer technique according to James Harrod, Ph. D., at the web site originsnet.org.  These tools may indicate the presence of Homo erectus or other early humans in America.  These articles are generally dismissed as "geofacts" by archaeologists.

http://originsnet.org/cccgallery/pages/e)rhomboids.htm

http://originsnet.org/cccgallery/index.htm

The near 90 degree angle in the lower right corner of the plaque, almost as if the bird head is truncated by the corner of a "frame," makes it possible for the object to rest on a horizontal surface in a correct viewing orientation.  The head could have been inserted into a slit or gap on a log or wooden staff for display or as a wooden bird body the stone head was attached to. (click photos to expand)

Relative ubiquity of portable rock art among crude tools in Eastern North America demonstrated by informal sampling of West Virginia creek bed

Duck head right profile.
 

Found in association with hard stone tools in Shade Creek at Ansted, Kenawah County, West Virginia. Finds and interpretation by Ken Johnston.

Find location is a few miles from the confluence of the New and Gauley rivers, which together form the Kanawah River, an Ohio River tributary. Despite its name, the New River is one of the oldest rivers in the world.

In an informal surface sampling of approximately 30 meters in length of the creek bed, in the Skaggs/Lucas families' hollow at Ansted, dozens of stone tools and two bird head sculptures were found in about two hours of surveying for stones which evidenced apparent human modification. Tool photos are included here to demonstrate context of the portable rock art finds. The second bird head sculpture will be featured in a separate posting on this blog.
 

Duck head reverse side with scale

Duck head features an 'eye" in bas-relief in the anatomically correct position.

View from above.  The "bump" seen at the peak of the stone in this photo is the duck's bas-relief eye.  Two round nostril divots may be seen on the top of the duck bill on the left side of the photo above and illustrated below with green circles.

Detail of the tip of the duck bill as seen from above looking down.

When the view of the artifact is turned upside down from the duck view, the sculpture transforms into another bird in whole body form, not just the head.  The duck's mouth serves as a tail feathering representation when seeing the sculpture in this whole bird view.

Upside-down duck head side 2 also looks like a second whole bird integrated with the duck head.

Knife found in the 30 meter sample area that also produced two bird head sculptures, including the duck in this post

Knife side 2

Knife as likely held in use

Hand axe, convex side

Percussion pitting on reverse of hand axe

Hand axe as held

Awl/perforator type tools worked to points

Reverse sides of points

Detail of reduction with possible intent to leave a bulb or knob to assist grip (seen as the rounded form in lower right of tool).

An abrading block

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gauley_River

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_River_(Kanawha_River)

-kbj