"Old Route 66 zoo" site's bird sculpture is "squared off" like Ohio and West Virginia examples

Bird figure with eye. Stacy Dodd and Rod Weber find from the "Old Route 66 zoo" stone sculpture megasite, Jasper County, Missouri

The bird sculpture above "squares off" its body by a horizontal and vertical line truncation creating near 90 degree angles.  The Ohio and West Virginia examples below seem to feature the same kind of "squaring" in truncating or framing the bird images. (click photos to expand)

Side 2.  This bird sculpture was found in direct association with dozens of other Missouri sculptures

A flaked stone tool found near the sculptures at the "Old Route 66 zoo" site

A "squared off" bird find by Ken Johnston, at Ansted, West Virginia

A "squared off" hanging bird sculpture, Alan Day, Day's Knob, Ohio

Victoria, Minnesota, landowner discovers Paleolithic cultural site including four bird art sculptures

Four bird sculptures, three of them found and pictured with associated pedestal bases.  This wonderful North American bird art assemblage is from a Victoria, Minnesota, site with a Paleolithic component.

Archaeologist Kent Bakken examines a Paleolithic artifact in his magnifying loupe. The link below will show some of the tools found in the context of the bird sculptures which led Kent Bakken to conclude there is a Paleolithic element at this archaeological site.

PHOTOS BY UNSIE ZUEGE

The largest sculpture pictured stands apart from the other three. It seems more abstract, stylized and ideal-based than the others, which seem to have more naturalistic forms. The four birds provide a great example of how different some of the pieces can look from each other- all representing bird imagery but in very different ways.

Day's Knob, Ohio archaeological inventory site #33GU218, has produced a bird pendant among many other likely art pieces

Alan Day collection, Cambridge, Ohio

photo with scale

 

Reverse side of the bird pendant

Alan Day of Cambridge, Ohio, popularly (if one can say that about figure stones) introduced the concept of portable rock art with his web site almost a decade ago.  This example from Day's Knob is interpreted by Alan as a bird pendant which balances in viewing position when hung from a cord.  The hole also serves as the eye for a second bird on the opposite side of the artifact.  A third bird, with wings, is seen emerging from/as the beak of the two larger bird heads.

For more information, visit the Day's Knob web site at the link below.  Many anomalous artifacts are presented from all over the United States and from Europe as well.  

http://daysknob.com/index.html

Another bird-like, beaked, flint from southern Licking County, Ohio

Licking Township, Licking County, Ohio

Ken Johnston collection

 

Bird-like flints with beaks can be found locally in the Buckeye Lake area.

Also pictured here are two flint, again somewhat bird-like, blades found within 10 feet of the beaked piece. These pieces were most likely not associated in pre-history but are staged together here to illustrate what seem to be avian shapes found in this locale in greater numbers than pure randomness should allow. Perhaps a pattern can be demonstrated with publication of more examples of this artifact type.

As the enabling (knife-like, spear-like) and first part of a bird to emerge into this world, these beaks may have had a symbolic significance expressed in flint and beyond their potential utility as tool attributes.

 

The topic of children toys in archaeology is rarely addressed but it is likely some rock art was used for learning and play.   A real bird is difficult for a child to hold but they are such a large part of the world of nature early people were immersed in.  Maybe these bird forms were a way to capture a child's imagination for a time.

three artifacts found at Hebron, Ohio, along Buckeye Lake, by Ken Johnston

reverse sides of the artifacts

all shown with scale

close up of beak-like feature

beak feature from opposite side of artifact

Two examples of beaked, bird-like, flint artifacts from Licking County, Ohio, found at same cultural site

A "beaked" uniface.  Pam Douglass find, Jacksontown, Ohio

(please excuse the slightly blurred photos)

A beaked uniface.  This type of beak is quite common on artifacts in the Licking Valley in Central Ohio, giving them the look of a bird form.  The bird forms often have a concave back and a convex breast below the beak.  More examples to be posted in the future.  It may be diagnostic of a tool type, and/or it could be a way to express bird imagery.  The beaks do not appear to have been used so their existence may be wholly symbolic.  The other edges often appear to have been lightly used.  Also, other types of bird iconography may be found in the area of Flint Ridge, Licking County, Ohio.

with scale included in photo

Another beaked artifact has two, conjoined, egg-like cups.
It may be interpreted as a micro-sculpture of a pregnant woman's torso with legs spread in birthing position.

Pam Douglass finds, Jacksontown, Licking County, Ohio

This beak itself does not have any indication of use as a tool.

Micro-sculpture of pregnant woman's torso
top yellow line = truncation of the head 
bottom yellow line= truncation of the right leg
yellow arrow= woman's vulvar zone, source of human life
white arrow= left thigh.  Left leg truncated below yellow arrow.
grey line= bottom of belly of woman
white line= contours in the flint define top of pubic area
green arrow= pregnant and protruding belly of woman


Close up of the woman's torso sculpture representation of the vulvar area
The artist has exploited a naturally advantageous inclusion in the flint to represent the source-issuer of all human life.

The white stone feature with sparkling silver center which represents the vulvar zone on the other side of the artifact penetrates and narrows in the flint so it is seen on this side as a circle and dot (inside white circle markup in the photo above) as opposed to an oval with line on the "feminine side."  The blade edge on the left in the photo appears to have been used.  The suspected use-wear zone is inside a white bracket markup in the above photo.  (click photo to expand)

The cups appear breast-like at this angle.  The bird is associated with maternity and providing for the young in Paleolithic art and this may be an intentional symbolic creation of the of the birthing (eggs) and nurturing (breasts) mother motifs. The cups are concave on the artifact but if one looks at the cups as breasts, the breasts appear as if they are convex or protruding from the stone which is in fact an optical illusion.  Pictured with scale (mm) on photo right border.  The beak is highlighted in white lines here because it visually washed out into the background of the photo.

Close up of beaked "bird head" with flint work details.

(click photo to expand view)

This piece may be interpreted as a unified male and female bird where the female side is represented in darker flint, with eggs.  The male side is the pink flint, symbolic of female birds often being drab colored compared to their male counterparts.

The artifact and symbolism here are similar to finds at Boukoul, Netherlands, of archaeologist Jan van Es. Please see links at bottom of the portablerockart.com page for Jan van Es' web site.  Mr. van Es has described the egg, the bird and the pregnant woman as related icons in Pleistocene portable rock art motifs of Europe.  One of the eggs in the nest here is also the woman's belly and the other is her ovate thigh.

Standing Bird (bifacial sculpture)

Standing Bird (bifacial sculpture)

Dennis Boggs collection

Found at Irrigon, Oregon, along the Columbia River

Possible human face depicted on the backside of the bird on this side of the sculpture.  Lines added to assist reference back up to unmarked photo.

Perhaps this stone material was selected for a bird icon because of its "made of the air" property of porocity.  Light passes through the sculpture at two points where the material is thin.  The face is at low resolution and may require viewing at some distance from the computer display to percieve as it is marked up here.

Side 2

-kbj

A polymorphic sculpture: ape, lion, duck, egg, elephant and face "mask"

Ape head, right facial profile

A polymorphic sculpture:  ape, feline, duck, egg, primate face "mask" and proboscidean

This likely prehistoric polymorphic sculpture came to my attention by an internet visitor to Portable Rock Art as a possible intended “ape” icon.  The base it now stands on has been cleanly cut by a power saw in modern times apparently to facilitate standing display of the stone, which is quite interesting and beautiful not considering the imagery.  It was gifted to a rock collector without any records.  There is no provenance on the stone, it has modern alteration and it must be duly qualified.  Nonetheless, it is quite interesting and I think suitable for introduction and discussion here.  In addition to the ape, I have interpreted four additional creatures in this sculpture.

Anyone familiar with the stone material and its possible origin, which seems like a type of banded onyx or marble, is invited to comment or send an email.  It is very heavy for its size so the stone density is high. It is best to warn others of its unexpected weight when handing it over to them or they tend drop their arm and swing it back like they’re ready to “bowl” the artifact across the room. The surfaces, other than the cut part, are in excellent condition.

Feline head left profile.  The black band is the cat's jawline, her mouth, at lower left of photo, is represented by an excavated hole to suggest a snarl out of the side of the mouth.

There is also a depiction of a "sitting  duck" integrated into the image of the lion's head.  The duck is sitting on the jawline's wide black band which becomes like a shore's edge, facing left, bill tucked to its breast, with the black spot at the top of the stone representing the duck's eye.  There is an incised triangular wing.  The tail of the duck, if there was one, has been lopped off by the saw cut.  The duck is depicted as sitting on a likely symbolic "cosmic egg," source of life.  The lion and/or facial mask,  depending on the view direction, is positioned to spit out the the egg, a regenerative theme in early European stone art described by archaeologist Jan van Es of The Netherlands.

The appearance of at least five creature images at each of the four cardinal-type views of the artifact suggests its likely prehistoric intended iconography.  It was probably naturally suggestive to an artist or artists who made alterations to follow those suggestions to further refinement.  They are interpreted as a feline’s snarling head (like a lion), a primate (ape or human) seemingly depicted with a traumatic injury to the left side of the face, an ape-like right facial profile, a standing probiscidean (elephant, mammoth, mastodon family) and a duck.

The rather obscure public recognition of the roles of these five  "morphs" in ancient stone art make it unlikely someone would intentionally manufacture such a stone in current times.  It seems very likely only someone with great exposure to stone material offered by a hunter-forager's intimate relationship with and knowledge of lithic resources, as well as a great culturally-driven desire to express these five creatures simultaneously, could produce the final form seen here. It is a combination of iconography and a craftsmanship of another time.    

The most obvious human activity documented besides the saw cut is drilling and expanding of the lion’s mouth to manufacture a look of “snarl” or “grrrrrrr”  out of the side of the mouth.  There is a definite area of focused multiple percussive blows on the forehead of the ape, just above the right eye.  The ape's mouth line seems partially incised.  The ape's eye area was excavated down to black stone and recessed under a natural stone inclusion serving as a hard brow line.  White stone was removed to access black stone underneath to make the two eyes of the elephant. The primate face mask has two ground stone nostrils. The duck likewise has white stone removed to depict an eye in exact location.

The piece appears polished, maybe resulting from a combination of environmental rolling, intentional polishing of breaks made to enhance the final form and smoothing and patination from human handling of the stone.

Primate (ape/human?) "mask" with grotesque/missing left facial depiction.  Two nostrils are visible at the tip of the nose here, face is being viewed straight on.  Each serves as the singular nostril for the profile views of the lion and ape.

(for orientation, ape on photo left side, lion on photo right side)

The idea of a lion taking a bite out of the head may be found in the “Four Memes…” article by James B. Harrod seen in the links panel on the right side of your screen.  Such stone faces, or masks, are often depicted with visual distortion on the left side, often indicating an open mouth, a closed or missing eye- perhaps suggesting the horror of a lions bite.  This artifact could be an expression of a “stratigraphic overlay” of three world “memes” or packages of cultural information (1) "hit the baboon (ape here) on the head," first identified by Mary Leakey at Olduvai, (2) “lion's bite out of the head” and (3) “mask of the opacity of suffering” to borrow James B. Harrod’s concepts and terminology. 

Standing elephant, head at photo left side, rump at right 

A slice of the stone was cut off by power saw in current times, about parallel to the horizontal plane of the standing elephant, where the lower 1/4 or so of the elephant, such as the bottom of the trunk, the bottom of legs and the feet, if they were ever there, are gone now.

Head-on view of elephant, eyes depicted in black stone

Apes are a known subject of European stone art.  There may have been human networks from Europe into Africa or Asia which provided information to Europeans about apes.  Some Europeans were very familiar with baboons which they had to contend with on the Iberian Peninsula and along the Mediterranean coast.  It may be that the remains of bones, such as those of Gigantopithicus which went extinct about 100,000 years ago, were traded into Europe from south east Asia as novelties of a much larger but similar species. 

Please use the links here for images and more information on the ape topic in ancient stone art.  Right click your mouse to have your browser translate languages if needed.

Ursel Benekendorff, Germany

http://www.schafftwissen.de/16.html

Hans Grams, Germany

http://hans-grams.de/Fund_Wegberg_PDF/compare_smitsi_sapiens.pdf

Jan van Es, The Netherlands

http://jan.innoxia.com/aapa2.htm

Petrified wooden polymorph from Java.  Jan van Es collection.

-kbj