Luigi Chiapparoli identifies Italian elephant sculpture interpreted as a male baby mammoth with human and wisent forms on its side by Jan van Es

Luigi Chiapparoli find and identification of an elephant sculpture in Italy

Jan van Es made these comments and interpretation of this sculpture: "The corpse is in fact of a baby elephant (mammoth of the child). In many sculptures of animals (bear, elephant, bison, etc..) is a portrait by the legs visible. Here I see a man's face by the hind legs. On the side of the belly I see a female form of a symbol of fertility. That's why I think it's a young male animal."

Interpretive drawing by Jan van Es. A depiction of a wisent is illustrated in top part of the drawing here linked to the contemporary male symbol.

Interpretive drawing by Jan van Es

 

Photo by rock art investigator Luigi Chiapparoli

 

These animal combinations and arrangements as interpreted by Jan van Es may also be seen in North America but continue to be ignored by a field too comfortable to dismiss them as "cloud watching" by hopelessly naïve people. Too many lay persons and amateur archaeologists have noticed these portable rock art forms but have received the "Boucher de Perthes" treatment from a field which claims to operate as a science but has no mechanism or desire to handle anomalous material.

 

Jacques Boucher de Crèvecœur de Perthes was vindicated in his observation of stone tools in association with extinct Pleistocene fauna and with proper science he will be vindicated that pierre-figures, or figure stones, may be found right alongside the tools. 

Little mammoth figure with human face icon in bas relief on its side

Little mammoth figure with human face in bas relief on its side

Find by archaeologist Jan van Es, The Netherlands

 

The human/mammoth combination seen in Hans Gram's sculpture featured in the prior posting and in other sculptures featured on this blog is also seen here on this small pebble with a mammoth form including eye, with a simple human face icon on its side. The mammoth is facing right and the human face is looking straight-on, perhaps smiling. The photo at right shows human stone removal to define the oval-shaped human head.

American paleolithic sculpture example of a smiling human face on the side of a mammoth

 

This North Carolina mammoth shaped sculpture (in profile facing left) identified by Buzzy Boles was interpreted in an earlier posting on this blog as having a carved smiling human face mask, a bison head looking right and a lion face in the lower left as illustrated here.

Rocks' pits may be art "cupules" on Columbian mammoth sculpture forms

Pitted artifact found by Ken Johnston in Perry County, Ohio

This artifact may include imagery of the Columbian mammoth, species identifiable by the "bump" depicted at the top of the head.

 Columbian mammoth reconstruction

Buckeye Lake mammoth cupule stone #1 (of 2) was found in the disturbed soil of new subdivision road construction activities, on the south shore of Buckeye Lake, Perry County, Ohio.  Cupules, often identified by mid-west American archaeologists and collectors as "nutting stones," or "paint cups," or "grinding hollows," often appear to have had very limited or no evidence of use as tools.  The Buckeye Lake, Ohio, examples have discernible peck marks lining the cups, seemingly untouched by human action since the time they were created.  The 3 cups on the 2 stones seem to have been created under a preconceived idealistic form within definable size and shape parameters. This raises the possibility they are in fact symbolic cupules and were never used to crack nuts open.

Visual arts Cork (Ireland) web page on prehistoric cupules

To date, only a few proboscidian images have been documented in North America.  Examples are the Old Vero Beach Mammoth/mastodon (Purdy at. al. 2010), the Utah petroglyph recently described by Malotki and Wallace (2011), and Juan Armenta's 1959 find in Mexico.  Please see Pleistocene Coalition News, several issues, link is on right screen panel for free newsletter.  These images are all similar in that they are glyphic representations by use of incisions or organized pecking ("A line is a dot that went for a walk" -Paul Klee) made on stone or bone.  They are essentially "line drawings" of proboscideans.  Archaeological investigators would do well to consider the possibility of such imagery expressed in portable rock sculpture form, often "almost invisible" (A. Day), subtle to our visual-media-saturated brains, invoking only the most essential visual elements to allow one to "assemble a picture," often incorporating natural stone forms, which can signal recognition and signification of these awsome animals by America's earliest human inhabitants.  All art requires some level of participation on the part of the receiver.  My opinion is archaeologists need to participate a little more in order to begin to understand what art so far removed in time from us is all about.  As Ohio figure stone investigator Alan Day of the Day's Knob site has taught, "Know what you see, don't just see what you know." 

This is the reverse side of cupule stone #1.  It has a second cupule, exactly opposing the cupule on the other side, so the cupules almost touch at the center of the stone.  Human agency on this rock is not an issue and gauging the probability of intent to create mammoth imagery was given support by the recent find of a second cupule stone (photos below), which has significant agricultural plow damage.  It has the overall mammoth silhouette shape, remnants of diagnostic "bump" on top of the head, stands upright in correct ground orientation on the only edge which allows it to stand, and has evidence of the very bottom of a cupule on the reverse side which may have been destroyed by plow action in historical times.

This cupule stone #2 was discovered 3 weeks ago in a display case at the Buckeye Lake Historical Society Museum.  A special thanks to museum director J-me Braig for arranging to loan me the artifact for photography and examination. A second cupule on the reverse side, like stone #1 has, may have been removed by plow action.  Just a tiny bit of the absolute bottom of a possible second cupule is found on the reverse side, exactly opposite the cupule seen in photo above.

Both Ohio cupule stones were found along the modern day shoreline of Buckeye Lake, a former Ice Age glacial terminus swamp/lowland, ephemeral lake area.  The cupules were found about 5km distance from each other.  Buckeye Lake is about 8km from the Burning Tree (golf course) mastodon find site.  So, there is record of human/proboscidean contact very close to the find sites of these possible mammoth sculptures.

Burning Tree mastodon site, with missing rear leg and stone tool butcher marks

Mammoth cupule stone #2 at left, #1 at right, seen side by side for similarities in raw materials, cupules and "mammoth form" perhaps as intended as the cupules themselves.

To establish precedent creation of single cupule, portable, zoomorphic sculptures, from Neolithic age in Europe please see Don's Maps site for photos of "Altar from house No. 45, Lepenski Vir Ib, carved in the likeness of a fish, possibly a carp. Photo: "Lepenski Vir" by Dragoslav Srejović 1972." The site is located in modern day Serbia.

http://www.donsmaps.com/lepenski2.html

A cupule with touching meandering groove, from Auditorium Cave, Bhimbetka, Madhya Pradesh, India.  It dates from 290,000 to 700,000 BCE.  It seems so interesting that the behavior of creating cupules dates back so far in the "old world" and may have persisted into, or re-emerged, in North America.

Perry County, Ohio

Alexis Bousiges of France interprets human face and mammoth icons carved on suspected fossilized mammoth tooth from near Calico Early Man Site, Barstow, California

Interpreted as a fossilized (baby mammoth) tooth with a carving of a human facial profile and a mammoth figure by Alexis Bousiges of France.  The width is roughly 6cm.

A possible mammoth figure is seen in the top photo in this portrait view, where the trunk is a rounded off vertical rectangle with diagonal lines on the right side of the piece with one eye divot inside the trunk line and another eye divot to the right, outside the trunk line.  The human face may be taken as emerging from the belly of the mammoth or as proboscidean foot imagery.

The suspected artifact is from the Mojave desert near Barstow, California.  The find location is near the former, Pleistocene, Lake Manix and relatively near the Calico Early Man site. 

Here is a video presentation of this piece from Alexis Bousiges

Here is a link to Alexis' blog with this and additional pieces from the Barstow, California, locale.

http://paleoface.blogspot.com/2010/11/small-mammoth-tooth-carving.html

Calico Early Man Site lithics and a great book on peopling of the Americas issues in recent archaeological history: 
http://earthmeasure.com/first-american.html

Fossils from Pleistocene Lake Manix
http://inyo2.110mb.com/manix/manixlakebeds.html

Interpretation by Alexis Bousiges.  Thanks to Alexis for letting me share her photos and video on portablerockart.com

Rick Doninger identifies mobile art in south west Indiana paleolithic sites, artifact motif of lion atop prey is similar to Ohio find 250 miles distance

Worked flint with possible human infant, buffalo, lion and mammoth iconography.  The images are seen in this order by rotating the stone counter-clockwise.

Rick Doninger collection, south west Indiana, USA

Frame around image of infant or fetus-in-womb face.

The possible face of a human fetus or an infant is depicted within this "cycle-of-life" art piece.  The earlier post "Peter Cottontail has left the building" also has a similar face of what looks like a baby or fetus depicted on what is a suspected rabbit "prey-mother" fertility piece.  Both of the faces are in the lower left corner of the zoomorphic image and in a "V" position as if depicting a pre-birth orientation. 

Rick Doninger is an amateur archaeologist located in south west Indiana. Rick has identified a stone working industry that is not explained by mainstream archaeology.  It has strong similarities to European Mousterian and Levallois technology traditions.  Rick's conclusion, based on thousands of artifacts, is that he has identified a unique paleolithic presence in the American midwest.  Rick is an active commentator on about.com's archaeology forum regarding the possibility of the older presence of humans in North America than currently accepted by mainstream archaeologists.  After years of work and research, Rick is gaining the attention of scholars who are interested in the potential age of the artifacts, and apparent full-blown industry, he has identified.

Possible bison image in right profile, head in upper right of artifact.

Artifact is rotated 90 degrees here.

With I.Y. Yotova et. al. (2011) x-haplotype genetic data indicating extensive mating of Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans across Eurasia with evidence found into First American populations, as well as the Denver Museum of Nature and Science returning site dates at 30,000 BP in Nebraska (center of North America), the great possibility exists of connections to Europe and Neanderthal culture, tools and art.

Rick Doninger's photo rotated a total of 180 degrees.

A feline icon is perched at the top left of the artifact.  The lion is resting its head on its left paw, seen in left profile looking to photo left.

(click photo to expand)

Ken Johnston's markup on Rick Doninger's photo.  The white line indicates the "ground" the feline (presumably lion) is lying on.  There may be proboscidean imagery here, where the lion is being depicted as lying across the mammoth's head.  The black circle is a possible mammoth eye, the black line crossing Rick's hand is the curvature of the possible mammoth's trunk line in right profile view.

A lion in this same position (left profile, head resting on left paw) lying across a white bison head was identified by Ken Johnston on this artifact found by Pam Douglass in Licking County, Ohio.

In both the Ohio and Indiana examples, the lion's belly is just touching the "eye" of the prey animal. 

Here is a direct link to the white bison head posting:

http://portablerockart.blogspot.com/2011/05/white-bison-prey-shares-crystal-eye.html

Mouth worked in fine detail, with use of serendipitous natural features, transforms pebble into polymorphic figure stone

Mouth worked in fine detail, use of serendipitous natural features, transforms pebble into anthropomorphic figure stone.

From Irrigon, Oregon, U.S.A., Dennis Boggs collection.

Arrow points to top of mouth area where focused carving marks are seen to create the appearance of an upper and lower lip.

  

Up close of mouth.

Left profile view of the face. Click any photo to expand.

Left profile view of the face with highlighted facial features.  Compare to photo above without the highlights.  The head hair meets the ear in the middle of the big circle.

(Return to the unhighlighted photo above this one and note the details of the man's nostril)

In the photo of the artifact above this Asian elephant trunk tip, the feature inside the circle resembles the tip of such a trunk in the closed, as if holding water, position.  In the artifact photo directly below, the human mouth on the face resembles the end of a trunk in the open, perhaps roaring or calling, position.

Possible proboscidean imagery when viewed head on like this, like viewing an elephant head on where the eyebrows of the face are the big ears and the nose of the man is the trunk.  The mouth itself looks like the end of a (mammoth?) trunk.

Columbia River at Irrigon, Oregon, artifact.  Found by Dennis Boggs.  The head is facing up on its designed flat base.

A very similar stone representational technique to create the mouth details may be seen from this sculpture from Germany.  It is as if lips and a tongue are present.  Click to expand size of any photo. Photo courtesy of Ursel Benekendorff.  Photo is  ©Copyright 2011. Ursel Benekendorff.  All Rights reserved. 

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

A polymorphic sculpture photographed in the garden of Jan van Es.

Artifact from Beegden, The Netherlands.  Like the Oregon example, it is a "long face" with proboscidean iconography in the eyebrows and nose, a human/mammoth morph.

-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 

Family united in tenderness

Family in tenderness (in proboscidean context)

Hans Grams of Germany has kindly submitted this figure stone with his interpretative notes "Child, Mother & Father in tenderness."  On the right side, view the man's head from the left rear.  The nape of his neck and jawline are visible.  On the left, the woman's forehead is pressed against the man's forehead, her face is nuzzled against him in right profile with a closed eye lid.  The baby is depicted as being behind her head, presumably on her back in a sling.

Grams has noted the elephant iconography in the overall shape of the stone.  This family is united in form with what may have been a revered animal. Mr. Grams writes:

"V922
Category: 1
Family in Elephant
Finding date: 03/10/2006
Finding place: D-41748 Viersen-Helenabrunn
This stone from pure quartz weighs 132 gr. and has the dimensions 5x4x2 cms.

The very pure material lets suppose a very valuable motive with a figural representation. The man covers the right one, the child and the woman the left side of the relief. Eyes and mouth of man and woman subtend themselves. The faces are leaned towards each other. The whole figure has the outline of an Elephant. Still today this animal is marked by his stove love. The back of the stone is absolutely level and smooth. Here only the quality of the material works. The picture side contained two elated parts as a physical structure. These were used by the palaeolithic artist to model relief-like the faces of a man, a woman and a child. The child seems to carry a kind of pointed cap.

In a mail from the 12.10.2006 Jan van Es, Roermond, (Netherlands) dates the origin of the sculpture in a period from before 750,000 to 1,000,000. At that time in the Rhineland there was the flint - lighter to be worked on - only seldom. It was transported only with the glaciers of the ice age of the Baltic States to there. At that time the prehistoric artists helped themselves of the lydit- or the quartz-stones, which existed here always. Also for the treatment of this stone they have had quite excellent technologies."

Here is the link to Mr. Hans Grams' website: