Human head left profile, a water bird in flight and a standing bird figure- all in quartzite found this week at Arkfeld site

 Adam Arkfeld finds, site #44FK731, Clear Brook, Virginia

The Arkfeld site produces limestone and basalt art pieces in great numbers and a has also produced a smaller number of quartzite pieces. This was a significant week for quartz finds as Adam began working on a new locale at his archaeology site.

'Water bird in flight'

(wing on the down stroke)

'Sitting bird'

'Flying foot' imagery from Arkfeld Site Paleolithic times in similar motif to ancient Greek god Hermes

'Flying foot' interpreted by Adam Arkfeld

The Arkfeld Site, #44FK732, Clear Brook, Virginia

The side view of the 'foot' has a distinct bird-in-flight-like form. It also resembles the NASA Space Shuttles in profile view. Based on this and evidence of toes on the foot worked to relative anatomical accuracy led Arkfeld to this astute interpretation.

Arkfeld notes the 'flying foot' motif is seen in the case of the Greek god Hermes

View of the top of the foot shows five toes resting on a surface of a band of white quartzite. (click photos to expand) 

Closer view of top of foot

Toes illustrated

View of front of the foot

Close up view of the toes on the front of the foot

Limestone birds in flight with wings from The Arkfeld Site, #44FK731, Clear Brook, Virginia

'Stone birds in flight with wings'

The Arkfeld Site, #44FK731, Clear Brook, Virginia

This sculpted piece of limestone may be interpreted as having at least two figurative bird possibilities. Much of the portable rock art featured on this blog incorporates two or more creatures, often exploiting the visual ambiguity of the stone or involving shared body elements or optical illusions.

Here a bird with tail at left may be interpreted as like a raptor while a second bird with head at left may be taken as like a goose. This could be a predator-prey pairing as is seen in other examples on this blog.

Rockport, Arkansas, portable rock art site on the old family farm

'Bird in flight' figure stone

 Patrick Wilson and family finds, The Stone Wall Site

Rockport, Hot Spring county, Arkansas. Near the Ouachita River, a Mississippi River tributary.

'Mammoth body and human head facing left'

This is a 'mammoth and human' combination sculpture exhibiting two motifs already described on this blog. First, this view may be seen as a human head and face looking left, with a mammoth form cresting its forehead and where the mammoth 'trunk' and the human's 'nose' are the same element in the stone. It is like the mammoth's 'head bump' and its arched back and posterior are the human's 'hairdo.' 

Blue line illustrating mammoth form combined with the human head with their 'eyes' circled. The mammoth shares it's 'trunk' with the human's 'nose' which is seen in many other examples. The human's eye has been created using a Paleolithic rock art convention of jamming a manufactured square pebble into a crevice of a stone to define and give depth to an 'eye,' or to add 'teeth' to a 'mouth' etc.

Drawing Copyright (c) 2015 Bradley Lepper, Ohio History Connection.  Lepper has traced a European cave art depiction of a figure with both human and mammoth qualities. This same fundamental combination (mammoth and human sharing forehead) is seen in this Rockport, Arkansas, sculpture example. 

The second significant common motif exhibited by this sculpture may be seen when the sculpture is reversed. A human head looking left may be seen here, where the human's face is also the 'posterior' of the mammoth figure.

Mammoth in profile facing left with rear legs defined

A human-like image faintly visible on this stone looks like a human bust with shoulder and arm in left 3/4 profile. The human's 'head' is in the upper right part of the stone. I placed the interpreted human face in a box. Images like this may be many thousands of years old and sometimes they look like hauntingly faded photographs on stone.

Close up of human face image which was made by an artist selectively altering the rock's surface to create eyes, nose and mouth

Human face in retouch work looking left on a large flint

'Sleeping duck stone figure with head turned onto its back'

Illustration of duck's 'bill' and worked fully circular 'eye' in a Paleolithic art convention and in correct anatomical placement.

A sleeping duck in nature

A sitting anthropomorphic figure (troll-like) looking right with arm raised to its mouth area.

Bird head with eye

Bottom of underside of the bird head (by the floor here) has a human head with worked eyes, nose and mouth. Pietro Gaietto of Italy has described this motif in Paleolithic sculptural art there and it is seen in other United States examples.

Assorted finds from the site by Patrick Wilson and family, Rockport, Arkansas, indicate the presence of Stone Age humans curating and concentrating stones which resemble humans.

Novaculite outcrops throughout the area have attracted humans for millennia. Photo by Patrick Wilson. Patrick's grandpa first noticed an abundance of worked and iconic stones on his property many years ago.

Arkansas novaculite translucent banded knife blade found by Patrick Wilson

Hardin County site at the confluence of the Tennessee River and a creek is producing a variety of portable rock art

Human head looking right

More Jason Lamont finds, Hardin County, Tennessee

Human and animal heads joined. Human with large nose facing left and animal facing right. This sculpture type has been identified by Pietro Gaietto as a primary one of Paleolithic stone work.

The lighting is poor here but this is a diamond shaped stone which has been configured with a simple face of two eyes, a nose and a mouth. This 'face on rhombus' motif has been identified at several sites in association with other portable rock art finds like in this example found at Mammoth Springs, Arkansas by Jeff Vincent.

Animal figures

Animal figure

Chert 'Bird in flight' figures

A cult of silent nighttime hunters? Beak on recent bird sculpture find lends support to earlier hypothesis of 'Clovis spear points as owl-symbolic'

Recently discovered owl sculpture with two other birds depicted on its face as featured earlier this month.

In prior years on this blog I identified two Ohio spear point artifacts which are possibly from the "pre-Clovis era" (before about 13,500 years ago) and which may indicate attempts to make the points symbolic icons of the owl.

Illustration of interpreted owl eye and beak features on the Licking County, Ohio, owl sculpture and a close up of the 'hooked owl beak with two nostrils'

Recently I discovered and identified a second flint and quartz crystal owl sculpture from Licking County, Ohio, which has a beak depiction on the bird which is strikingly similar to what I suspected was a beak depiction on one of the owl-iconic spear points. This post introduces this comparison.

Coschocton County spear point made of Coschocton flint found by Dr. Robert Curry near Wakatomika Creek on his farm near Dresden, Ohio, and acquired by Ken Johnston. Described as a "Cactus Hill" type after study by Dr. James Adovasio of Mercyhurst Archaeological Institute. It is likely pre-Clovis and has two similar and symmetrical divots in the flint in the anatomically correct position for 'owl eyes.' Featured earlier on this blog.

Licking County, Ohio, broken spear point base typed by me as "pre-Clovis" because of the basal concavity, large flake removal and its thinness. It resembles some Spanish Solutrean bases I have seen. The base is centered on what I have interpreted as a 'beak' on the face of the owl form.

The beak may be a natural imperfection in the flint or it may have been etched into the flint. The feature seems to demonstrate starts and stops as would be seen with human carving. There is another 'beak' on the opposite side of this piece which was featured earlier on this blog. This side seems to depict a hooked beak.

Spear point 'owl beak' compared to sculpture 'owl beak.' Their similar shape and execution on the flint leads me to conclude this could be an artistic convention to create the owl beak anatomical feature which may likely be found on other owl-iconic artifacts in my local area and perhaps beyond.

I think the new find supports my earlier hypothesis that Clovis points are "owl-symbolic" where the fluted channel came to represent the more explicit 'eyes' and 'beaks' which may have been made on pre-Clovis spear points. The removal of the channel flake may have been a quicker way to produce the owl without having to take so much time for more time involved eye and beak details.

Even if the flute channel is not related to the owl symbolism the basal tangs on Clovis points remain as symbolic of the ears of an owl. This may have been done to bring the magic power of the owls' hunting prowess, evidenced by night vision and silent flight capabilities, to the human hunt.

Dr. Bruce Bradley of the University of Exeter has described the relatively fast emerging and short life of Clovis tool kits as a possible cult-like response to the need for an urgent change in established life-ways. One may speculate that the reduction of available megafauna at the terminal Pleisistocene may have triggered the need for a more focused and fully expressed ritualistic symbol-driven hunting system.

If large animal protein, bone and ivory were less available as scavenged items, hunting and the use of spear points may have emerged to continue to maintain elements of the big animal culture. Maybe the 'owl' icon was seen as a way to improve their odds.

According to the BBC series "Planet Earth", elephant night vision is "not much better than our own." This puts elephants at a notable disadvantage when there are hungry predators around, as demonstrated in the series, when a pride of around 30 lions takes down a medium-sized elephant which has difficulty seeing them once it gets separated from its herd.

Two Paleolithic spear points from Benton County, Tennessee, Ernest Sims Collection.

10,000 year old artifacts from Washington

As of now the "Clovis spear points as owl-symbolic" hypothesis may be weak with just a few examples but by posting my observations here maybe someone in the future who has made similar observations will have a reference.