Lion in estrus in coital crouch position from The Old Route 66 Zoo

Lion in estrus in coital crouch position
From The Old Route 66 Zoo Site, #23JP1222
Stacy Dodd and Rod Weber find, Jasper County, Missouri

Illustration of the interpreted feline in an exaggerated crouching position. The cat's tail is depicted as a stub as if the rest of it is draped over the right side of the cat and outside viewer perspective.

An ocher-caked feline in coital crouch position I found at the Spout Run Paleolithic site in Bluemont, Virginia. This art motif is seen in several examples on this blog.

A house cat in estrus in the feline coital crouch position

'Animated' tool identified among other tools and human face likenesses at Virginia's Arkfeld Site

Heavy duty pointed tool from Arkfeld Site, #44FK731

Clear Brook, Virginia

Adam Arkfeld noticed a simple human face likeness on the back of the tool.

The face is set within a rhomboid shaped 'head.' 'Human face on rhomboid' is a portable rock motif seen from Arkfeld Site and other sites as featured on this blog including the Spout Run Site several miles from Arkfeld. The face details are composed of ground features of eyes, nose and a mouth.

The tip of this Arkfeld Site tool may have been broken during use

Arkfeld Site burins

Eyes, nose, mouth and chin with an incised cleft

Human face profile looking right with possible bird head form looking left

Human head and neck right facial profile figure

Lower Paleolithic art motif of "faces on diamonds," diamond shaped stones and a mammoth head figure at Mammoth Spring, Arkansas, compare directly to finds in Northern Virginia

Four new faces on diamond shaped stones, Mammoth Spring, Arkansas, Jeff Vincent finds. 

The largest one in the middle was featured earlier on this blog. Ursel Benekendorff of Hamburg, Germany, has described this motif from a Lower Paleolithic context in Northern Germany. Archaeology must ask itself "What is this motif doing in North America?"

Close up of a "face on diamond" artifact.

More diamond shapes Jeff Vincent has identified at Mammoth Spring, Arkansas. Jeff hypothesizes these could be abstract "bird in flight" figures when viewed in a horizontal rather than vertical orientation.

In 2012 I speculated these shapes may be heavy duty borer/burins and made this illustration based on my Ohio observations.

A mammoth or mastodon head figure from Mammoth Spring, Arkansas, identified by Jeff Vincent. The diamond shaped stones and this elephant head figure have remarkable similarity to material identified at the Arkfeld Site, Clear Brook, Virginia. It is likely the two sites are connected by some cultural continuity.

Arkfeld Site, #44FK731, Clear Brook, Virginia, mammoth head figure found in a strong context of many mammoth figures and diamond shaped stones.

"Face on diamond" Lower Paleolithic art motif described in Europe was identified at the Spout Run Site, Bluemont, Virginia, and featured earlier on this blog.

Arkansas and Virginia sites are 750 miles or 1200 km apart. The portable rock art favors a broad Ice Age sculpture tradition in North America.

"Face on diamond shape" art motif found in European Lower Paleolithic context is identified at Spout Run site, Bluemont, Virginia

Face on diamond-shaped rock, identified by DeAnna Jerore at the Spout Run site, Bluemont, Virginia

Close up of the face worked into the Spout Run site "face on diamond." It appears the face was given two nostrils, perhaps a symbolic breath-of-life to recognize or affect animation of the stone.

The "face on diamond" motif has been described by early art researcher Ursel Benekendorff of Germany. The motif originates in a Lower Paleolithic context.

from Pleistocene Coalition News, Volume 4, Issue 1.

Face on diamond example from Groß Pampau, Germany, Ursel Benekendorff collection. Photograph Copyright Ursel Benekendorff.

Menhir diamond shape with subtle human face stands out in a crowd of boulders.  From Groß Pampau, Germany, Ursel Benekendorff. Photograph Copyright Ursel Benekendorff. 

Jeff Vincent find, Mammoth Spring, Arkansas, found in context of many portable rock art pieces, seen in an earlier posting on this blog

Karon Schwab find, Hemet, California, identified as a weathered worked face on a diamond-shaped stone, found in context of other portable rock art objects, seen earlier on this blog.

Diamond-shaped plaque from the Arkfeld site, about 15 miles from the Spout Run site. It seems possible there is a rough facial configuration on this stone.

Ken Johnston interpretation of possible human face visage on the Arkfeld site diamond stone example. I cut a circle around the interpreted face. On the right side the image is processed through Image-J under the D-Stretch plugin used to help interpret rock art images.

Lower Paleolithic find by Jan van Es, Roermond, The Netherlands. "One eye open, other eye shut or missing" motif on a roughly diamond-shaped stone.

A balance-engineered human and animal combination figure stone may depict the animal taking a drink of water, from the Spout Run site

Chris White find, Spout Run archaeological site, Bluemont, Virginia, was recognized for its zoomorphic properties

Ken Johnston interpretation of human head left profile figuration, split with an animal head right profile. The split of the two creatures illustrated here is also a balance point for the stone. Only very slightly nudging the human's nose upward will cause the figure to tip and the animal's mouth to rest on the surface, as if taking a drink. Lightly touching the nose from the top causes the animal to lift its head back up. To experiment with the delicateness of the balance which has been engineered into this figure, I blew a strong puff of air onto the animal's head and it caused it to move into the "drinking position." 

Spout Run flows through Chris and Rene White's property, Bluemont, Virginia

Human head figure on a cobble in Paleolithic tradition found at Spout Run site, Bluemont, Virginia

From the Spout Run archaeological site, Bluemont, Virginia. 

An illustration of an Upper Paleolithic "cobble mask" from Siberia, Russia. Bol'shoi El'gakhchan I site, from Early Art of the Northern Far East by M.A. Kiriyak. Note the image of a swan-like water bird with its head facing left just under the nose of the human depiction (Johnston)

Ken Johnston find at the Spout Run archaeological site owned by Rene and Chris White. I suggest both of the eyes on this piece have been humanly worked. The right eye is well defined and discrete, while the left eye is represented as a large empty space. This may be an example of the "one eye open, other eye shut or missing" Middle Paleolithic art motif.

Among natural stones an object like this stands out. The anthropomorphic nature of the face is more prominent when compared to the "natural background" of the find location. When viewed as a photograph out of context, the human feeling aspect of the object is more difficult to appreciate.

Ken Johnston interpretation of possible bird figure integrated into the face mask. It seems to have posture and shape of a member of the Corvid family. Click photos to expand and compare

A "Feline in Lordosis" sculpture from the Spout Run archaeological site in Bluemont, Virginia

Feline in Lordosis sculpture at Spout Run

From the Spout Run archaeological site, Bluemont, Virginia.  

The cat is in silhouette facing left here. It may be encrusted with remnants of a red ochre based pigment.

I found the "Feline in Lordosis" sculpture within about 10 minutes at the Spout Run site. Like the nearby Arkfeld site, this place will likely produce even many more examples of portable rock art in the future. The photos here suggest a rabbit likeness to some who have viewed them. Because of the age and weathering of the artifacts and our lack of all the cultural background including visual cues of the past, exact interpretations of animals are often difficult. Based on my experience, I believe the sculpture was made based on familiarity with, and significance given to, the mating behaviors of felines.

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American house cat in feline lordosis position

Pigmented Feline in Lordosis, side 2, facing right. The cat's posterior is depicted as raised at the left end of the figure here, ears folded down and leg forward in a display to indicate readiness to copulate. The figure is about 14cm long.

Chris and René White discovered the Spout Run site on their property. Here, Chris shows a stone bear figure he has identified. Having taken bear himself from the property, he is personally very familiar with their appearance and imagery. (photo from the Winchester Star)

Bear and bear head figures identified by Chris

A flaked anthropomorphic face mask figure identified by Chris. I think it is possible the crested dome of a mammoth head is incorporated into the forehead of the human in this "tall face" depiction. This "shared human forehead with mammoth" is seen in other examples on this blog.

René and Chris White survey part of the concentric circles stone works identified at the Spout Run site. A piece of burned jasper from the site was dated at 10,470 years before present so it provides some limited contextual information supporting a Paleolithic human presence at the site location. (photo from the Winchester Star)

Stone likeness of a mammoth identified by Chris White at Spout Run. The mammoth figure has six vertical marks on its side which could be human made. There are three on the front half of the animal and three on the back half. Other possible mammoth figures have been identified and will be featured on this blog in the future.

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Spout Run, a tributary creek of the Shenandoah River, flows through Chris and Rene's property and the stone works and portable rock art finds are located just adjacent.

Spout Run archaeological site is about 17 miles as the crow flies from the Arkfeld farm archaeological site featured recently on this blog. The respective site owners are working together to document suspected tools and portable rock art objects and have already noticed significant similarities in lithic materials from the sites.