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

Rick Doninger finds possible icons alongside tools at his south west Indiana flint quarry site

Right human facial profile on a flake, Rick Doninger find, south west Indiana

Coarse stone "birds in flight" 

A possible zoomprphic form in flint.  Another flint from Rick's site featured an elephant form (trunk curve and eye), a bison, a lion and a human face portrait.

Side two

A worked zoomorphic head form (bear-like)

Many tool artifacts recovered from the quarry work shop in Indiana don't easily fit the well known taxonomies of North America.  Notice the fully developed knife in center, including handle foretelling of contemporary knife forms.  (click photos to expand)

A classic Levallois flake (center) and Clovis point (right of Levallois) and other points represent varied stone working technologies Doninger has identified

Rick Doninger writes: "I can prove Levallois is here.  I can now show the entire core preparation and the reduction sequence in the production of the tools. The cores tell the story of the technology just as in the Clovis and later industries. Without the cores, the technology has to be assumed or left to speculation. Here are a few pics of just about every known early man technology, especially the Levallois that was present in the Acheulean and Mousterian, all from right here in the heartland. I think it is a first to be able to show "old world" technology right alongside Clovis and later, all from the USA. They can’t explain what is being revealed right here. It is every tool type described in the lower, middle, and upper paleo abroad. It may not be older than Clovis, but the alleged pre-clovis technology has already been assembled in a coherent set of identifiable Levallois artifacts, thousands of them............check a few out..........good to hear from ya........      You might ask around and see if anyone else can display old world tech side by side with the Clovis and later technology all from the USA. You are seeing a first here Ken, .......academia can deny it if they want to, but the proof is in the artifacts and the cores and we have them.........God Bless,.....rick d."

-kbj

Natural mammoth-shaped boulder in Ohio was modified to include a human face mask as similarly identified by Luigi Ciapparoli at Piacenza, Italy

Licking County, Ohio

Boulder with natural mammoth-like trunk curve and mammoth head bump in profile on right side. Patina on left rear of stone indicates a worked, fresher surface, demonstrating the known paleoart face mask motif of "one eye open, one eye closed," often in a moaning or distressed-looking expression as seen here. (click photos to expand)

Luigi Ciapparoli has identified similar works at Piacenza, Italy, and has prepared a Flickr slide show of his finds and interpretations.

The Ohio face mask boulder as discovered by Ken Johnston while driving in Licking County, Ohio, near Buckeye Lake.  The face is seen from the side at far left at the back part of the boulder

-kbj

"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

A Dutch hare (haas) figure stone

Hare. Jan van Es collection, The Netherlands

-kbj

Washington resident seeks comments regarding suspected stone face figure found at Columbia Park in Kennewick

Greg Martin family find from shore of Columbia River, Kennewick, Washington

Mr. Johnston;

I came across your blog when I was searching for information on small rock carvings.  I was looking for information that might relate to a suspected face carved on a small stone, found by my daughter’s boyfriend, along the Columbia River, in Columbia Park, near Kennewick, WA in mid-March.  It is possible that the features are simply a natural occurrence, but to me the configuration seems to imply some manipulation.

The stone is about 4.5 cm tall by 3 cm wide and 2.5 cm thick (at thickest point).  It appears to be water worn as are most of the gravels found along the river and in the region.  As with much of the water worn gravels found in this region, it is possible that it was transported here during one of the many cataclysmic Missoula Floods which swept through western Washington and along the Columbia River channel following the last ice age.

I have included four different views of the stone and would be interested in your interpretation and comments, as well as any from readers of your blog.  Thank you for considering my submittal.

Sincerely,

Greg Martin, Kennewick, WA

-----------

Hi Greg,

I think your intuition is correct about the manipulation of this piece.  It seems from the photo the left eye could have a part of the natural stone and the right eye, the nose line and the mouth were added. There is a known motif of "one eye open, one eye closed or missing" in paleoart, so it may be in line with that. Usually the left eye is closed or missing and in your case the hole, or missing eye, is at left side of the face. The faces are usually in a moaning or mouth agape position, so yours is unusual in that it appears content or slightly smiling.  I will be happy to post it soon on my blog.  I don't get as many comments as I'd like, but I will solicit them on your behalf.

A man named Dennis Boggs from Irrigon, Oregon, I think 40 miles or so downriver from you, sent me his 50 year collection of "stones that looked manipulated" and I have identified a number of "face stones."  You can do a site search of "boggs" and see the list of postings.  Others in Washington and Oregon have also identified similar material.  Your daughter's boyfriend (or you) should return to that same location and look for more possible worked stones with figures because there are almost always more where one is found.  You can look at my postings to see some of what may be possible out there. This would at least help you assemble a "cluster of surface finds" and developing context information is so important in archaeology.  There is no way to tell without more pieces and a real archaeology effort to determine if they (assuming you find more) are in a place of original deposition or if they have been aggregated by natural processes. I think people are finding them in both situations.

I note you are a scientist and my position is that science needs to be brought to bear on these kinds of anomalous finds.  However, I think you might find archaeologists are not too keen on the topic of intended imagery in crude pebbles. I have been diagnosed with pareidolia by so many archaeologists, you'd think they were licensed to practice psychology!  It would seem that microscopic evaluation by a competent specialist could determine or rule out human agency on the hundreds of finds being identified by laypersons, even with taxonomies coming to light because of the internet, but archaeology does not have a healthy mechanism to evaluate anomalies- it is not a real scientific enterprise but seems to be a group of gatekeepers who have vested interests in maintaining the status quo.

Thanks for taking time to write and for your photos.

Ken

------

Ken;

Thank you for your swift reply to my inquiry. I will take your advice and return to the area where the stone was found and see if there are any other examples of manipulated material.  The stone was found on the river shore in a highly trafficked area of the Park, actually not that far from where the bones of ‘Kennewick Man’ were found.

One of my hobbies is tumbling stones (usually river rock).  My grandkids like the shinny rocks and it stimulates them to ask questions about geology.  After handling thousands of local river or water worn rocks over the last few years, I have never come across any with the sort of features which appeared to be human manipulated/created. You can be assured that I will be doing my future collecting with a much more critical eye.

Thanks again for your response.

Greg --

Does anyone have comments or advice for Greg, or similar finds to this one?

-kbj

"Pissy Birds" figure stone has two angry birds, two love birds, two female figures and a vulture with an anthropomorphic face on its posterior

"Pissy Birds"

Found and interpreted by Mark Jones of the Washington, D.C., area

Mark Jones is a fossil hunter who accesses many of his collection sites by boat at Piney Point, Maryland, at the confluence of the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay. Mark also became an avocational archaeologist because he often finds Native American artifacts while looking for fossils. Because they look very closely at the rock material they are investigating, Mark and his wife began to notice patterns in many of the rocks which they could not attribute to natural processes due the large numbers of them in concentrated areas. In addition to the "one eye open, one eye closed" motif seen in European portable paleoart, they noticed a motif of paired birds, courting birds or "love birds." The area today remains the most significant flyway for birds to migrate and nest along the eastern coast of the United States. (click photos to expand)

One is immediately struck by the female figure. The natural rock lent itself perfectly to the artist who made incisions to better define the rump transition into the lower back. That same line also creates two bird heads which have protruding beaks and one eye each in their profile view, quite distinctly facing away from each other. Contrary to the normative theme of love birds, which Mark and his wife call "Kissy Birds," this figure stone seems to depict the birds in a human-like position of being "back to back" while angry. So, they call this figure stone "Pissy Birds."

In the first of the three photos in this series, Mark Jones provides a view of the pissy birds. 

In the middle photo, when the stone is viewed upside-down, a female figure of a torso from the front may be seen. At what would be nape of the neck of the full-busted woman, two elements come together at the top center of the figure in a "kissy birds" form. Jan van Es has described the importance of the "cosmic egg" in paleoart and one may interpret the buttocks and breasts as somewhat egg-like, perhaps symbolic of the fertility implied by the figure. 

In the last photo is a view of a buzzard or vulture from the left rear where the rounded part at the very top is the head of the bird with its beak visible to the left.  Finally, on the posterior of the vulture, double incised lines define the hairline of an anthropomorphic face with two manufactured eyes and a slightly grinning mouth which may be a natural stone feature.

Alan Day of Day's Knob uses the term "janiform" to describe figure stones with two creatures facing away each other like Janus of mythology. So, this may be thought of as a kind of "double janiform" with the pissy birds and the vulture and the face.

A special thanks to Mark Jones for sharing his figure stone and for providing such excellent photographs. Here is a link to the original posting of a "Kissy Birds" figurine identified by Mark.

-kbj

Ride a painted pony... microart carving, in slight bas relief, of a possible horse was made with three different pigments- red, black and white

Dennis Boggs pebble art find, Irrigon, Oregon, Columbia River valley

Dennis Boggs collected stones he suspected had been humanly worked because of their concentrations and repeating patterns.  Dennis gifted his 50-year collection to portablerockart.com so it could be examined and shared with the public.  For reference, his collection comes from about 40 miles downriver from Kennewick, Washington.

After a 10x magnification loop inspection of the unique red, black and white coloration on this little grey rock, Ken Johnston detected the image of a four legged mammal, seeming somewhat horse-like. At 3cm in size, one can understand how this kind of art has missed the attention of archaeology officialdom. What would be the horse's nose/nostrils is a chip in the stone in anatomically correct position, and made after the pigmentation was completed. It is about 1x2 millimeter in size.  The nose seems to be included in detail like this in many stone images, as if to animate the creature with the breath of life.

Microart is extremely difficult to detect in the field and most commonly gets screened out and dumped as meaningless burden stones. Archaeologists need to closely examine every single piece of rock, even tiny ones, from their sites so art pieces like this can be discovered and further described.  

(click photos to expand and see details)

This artifact is available for testing by qualified archaeologists.  X-ray fluorescence may help identify the substances used for the three-level pigmentation process on this carving.  Red was applied first, then black, then white.  It seems one of two eye concavities has black pigment applied, while the other eye has no pigment. This may be an expression of the "one eye open, one eye closed" motif known from other American and European finds. 

Nothing special from this view, unless the pebble is examined and then one discovers the anomalous coloration suggesting artifact status.

This side is clean of all pigments and shows the natural color of the pebble. The pebble stands upright on a flat base.  

If the animal depicted is indeed a horse, it would indicate a Pleistocene or Pleistocene-Holocene transition age for this exquisite red, black and white pebble microcarving.

More Buckeye Lake, Ohio, bird head profile figures found in a cluster

Bird heads in profile identifiable by species: Ruffed Grouse (top), Male American Bald Eagle (mid), and Belted Kingfisher (bottom)

Bird heads are one of the most common motifs in portable rock art found in the United States.  The three specimens above were found in a cluster in an agricultural field now mostly covered by a highway rest area, near the modern day shore of Buckeye Lake, in Licking Township, Licking County, Ohio. Another example of a turkey bird head from this site was featured in an earlier post.  Pam Douglass, another amateur who works sites about 8km distance, also reports finding multiple "birds" and "bird heads" in concentrations.

Ruffed Grouse, king of 2-5 acre territory, males pound tails on hollow "drum logs" to defend area and attract mates. Survives the hardest winters which kill off other game birds like pheasant and turkey

American Bald Eagle (male), apex predator of the bird world

Belted Kingfisher, sits on a branch overlooking water and dive-bombs into the water to catch fish. The Kingfisher figure stone was executed in "Coschocton Blue" flint and includes a creamy inclusion at the neck just like bird.  Both the bird and the flint have a very similar slate blue coloration.  

-kbj

Master flintknapper Bob Doyle of Maine identifies a bird figure stone (and describes his work)

Bob Doyle find, coast of Maine, identified as an artifact

(click photos to expand)

Bob Doyle is a master flintknapper and stonework replicator.  He has been investigating carvings and figure stones on the Maine coast for many years. He has done work on identifying the often obscure stone working techniques used to create or carve figure stones, such as drilling linked spots on the stone to weaken it and create a line of fracture for controlled stone removal.  Bob writes, “…the attached bird...'flint bird'... he is a tool...[a shaver, I suspect]. There is a tell-tale polish on his front side, and he fits nicely in ones hand if it were being used...”

This could have been a natural stone which was recognized as "bird-like" and utilized as a simple tool in prehistory.  The eye could have been added to provide the confirmation of the animation of the stone as a "bird."  Boucher de Perthes claimed the presence of an eye in an anatomically correct position was a sign of artificial modification and can be "a sure sign of intent" to create a figure stone. 

View of the rear of the flint.

Bob Doyle at work at one his Maine sites

Bob writes: "As far as time lines in regard to the making of these carved [animals, humans,etc.] I could only guess...in my searches I do not dig into stratified sites...mostly I'm taking artifacts from river banks, shell middens are productive...but again I won't dig into one...I take the pieces that are about ready to fall into the ocean, or into a river or river bank...I visit my sites often enough to recover material before it begins to deteriorate...

The people that created (a shell midden) are known as 'the red paint people...no archaeological record of the red paint people can be found after about 3500 years ago...so my long winded point is that carvings were being created in quartz, and other hard stone 3500 years b.p.

I have been trying to find a site that is within a couple of thousand years old that might contain carved material...but as I mentioned I don't dig into the earth to find most of my artifacts...it is a bit of a handicap...but I think the 'so called experts’ will become enlightened before too long...I know of a dozen sites where wonderful things are oozing from the earth...but at this point in time I cannot say whether carved stones evolved through time through European contact...if they did they [the carvings] probably became smaller...

If you're ever in this area I'd like to show you some of the sites I'm referring to...there are many carvings, but most are blind, and are unable to see them...sunny sunshine...bob"

-kbj

Incised lines on stone material at archaeological sites must be documented and not ignored

(click photos to expand)

The Lijnen Tablet, artifact discovery and illustration by archaeologist Jimmy Groen, Vaals, The Netherlands

Jimmy Groen reports his discovery: "Yesterday I found a part of a large shale rock, that was found in the context of various types of pebble tools, estimated to be from the former Maas/ Meuse channel edge, from an estimated pre-Saalian date, (indicated by tool technology and horizon context (= dark yellow loamy fluvial sand deposition containing angular pebbles).

The (broken) part of this more rather large and very thick shows small lines, intentionally made on the edge. (see a drawing and a photo of the object). The object is only partially visible, the big part is covered in sand. I found an article on the subject.  The article is called: 100,000 year old rock star. The carvings look a bit the same..." -Jimmy Groen, March 14, 2012

As Jimmy found, scholars and researchers give attention to incised lines on rocks found in an archaeological context. When they are found and identified, they need to be documented and described and inventoried with other site artifacts. Jimmy's tracing of his lines on the rock is a perfect way to record and communicate to others the nature of the lines.

John Feliks, a founder of the Pleistocene Coalition, has written a series of four articles on incised line rocks from the Bilzengsleben site in Germany. His work demonstrates beyond any doubt the highest levels of cognition, creativity and intelligence among Homo erectus peoples around 350,000 years ago- like our own today. He does this using a series of falsifiable mathmatical and geometric proofs so hard science has been brought to bear on the topic of incised lines. Links to the article series follow:

The graphics of Bilzingsleben series - Scientific misconduct over ancient artifact studies and why you should care - John Feliks

Part 1: Proof of straight edge use by Homoerectus

Part 2: Censoring the world’s oldest human language

Part 3: Base grids of a suppressed Homo erectus knowledge system

Part 4: 350,000 years before Bach

In America, some of the very few confirmed pieces of portable rock art with incised lines are from the Gault site in Texas. Of 135 or so pieces, only about a dozen are confirmed from Clovis culture levels and others are earlier or later or undetermined.

This piece (from Gault, TX) demonstrates radial lines originating from the point on the left side to cross the entire plaque. There are parallel lines in a diamond pattern laid over the radial lines.

Illustration of some of the Gault art objects.

An Oregon find, near Columbia River at Irrigon.

Blog publisher Ken Johnston studied this golden composite ellipse shaped rock with branching incised lines and discovered a pictograph of a bird emerging from an egg while being fed by mother's beak and while being leered at by a feline.  So, a seemingly unimportant rock with some lines on it may contain valuable information for study by archaeological science.


-kbj

The "Kempen stone phallus" is the oldest known icon of the male organs and perhaps even artificially modified

The "Kempen stone phallus" from Belgium is the oldest known icon of the male organs and perhaps even artifically modified (click photos to expand)

Exclusively for portablerockart.com, archaeologist Jimmy Groen writes of his find: "At a site at the plateau in the Belgian Kempen, where some drain channels were made, I find many pebble tool artifacts. Some of the artifacts were found in situ, in a reworked early- Saalian horizon, which means they were made before the Saalian period, most probably before 300.000 BP. This is also, because I found small tools, like micro choppers. Tomorrow I go to France to see the French archaeologist H. Beaudouin, and I will show him tools and debitage waste- to discuss them. In this pebble tool assemblage I found this remarkable object, I believe everybody has the same imagination about it: like a 'phallus symbol"- another form of iconicity?

When I look for artifacts, I see many, many pebbles. This type of pebble, fluvial flint is rare in the Kempen area, I even cannot remember having found and seen it in the Kempen before. But, the site where it was found is unique, as it is the last final Cromerian Period (ca. 600.000 BP- 500.000 BP) area in the Kempen. Flint (in the form of small tools) were found in the context.

It is realistic, so maybe it was used for some fertility dance/ritual, or whatever symbolic. About the object, there might be some little retouch (marked with the black little arrows). Another remarkable thing is, the whole object is coarse, except the handle: exact two places at the side of the handle are patinated ( smooth, shining) maybe from handling the object(on the photos, marked with the yellow line)." -Jimmy Groen, Vaals, The Netherlands

In a separate analysis by Ken Johnston, in this view, the object from Belgium, the "Kempen stone phallus," takes on a zoomorphic appearance where the rounded portion depicts the head, two eyes and mouth of a creature.  It could be taken as a lion in left profile lying down while stretched out and turning toward the viewer and letting out a "roar."  The stem at left is the front legs, and the stem at right is the back and body of the animal.

A cuttlefish fossil cast resembling a flaccid penis was recovered from a former dwelling floor in Morocco's Sahara desert and determined to be completely natural.  As a "manuport," not modified by humans other than being recognized, moved and likely curated, it was dated to the Final Acheulean at around 200,000 years old.  Thanks to originsnet.org for the link to information about the Erfoud manuport object.

The Belgian "Kempen Stone Phallus" discovered and identified by archaeologist Jimmy Groen is significant for the following reasons:

It was found in an older archaeological context than the Erfoud, Morocco, cuttlefish example, among tools from a unique industry.

It is a highly exotic lithic material compared to other materials from the same site, clearly at least a manuport.

It appears to have evidence of patination of the correct surfaces which would have contacted a human hand while the object is optimally held using its handle-like feature.

It may indicate retouch by the artist to enhance the phallus-like appearance of the rock.

It may be a polymorophic sculpture, with a zoomorphic creature, possibly a feline, depicted when the object sits upright.

Plausibly, it may have been used as a functional item, icon also as tool.