A Columbus, Ohio, 'exotic' flint worked in the well-documented North American Paleolithic art motif of 'mammoth with human face on posterior' also has feline and horse images

 
'Mammoth icon facing left with human face profile on its posterior facing right'
Ken Johnston find at Whetstone Park, Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio

Side 2 of the flint also exhibits the North American Paleolithic art motif of a mammoth form with a human face form on its rear. This motif has been described in many examples on this blog from a life-size carved mammoth on a rock outcrop in Virginia to smaller pieces like this one at 4cm. I have described it from Licking County, Ohio, about 40 miles east of the location of this find. The typical mammoth head dome and the trunk curvature are captured in views on both sides. 

Here the human is facing left, mammoth facing right, the opposite of the direction of side one. So, the human face profile here has mammoth head dome and trunk line on the other side, and mammoth facing right has a human on its other side. There is some worked human eye detail on this side. This is a flint art object made of exotic chert material originating about 150 miles distance near Carter Caves, Kentucky (more below). I do not think it was a tool.

Both sides with illustrations of the interpreted two human facial profiles and the two mammoth profiles on this one flint.

Here, I illustrate subtle but very intentional representations of two additional creatures on this flint. They are in line with other figure stones described on this blog. On one side is a 'horse head' sandwiched between the human and the mammoth trunk with an eye divot in the flint made at the correct spot. The other side has a 'feline face' with two eyes, a nose bridge and a distinct feline mouth. The combination of two humans, two mammoths, a horse and a feline make this an extraordinary polymorphic art work with likely great symbolic significance to its maker.

This is a small mammoth representation to the right of the feline face which was made by a precise removal to create a 'trunk' and a divot to create the 'eye' of the little mammoth. Click photos to expand and toggle. If one looks at it on the photo marked 'feline face' it has flaring ears like an elephant charging (a lion). This is a an animal behavioral activity captured by a human in the permanence of stone.

A aerial view of Whetstone Park in Franklin County, Columbus, Ohio. The Olentangy River is seen on the left (Olentangy R.->Scioto R. ->Ohio R.). The fields to the right of the river are the east flood plain. To the right of the 'red dot' is a rise of 40 feet. The slope to this rise was eroding these artifacts. The main Columbus north-south drag, High Street, may be seen at the upper right corner. The site was fully glaciated in the Wisconsinan and it is thought to have reached its final maximum at 18,000 years ago and then started its retreat north.

The mammoth/human combination flint is made of stone material called Carter Cave Chert. The route on the map goes across the Ohio River and follows the Scioto River to Columbus and then up the Olentangy River to the Clintonville neighborhood's Whetstone Park. The chert material is considered "exotic" because of the distance from its find location to its source. Carter Cave material is rarely found north of Columbus.

Columbus, Ohio Levallois-like artifact. The core preparation evidenced here has been described as "preferential unidirectional-convergent."

Lyn's daughter Brennah and I have been picking up rocks and artifacts for the last 8 of her 13 years. A few weeks back I showed her what Levallois-like prepared core technology artifacts look like and told her to be on the look out for them. Within a couple of minutes of me saying we were on top of artifacts while on our walk at Whetstone's Park Of Roses yesterday she produced this possible example and several other crude coarse stone artifacts.

Mostly coarse stone tools. Artifacts identified on a family Sunday walk. The one at lower left is a simple broken pebble, either a core to generate another tool or tools or a desired end product itself- a rounded stone with a sharp edge. The mammoth/human combination flint is pictured at lower right. I thought it was likely a tool until I got home and took a closer at it. Now, I think it is portable rock art.

All of these items were found eroding from a slope in 5 minutes time in about a 9 square meter space. Thanks Brennah!

A human head sculpture, perhaps from the North American Archaic Period ca. 9,000 to 3,000 years before present

Dan Fox surface find, Western Kansas

When I first saw this sculpture I was struck by an unusual combination of attributes.

It seems to take general shape from the natural form of the rock and the face is not as symmetrical as typical human face effigies seen in the North American Woodland Period and thereafter (<3,000 years before present (YBP)). This natural rock form base and the asymmetry are suggestive of sculptures suspected of being from the Paleolithic Period in North America >9,000 YBP.

The sculpture also seems to exhibit a coarse stone working sequence involving 1) pecking, 2) grinding and 3) polishing which is often associated with the North American Archaic Period and thereafter <9,000 YBP.

I have only rarely encountered this combination of attributes and it leads me to speculate this sculpture is from the Archaic Period and more likely the Early Archaic than the later.

Here, I illustrate a diminutive left eye and a harsh lower right portion of the head. This could be an artistic convention of creating visual distance as if we are looking at a right 3/4 profile head. It could also be an example of the "one eye open, one eye closed with distortion to the left side of the face' as seen in many examples on this blog.

Acheulean-like handaxe from Arkfeld site has faint traces of a human face representation within its 'frame'

Acheulean-like handaxe from Arkfeld site has faint traces of a human face representation within its 'frame.' Clear Brook, Virginia. 13cm

The mouth here in particular has been been worked with quite a bit of deliberate focus. It is an incision or groove in the rock which would have taken repeated grinding to create. There may have been a large stone removal to create the 'cheek' before the mouth was added. Click photos to expand.

Other finds at Arkfeld Site are similar like this one and this one featured in the past month. They all have simple icons on worked tools.

Here is some speculation about possible icon status of the cone shaped grooves highlighted in this illustration. The hat is an Aboriginal Australian ceremonial dance hat.

The oldest directly dated artifact in America tested with U-series dating is ca. 38,000 to 40,000 years old and has human and animal images

The oldest directly dated artifact in America

Discovered By Ken Stanton, Amateur geo-archaeologist at Phoenix, AZ, and professionally date tested and artifact assessed.

Uranium-series dating of the carbonate accumulation on a worked surface yielded dates ca. 38,000 to 40,000 years before present.

The oldest directly dated artifact in America at Phoenix, Arizona, has a human face image with eyes worked in typical portable rock at fashion. It is in the upper left quadrant of the top photo.

When the stone is rotated 90 degrees to the right, I interpret a possible animal head representation in left profile view.

Illustration of the interpreted animal head

On another artifact from the Ken Stanton site is a representation of a simple human face with a rabbit head image looking to the upper left from the human's forehead. An alternate and equally valid interpretation is of a standing rabbit figure with a human face on its side.

These are polymorphic figures a typical portable rock art motif seen in many postings on this blog. They are of similar execution to achieve the images on the same kind of stone material, probably desired for its solid white color and light-reflective properties.

The presence of two artifacts from the same in-situ site, with similar modifications and with typical iconic properties, supports the hypothesis that these are intentional art works. Being with the oldest directly dated artifact in America makes them the oldest dated American art and among the 10 or 20 oldest dated artworks in the world.

In 2012 Ken Stanton, an amateur geo-archaeologist, identified suspected stone tools exposed in a suspected Pleistocene cemented breccia or debris flow at Phoenix, Arizona. (The two reddish items look like a bird figure and an elongated human head figure with two eyes, a nose and an open mouth.)

Ken Stanton finds at Phoenix, Arizona, in this context.

Read the archaeologist's report and the geochronologist's report here.

Artist's intent to create a flint bird figure confirmed by its context and by evidence of a glistening 'eye' made by application of a compound material to the stone

'Bird sculpture with glistening eye' 14cm

Ken Johnston find, Flint Ridge, Muskingum County, Ohio

Bird sculpture side 2

Location of the 'glistening eye' on the bird sculpture

The glistening eye is made of a application of a shiny material, like a clear resin, with small bits of sparkling quartz crystals mixed into and adhering with the clear coat. The eye looks as if it is always wet.

The 'eye' location is the exact and only place on this stone that has this shiny and sparkling quality which appears to be the artist's enhancement of the bird to create a more 'life-like' eye. I have never seen flint with the properties on the 'bird's eye' here before but I will be looking in the locus of this find for other similar examples.

Other bird figures from Flint Ridge are seen where the artist exploited natural crystal formations as 'eye' features on the birds. It may be this artist had a nice bird figure but without a more desired 'crystal eye.' So a synthetic eye was made by the clear varnish material mixed with some quartz crystal pieces from elsewhere.

Careful examination of art pieces like this can provide information about the material culture of the people who made them. X-ray florescence (XRF) testing might be able to detect the chemical composition of the clear varnish substance.

Two additional bird figures found at the same place and day at Flint Ridge. These are among many bird figures found in concentrations at Flint Ridge Ohio which have been featured on this blog.

Levallois-like prepared core technology

The striking platform is highlighted by the red arrow.

Here is an analog to the Ohio flake tool from Azokh Cave (Nagorno Karabagh, Lesser Caucasus). "The lithic artefacts presented here were recovered from Units V, III and II during the 2002 –2009 excavation seasons. The available chronological data indicates an age between 293 – 100 Ka for these units." The image here was selected from page 44 of the paper.

The photo of side 2 here shows the striking platform at the very top and the bulb of percussion flowing from it. The material here is oolitic chert from the Vanport formation at Flint Ridge.  4.5cm.

Aerial view of Flint Ridge in Licking County, Ohio. The sun is reflected in flint quarry pits which are flooded with spring snow melt water. They dot more than 2,000 acres of land. Flint Ridge Road runs along the bottom of the photo.

Arkfeld Site stone phallus figure is not the first in a Pleistocene archaeological context

'Stone phallus figure'

Arkfeld Site, #44FK731, Clear Brook, Virginia. 18cm

'The Erfoud manuport' Lutz Fiedler find

Unmodified cuttle fish fossil from a Late Acheulean context in Morocco, 4cm

Near Eastern - North African Acheulian Figurine Symbolizing Traditon / d)erfoudmpt, manuport, Site A-84-2, Erfoud, Morocco, Late Acheulian

The "Kempen stone phallus" from Belgium is the oldest known icon of the male organs and perhaps even artificially modified. Find by L. Jimmy Groen

Like South Africa examples, Arkfeld Site subtle face likeness on an artifact is no accident

'Subtle face likeness on artifact or core'

Arkfeld Site, Clear Brook, Virginia

The face likeness detected by Adam Arkfeld on this artifact is no accident. It is a fully intentional artistic representation as seen here on several artifacts from a single South African assemblage (and many other 'Old World' handaxes). Click photos to expand and toggle views.

Example of 'South African core artifact in human face effigy form'

https://www.enca.com/technology/what-stone-tools-found-southern-tip-africa-tell-us-about-human-story

Several of the artifacts from this single assemblage may have subtle face figures included 

'Another artifact in face effigy form' from the South African collection

'Stone face mask puppet' from Arkfeld Site

'Stone face mask puppet'

Arkfeld Site, Clear Brook, Virginia

Perhaps an Ice Age child held this mask to her face and pretended to be the pointy-chinned character. Independent figure stone researcher Jan van Es of The Netherlands has noted the probable symbolic significance of the pairing of the triangle and circle as seen in the stone work to create the two eyes here.

Arkfeld Site carved grid on a limestone plaquette is similar to 'cave art hashtag' attributed to Neanderthals at Gibraltar

Arkfeld Site incised parallel and grid or ladder-like lines lines on a limestone plaque are similar to a 'cave art hashtag' attributed to Neanderthals at Gibraltar

'Neanderthal art' from Gibraltar

Several years back I found two carved grids deep in an Ohio cavern. The cavern could have been sealed the duration of the Holocene until two boys were hunting rabbits in the 19th century and discovered an entry.

Some of the entry ways are still packed with glacial mud/slurry visible from inside the cave. It has remained gated off and owned by the same family. They say no artifacts have ever been found there. There is easy to access chert, even a "Chert Room," which was was never mined. So the Ohio carved grids could possibly be pre-Wisconsinin glaciation in age.

The Ohio grids overlook a view onto a flowing underground river. Carved grids from Koonalda cave, Australia, also have an underground river.

Then a couple years ago Clive Finlayson's team at Gibraltar's Gorham cave reported a grid similar to the Ohio cave ones I found and attributed it to Neanderthals because it dated to just before the supposed arrival time of "anatomically modern humans" in Europe. The Ohio and Gibraltar grids are both on flat stone "tables" which rise from the cave floors.

This Virginia incised stone exhibits a grid in the same art motif as the Ohio and Gibraltar cave examples. It is an example of 'portable rock art' with a culturally facilitated meaning to its maker.

Illustration of 'Neanderthal cave art hashtag' found by Clive Finlayson's team at Gorham's Cave, Gibralter, with Arkfeld site example.

 Side 1 and side 2 of a giant point from Arkfeld site

Another incised stone from Arkfeld Site, #44FK731 at Clear Brook, Virginia.

The lines can only be made with the precision seen here by utilization of a straight edge to guide the incising stone. The undulating line seems to have some free-hand features but could also have been made by a "slipping straight-edge" technique where the straight edge is shifted during the carving. This carving, or the process to make it, probably had a significant meaning to its maker.

Arkfeld Site engraved stone rotated. Adam Arkfeld compares his find to some of the earliest known art from Africa.

Blombos Cave Rock Art (70,000 BCE)

"Prehistoric Engravings with Crosshatch Patterns
Home to some of the earliest known prehistoric art in all of Africa, the archeological site known as Blombos Cave is located in a limestone cliff, some 100 metres from the sea on the coast of South Africa, about 180 miles east of Cape Town. It is famous for its prehistoric rock engravings, dating back to the Mousterian period of the Middle Paleolithic era (70,000 BCE), which puts it among the oldest Stone Age art ever discovered. (See Oldest Stone Age Art: Top 100 Works.) The find consisted of two pieces of ochre rock incised with geometric abstract signs, and a series of beads made from Nassarius kraussianus shells."

In light of the expert-confirmed Levallois-like prepared core tool artifacts being recovered at Arkfeld, the engraved stones here should be of interest to archaeology scholars. They may signal a Homo neanderthalensis presence in North America. If not, modern humans were in America with a lithic industry Mode 3 art and tool package.

Archaeology's attempts to ignore, marginalize or cover up the Arkfeld Site show it remains unscientific, agenda-driven and incapable of processing information about "Old World style" art and tool finds in North America. Witness a self-described "hick farmer from Virginia" who has you beat.

Arkfeld Site aerial view from 2,300 feet. The elevation drop from the main house to the cabin and creek is 100 feet. The slope is artifact-bearing. The cabin is available to archaeologists who wish to survey or investigate the site. Click photo to expand.