Hoard #5 of 7: a literal bifacial human head sculpture with hearing like a mammoth and vision like a Bighorn

Licking County, Buckeye Lake, Ohio, sculpture hoard #5 of 7 is a two-sided human head. This shows a face in left profile view

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This is the head in right profile view. The rounded out conchoidal fracture bulb of force in the upper center of the sculpture is the ear, with the funnel-shaped elephant head to the right and the eye just to the right of that. The pointed aspect on the upper right of the artifact is the nose and the pointed aspect in the lower right is the mouth (upper lip). Please see marked up illustrations below highlighting the facial features depicted.

There is an inclusion of crystals in the flint at the peak of the two faces

As all of the sculptures in the Buckeye Lake, Ohio, hoard do, this piece stands up in correct viewing orientation on a designed base. This is the only flat surface on the sculpture and the only surface it will stand on.

Bob Doyle, a master flintknapper and Stone Age tool replicator, found this near Portland, Maine. He identified this item as a worked, intended, human head sculpture in right profile. When I saw this art piece Bob has identified, I recognized a similarity to the right facial profile seen on the Buckeye Lake, Ohio, sculpture hoard #5 of 7. They seem to be representations of the same, idealized, human facial image. It is a form which likely had meaning to its makers.

The face in right profile has an elephant-like ear with elephant head attached. Elephants are known for keen hearing and this sculpture may have been given the power of good hearing by its creator. The human head and the small elephant head share the same ear which is comprised of a bulb of percussion in the flint.

(please click photos to expand and compare)

The face in left profile is depicted as combined with a horned animal, where the human head and the horned animal share the same eye. In researching possible animals depicted here, I settled on the ewe Bighorn sheep because it has a curved shorter horn like that shown along the top right of the sculpture in this view. While reading about the Bighorn sheep, I learned it is an animal known for its exceptional vision, able to spot predators up to a mile away.

I propose this bifacial sculpture was symbolically given hearing like a mammoth and vision like a Bighorn.

-kbj

Hoard #4 of 7: rabbit or rodent polymorphic sculpture sharing the same stone inclusions as teeth

Buckeye Lake sculpture hoard #4 of 7 is a rabbit/rodent polymorph with an animal depicted on each side. The teeth are protruding at the far left point of the artifact in this view.

Side 2 has a more rabbit-like appearance. The teeth are the far right in this view.

A view from on top of the artifact with scale, rabbit on top of center ridge line, rodent on bottom

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The rabbit in right profile view with head at right end. A crystal lined cavity in the belly of the figurine seems to have been featured by the proto-artist. (click photos to expand)

Close up of the teeth shared by the animals on both sides of the sculpture

LMTO

Stacy Dodd and Rod Weber find from the "Old Route 66 zoo" site in southwest Missouri. The site has produced dozens of sculptures including several analogs to other finds identified as sculptures by amateur archaeologists and artifact collectors. Many more sculptures and tools are awaiting excavation by qualified archaeologists at that site. 

Ken Johnston find from Flint Ridge, Ohio, about 10 miles from the find location of the Buckeye Lake sculpture hoard of 7 artifacts. The flint material for both artifacts is Vanport, from Flint Ridge.

A final picture of the Buckeye Lake, Ohio, sculpture hoard #4 of 7

-kbj

Hoard #3 of 7: split and chipped flint boulder with zooanthropomorphic qualities, which has analogs from Germany and Oregon, U.S.A.

Buckeye Lake, Ohio, flint sculpture hoard #3 seen here has analogs identified separately by two amateur archaeologists as humanly worked iconic artifacts, one in Germany and one in Oregon, U.S.A. To my mind, the Ohio sculpture somewhat resembles a bear's head like in this view.

Reconstruction of Arctodus simus Sergiodlarosa: the now extinct American short-faced bear

This side is covered in crystals. One of them is reflecting the sunlight here.

In the upper right is a possible skull form similar to the one identified on the hoard sculpture #1, human head in the round and as identified by Luigi Ciapparoli in cliff rock art in Italy. Please see the posting for hoard sculpture #1 for more about this skull form. The circle highlights a possible eye marking. In the lower right, the crystals have been ground to present eyes, nose and mouth in distressed visual relief with an arch in the stonework representing the top of the head. Please note the angle of slope of the right side of the sculpture because a similar type of slope is seen on the German and Oregon sculptures pictured below.

Reverse side of hoard sculpture #3 is a sculpted anthropomorphic head seen in right profile view

Can you see the worked face in the crystals? Refer to markups in the photo above left to locate features on the picture at right. The left eye is a crystal with modification of surrounding crystals to make it more clearly stand out in visual relief. The left eye was a crystal ground down by the artist to create a cloudy and flatter presentation than the right eye, perhaps in the known "one eye open, one eye closed/missing" motif in world palaeoart. (click photos to expand view) Toggle between photos in the slideshow to allow the markups to show how the work on the crystals creates the subtle face.

Gross Pampau, Germany

Buckeye Lake, Ohio

Photo at TOP is Copyright (c) Ursel Benekendorff, All Rights Reserved. Do not copy or distribute in any way. Used with permission. When I saw this identified as a sculpture by Ursel Benekendorff, I immediately recognized a strong similarity to the Ohio hoard sculpture #3. Please note the like angle of slope of the right side on the sculptures in this posting. In the milky color in the upper right of the German sculpture, one may see faces or masks, one skull-like looking to lower right and one face-like looking to the lower left. The heads are joined at the nape of the neck, looking somewhat like the common presentation of the modern masks of comedy and tragedy. The milky area appears to have been worked to finish off the faces with the needed elements not provided fortuitously by the lithic material. The Ohio example has also been interpreted to have a skull form and face form in relief rather than manipulation of thin layers of differing flint coloration to achieve the images. This German example is from the Gross Pampau site identified by Benekendorff.

The Buckeye Lake, Ohio, sculpture with a find identified as a worked figurine by 50 year amateur archaeologist Dennis Boggs, at Irrigon, Oregon. Dennis found his portable rock art objects between the foothills of the mountains lining the Columbia River and the valley floor.

Despite its smaller size, note the similarity in form of the Oregon figure to the Ohio and Germany examples. It has an angled slope on the right side as well.

Side 2 of the Oregon zooanthropomorphic figurine with interpretive markups. 

Find by Dennis Boggs, Irrigon, Oregon, and generously gifted to portablerockart.com.

-kbj

Hoard #1 and #2 of 7: presented as components of a compound sculpture action scene depicting the feline head taking a bite out of the human head

The Buckeye Lake, Ohio, flint sculpture hoard #1 and #2 as they may have been associated in the Stone Age, where the lion is depicted as taking a bite from the human's head. (click photo to expand)

Coincidentally, sculptures #1 (human head in the round) and #2 (lion head panel) were standing rather close together on their bases on my deck railing when I noticed a concavity on the head was at the right height and size to accept a convex aspect of the lion, its chin. I moved the two sculptures right up against each other and a tight fitting of the two sculptures was made in an apparently designed "ball-in-socket" type relationship. Both sculptures weigh 12lbs. 12lbs. is an anatomically correct weight for a 150lbs. human head. The sculptures are also the same height withing a couple of millimeters.

It is not a coincidence the two sculptures have such a true and tight fit when standing next to each other on their designed bases on a level platform. They create a coherent, dramatic, picture.

It appears the two pieces, found together, were components of a compound sculpture action scene which depicts the lion taking a bite out of the human head. The human head was noted to have what appeared to be the left eye out of its socket and on the cheek of the human face. A line of vertical visual distortion made by grinding down the stone runs along the left side of the human face down to where the chin of the lion nests into it. Therefore, the sculpture may also be an expression of the known "one eye open, one eye closed/missing" motif in world palaeoart.

(click photos to expand)

Later, I learned of the work of early religion and art scholar James B. Harrod, Ph.D. who has described the "predator bite out of the head" as one of the primary memes of early human art. These memes could have persisted for very long periods of time, as is evidenced by the Acheulean handaxe's continued use for one million years. Harrod has aggregated tool and art (and proto-art) data from over 500 old world sites. The large felines have a prominent role in early human ideologies, it seems driven by the paradox of them being both life-givers and life-takers. Lions kill prey and leave carcasses with substantial amounts of nutrition still available to humans and other scavengers. Based on worldwide archaeological data from skeletal remains, 8% or so of early humans were also victims of predation. So, the big cats were big components of the world view of humans who had to contend with them. The movie "The Ghost and The Darkness" is an excellent way to acquaint oneself with the power of lions as it may have been experienced for most of human time. It is based on a true story and is set in British Colonial Africa. The Ghost and The Darkness are now stuffed specimens on display at the Chicago Field Museum of Natural History.

A protrusion, like an eyeball out of its place, underneath the left eye socket is circled above. The face is frowning or grimacing with a vertical line of visual distortion on the left side with a white arrow pointing to the place where the lion's chin nests into the human head.

Photo is Copyright (c) Ursel Benekendorff, All Rights Reserved. Do not copy or distribute in any way. Used with permission. This German example of a human head sculpture from the Gross Pampau site also has a vertical line of visual distortion along the left side of the face. A sea urchin fossil serves as the closed or missing left eye. Ursel Benekendorff is a pioneer in the field of Pleistocene rock art and has the largest collection in the world with 2000 photos available for study at her website, Schafftwisen. Benekendorff noted her sculpture has strong inclusion of calcite as I noted with the Ohio, U.S.A. sculpture.

As the subject of an earlier posting, this possible sculpture depicting a lion head with a human head inside it (another example of lion eating human head theme) is from Flint Ridge, about 10 miles from the find location of the Buckeye Lake, Ohio, hoard of seven sculptures.

-kbj

Hoard #2 of 7: feline head in relief with perspective from front left, speculated to be a depiction of the now extinct American Lion

Hoard sculpture #2 of 7, feline head, from Buckeye Lake, Ohio

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This is a standing feline head panel with a sculpted form in relief. The carving demonstrates a sophisticated artist's perspective where one is viewing the cat from the front left and is able to see both eyes from this front/side view.  This sculpture weighs 12 lbs. Another suspected lion's head sculpture was found about 10 miles from the Buckeye Lake flint sculpture hoard at the source of the raw material, Flint Ridge. 

The manufactured eye cavities are animated here and the lines which create a distinctly feline muzzle highlight the mouth and nose. Please note the black circle in the ear showing a series of drilled holes which create a circle in the rough area to better depict the lion's ear

Like #1 (the human head sculpture) the lion's head has a significant lean toward the back while standing on its base making the sculpture look like it is balancing precariously.  There is nothing of significance discernible on the backside of the artifact.

Here is the sculpture standing upright on its designed base

Pictured with (cm) scale. (click photos to expand)

Panthera leo atrox, the now extinct American Lion

A night time view with low angle lighting to demonstrate how shadowing affects the look of the sculpture

-kbj

Hoard #1 of 7: human head sculpture in the round (heavy calcite leaching)

Buckeye Lake, Ohio, flint sculpture hoard #1 of 7: human head in the round. The sculpture has had significant calcite leaching since it was worked which creates a very rough, natural appearance. 

The human head form stands upright on its truncated "neck" and has a precarious looking but stable lean on the back side.

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Photo Copyright (c) Luigi Ciapparoli (ldp), All rights reserved.

Identified as a human head sculpture from Montarsolo, Corte Brugnatella PC, Italy.

The Buckeye Lake, Ohio, human head sculpture standing on a pedistal

Please compare to the photos above and below this one of a stone human head sculpture identified by rock art investigator Mr. Luigi Ciapparoli at Montarsolo, Corte Brugnatella PC. The Italian sculpture depicts a very similar "stone face mask outline" as does the Ohio sculpture. They seem to be representations of the same form or visage, not chance occurrences, but mediated by a shared cultural ideal and expressed on two continents via meme. Perhaps the shape is depicting a face with a beard or long hair on the sides.

Photo Copyright (c) Luigi Ciapparoli (ldp), All Rights reserved.

 Identified as a human head sculpture from Montarsolo, Corte Brugnatella PC, Italy.

On the back side of the Ohio human head sculpture, there is a skull form which becomes visible and disappears again as daylight shifts around the sculpture. Here's a large fixed stone version of this same type of skull form, also from rock art investigator Mr. Luigi Ciapparoli, at Montarsolo, Corte Brugnatella PC.

-kbj