Vanport chert sculpture depicts an owl with a quartz crystal bird at its beak and another bird figure sharing the owl's right eye

Flint Ridge, Ohio, bird sculpture stands upright on its tail

Ken Johnston find, Licking County, Ohio (10cm)

The raptor, presumably an owl, in other perspectives

Illustration series of another interpreted owl face with shaped bird in crystals at its beak

Crystal cavity in the stone worked into the left profile of a bird figure depicted at the owl's beak with its own beak pointing to the upper left. It has worked split tail feathers upon close inspection of the stone.

Illustration #1: Owl face with crystal bird shaped cavity outlined at its yellow marked beak. Its right eye is circled and the left eye is marked with a line. Illustration #2: 'Three birds in one view' with blue highlights and yellow beak added to the third bird form. The right eye of the owl is also the left eye of the blue bird. The blue bird has the crystal bird as it wing and tail.

Flint Ridge Ohio owl sculpture, September 2015

'Owl face' is a second very similar example from Licking County, Ohio

This owl sculpture in flint and quartz crystal was found as part of the Buckeye Lake Paleolithic Sculpture Hoard. It is depicting a perched or still bird at its beak and a bird in flight at its right eye.

The significance here is two flint and crystal owl sculptures both depicting two more birds on the owls' faces, one associated with the beak and the other associated with the right eye of the owls.

The find locations for the two owl sculptures are 11 miles apart, from Harbor Hills to Flint Ridge. The red line on the map crosses Interstate-70 and U.S. Route 40, The Old National Road. Buckeye Lake is about 25 miles east of downtown Columbus, Ohio.

Ohio bird figurine similar to a Russian (Siberian) bird identified by archaeologist M.A. Kiriyak at the Bol'shoi El'gakhchan I site

(click photos to expand)

Ohio bird figurine found by Ken Johnston in an art and tool context in Licking County has similarity to a...

... Siberian bird figurine identified by archaeologist M. A. Kiriyak at the Russian Upper Paleolithic Bol'shoi El'gakhchan I site.

I have read archaeologists and art scholars practically lament the "absence of Paleolithic art in the Americas." The Eurocentric and preconceived approach to "art" has the expectation set at "cave paintings like Chauvet" or "Venus" female figurines like the popularized types of the European Gravettian era. Most all of the art of the Paleolithic is farther removed from our own culture and expectations than the well known art of Europe so it is more difficult to perceive in the archaeological record and takes "a new eye" of perception "outside the box" of our normal cultural and visual world. The modalities of North American Paleolithic portable rock art forms can be well informed by work done in Russia by M. A. Kiriyak. Her book "Early Art of the Northern Far East: The Stone Age" has been translated to English by Richard L. Bland of the U.S. National Park Service Shared Beringian Heritage Program in partnership with Russia. A link on the right side panel goes to a preview/purchase web site or you may contact US Government Printing Office bookstore for a copy of the book.  

Beak at left in this view.  I chose not to clean this piece any further in order to maintain some of the context soil and to preserve the "eye" for more controlled study.  The eyes of artifacts such as these may be indicated by creating a depression in the stone and adding pigment or changing the patina.  The presence of an "eye" is often a sign that someone in prehistory made or noticed the bird form and "animated them" with the addition of the eye(s).

Beak at right in this view

link to "Sir Nameless"

Earlier posting of human facial profile sculpture found within a few meters of the bird featured here.  The artificiality of the bird here, despite its seemingly crude and somewhat ambiguous form, is supported by finding a carved human face silhouette sculpture in its immediate proximity.  This is, in fact, what bird figurines of the Stone Age can sometimes look like.

2 pentagonal pitted slabs with peck marks which indicate likely use as tools were found in immediate proximity to the bird figurine featured here

Pitted grinding/pounding stones, similar to an anvil or mortar stone, found in immediate vicinity of the bird figurine

drawing from M. A. Kiriyak page 56 of the Siberian bird figurine

Beak at far left in this view

Here's the Siberian bird figurine once again for comparison to the Ohio example, seen above and below

In this photo, the "beak" of the bird is at far right and the tail is far left.  A faint image of the head of a zoomorphic figure with eye, nose and mouth is emerging from the posterior (far left) of the bird.  See the Day's Knob web site for more information on this recurrent theme in pierres-figures identified there.  The Day's Knob archaeological site, also in Ohio, is about 120km from the find site of the bird here.

-kbj

Hoard #7 of 7: a sculpted flint and crystal owl, with a bird in flight depicted at its right eye and a still bird depicted at its beak

Buckeye Lake, Ohio, sculpture hoard #7 of 7 is a sculpted flint and crystal owl, with a bird in flight depicted at its right eye and a still bird depicted at its beak.

Ready to fly. View from reverse

Owl face. The head of the owl has been rounded off and shaped.The crystals have been worked to enhance the shape of the eyes and the beak. The artist recognized potential in the natural stone material and finished it off with final shaping. 

The bird in flight at right eye and the still bird at the beak may be seen here. (click photos to expand and compare)

 Markups of where the two other birds are depicted

The owl has built in hand holds. The two small arrows at left point to substantial grooves which accept the left hand index and middle fingers while the left hand holds a knob in the flint. The right arrow points to a smooth surface which fits perfectly on the open right hand to support the weight of the sculpture. It seems the owl was capable of being held or carried securely.

 "Whoo doesn't love Flint Ridge, Ohio?"

-kbj

Cultures symbolising birds as psychopomps may explain stone bird figures "carrying" human images

 A simple flying bird figure (wings on the down-stroke), Vanport chert, Licking County, Ohio

 Subtle human facial profile facing left

Reverse side of the bird figure

Human facial profile facing right

The exact tip of the human facial profile's nose, from both sides of the stone, has two manufactured divots in the flint presumably to serve as nostrils. This topic has been covered in several postings on this blog, including this one. This detail helps confirm status of an intended bird sculpture here with human imagery on its "tail."

There are several flying bird figures incorporating human imagery which have been featured on this blog. 

It is quite possible birds were thought of as psychopomps, or "soul escorts," into birth and life and/or death and the afterlife, and this may help explain some human and bird combination stone figures.

Flying bird right profile. These bird figures were found in the same area. They do not have any human imagery but provide a bird figure archaeological context.

Side 2

In another orientation the flying bird form becomes a sitting bird. The bird's back is covered with quartz crystals. The bird is standing on its own design.

Side 1 and 2

Even at a chert quarry, limestone is not immune from use to make a bird figure. This is a very unique bird in that it is depicted as flying (beak pointing) to the right on both sides. Both sides are highly related to each other in form. 

Limestone and flint art objects have been completely missed, or forsaken, by Archaeology Officialdom. This needs to change because they are prolific and can tell us much about our past and future.

With scale 

Here is dirty stone figure found about 10 miles from the Flint Ridge find site of the featured artifacts here, along with an illustration of a simple bird figure from Paleolithic Siberia. This was featured in another posting.

A hammerstone and a unifacial blade found among the bird artifacts

The unifacial blade has evidence of work to accommodate hafting to a handle at its base. It was made and struck from a prepared core, similar to Levallois technology. Archaeologist Blaine Ensor has been investigating North American quarry sites with Levallois-like technology he has dubbed "Capps" based on the name of the type site.

(left) This is an example of another human facial profile, also facing right, which has been identified by David Boies of Austin, Texas, and was covered in an earlier posting. The bird form is not visible in this perspective but may be seen at the link. The Flint Ridge artifact is pictured at right. These two artifacts were found at locations 1095 miles apart (1762km).

This is another face as seen on the posterior of a bird figure. It also has a bird form emerging as its nose. Also found by David Boies near Austin, Texas.