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.

Five more human head sculptures and some more tools from Arkfeld Site, #44FK731, Clear Brook, Virginia

Five human head sculptures and some tools from Arkfeld Site, #44FK731, Clear Brook, Virginia

Another Arkfeld Site 'human head sculpture made by means of large flake removal' and an 'animated point' in an Acheulean tradition replicate finds featured on 4 May

'Human head and neck sculpture made by means of large flake removal'

Arkfeld Site, Clear Brook, Virginia, #44FK731

Another Arkfeld Site 'human head sculpture made by means of large flake removal' and an 'animated point' in an Acheulean sensu lato tradition replicate finds from Arkfeld featured on 4 May. This posting and the one on 4 May support each other in developing hypotheses of patterns of art behaviors at The Arkfeld Site. Finds by Adam Arkfeld.

Just like the large face head sculpture featured on 4 May, I interpret and illustrate a horse head figure across the forehead of the human on this sculpture too.

Here, I have turned the human head 90 degrees left and focused in on the interpreted horse head representation. This and the 4 May post show human face sculptures combined with horse heads in the same motif. Click on photos to expand and toggle.

A pointed tool with a human face likeness incorporated into its lower right edge as seen in a lithic industry Mode II (Acheulean) tradition featured in many postings on this blog. This has also been described from four sites in The United States.

The non-iconic edge of the tool is sharp