Rick Doninger identifies mobile art in south west Indiana paleolithic sites, artifact motif of lion atop prey is similar to Ohio find 250 miles distance

Worked flint with possible human infant, buffalo, lion and mammoth iconography.  The images are seen in this order by rotating the stone counter-clockwise.

Rick Doninger collection, south west Indiana, USA

Frame around image of infant or fetus-in-womb face.

The possible face of a human fetus or an infant is depicted within this "cycle-of-life" art piece.  The earlier post "Peter Cottontail has left the building" also has a similar face of what looks like a baby or fetus depicted on what is a suspected rabbit "prey-mother" fertility piece.  Both of the faces are in the lower left corner of the zoomorphic image and in a "V" position as if depicting a pre-birth orientation. 

Rick Doninger is an amateur archaeologist located in south west Indiana. Rick has identified a stone working industry that is not explained by mainstream archaeology.  It has strong similarities to European Mousterian and Levallois technology traditions.  Rick's conclusion, based on thousands of artifacts, is that he has identified a unique paleolithic presence in the American midwest.  Rick is an active commentator on about.com's archaeology forum regarding the possibility of the older presence of humans in North America than currently accepted by mainstream archaeologists.  After years of work and research, Rick is gaining the attention of scholars who are interested in the potential age of the artifacts, and apparent full-blown industry, he has identified.

Possible bison image in right profile, head in upper right of artifact.

Artifact is rotated 90 degrees here.

With I.Y. Yotova et. al. (2011) x-haplotype genetic data indicating extensive mating of Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans across Eurasia with evidence found into First American populations, as well as the Denver Museum of Nature and Science returning site dates at 30,000 BP in Nebraska (center of North America), the great possibility exists of connections to Europe and Neanderthal culture, tools and art.

Rick Doninger's photo rotated a total of 180 degrees.

A feline icon is perched at the top left of the artifact.  The lion is resting its head on its left paw, seen in left profile looking to photo left.

(click photo to expand)

Ken Johnston's markup on Rick Doninger's photo.  The white line indicates the "ground" the feline (presumably lion) is lying on.  There may be proboscidean imagery here, where the lion is being depicted as lying across the mammoth's head.  The black circle is a possible mammoth eye, the black line crossing Rick's hand is the curvature of the possible mammoth's trunk line in right profile view.

A lion in this same position (left profile, head resting on left paw) lying across a white bison head was identified by Ken Johnston on this artifact found by Pam Douglass in Licking County, Ohio.

In both the Ohio and Indiana examples, the lion's belly is just touching the "eye" of the prey animal. 

Here is a direct link to the white bison head posting:

http://portablerockart.blogspot.com/2011/05/white-bison-prey-shares-crystal-eye.html

Amateur archaeologist Macario Solis identifies possible human head effigies in Washington state

Macario Solis collection, Washington state

Possible anthropomorphic head effigy in left profile view

Similar looking head effigy from Oregon featured in prior posting

A second head effigy identified by Macario Solis from Washington state

Simon Parkes collection, artifact from Clacton, England

putatively dated to 125,000 to 200,000 years BP

The last two photos could be self-images in flint created by Homo erectus, one from U.K. and one from Washington state, USA, and strikingly similar.  Calico early man site and Valsequillo, Mexico, sites support the presence of Homo erectus in the Americas ca. 220,000 years BP.J.E. Musch identified these head effigies in Europe in his 1990 paper 'Animal Farm"

http://www.originsnet.org/jem2gallery/pages/f)afflathds.htm

Here is Mr. Solis' web site:

http://www.macarioartifacts.com/

-kbj

Mask-like stone has possible head effigy in place of right eye

Mask-like stone has head effigy in place of right eye

Dennis Boggs collection, Irrigon, Oregon, Columbia River valley

Close up of right eye area

Close up of quasi-anthropomorphic head facing left

With scale

Similar effigy example from collection of Jan van Es, Netherlands

A second head effigy from Netherlands, collection of Jan van Es

A bird icon with crested head, eye and beak is perched atop the head here.  This is a recurring motif in many of these facial profile depictions.

Two translucent "head with face" art pieces from Boukoul, Netherlands, presented as back-lighted lithophanes

From the collection of archaeologist Jan van Es, Netherlands

Artifacts from his site at Boukoul, Netherlands

This sculpture stands up on its designed base

 

"Duivel"

Thank you Mr. van Es for your generosity with your photographs.

Bison Eye

Bison Eye

by Allen V. Deibel, The StoneCat Collection, Canfield, Ohio

BISON EYE          

                I’ve selected this artifact as a means of showing how contours and features within the stone would be worked to convey images. The imagery is concise and uncomplicated; The Ancient Artisan was likely reproducing a Bison Eye. It is just about life-sized.  This striated conglomerate was ground from an irregular cobble. This effort covers one hundred percent of the surface.

                Please refer to the frontal and side photographs. An especially interesting feature is the fleck of Quartz near the center of the eye. An Artistic technique used by portrait painters to bring life to an eye by showing a reflection on a moist eyeball.  This would be the first layer ground to this fleck to affect this image.

                A dark brown striation is the next layer.  Not only has it been ground to the oval that is the Iris, but notice the slight grayed look.  The Quartz layer that formed the fleck was ALMOST ground away above the Iris. Ground to the interface between dark and light layers. This allowed the Ancient Artisan to chip a Pupil that was distinctly dark, to contrast with the Iris.

                 The thick Quartz layer that is the eye whites and the rest of the dark back of the cobble was ground to complete the image. The angle of the grind was adjusted to provide the appropriate amount of white and the dark side was ground so as to be occluded by the white. In hand this is uncannily realistic. The intent of the Artist realized.

Not obvious in these photographs is that the fleck in the eye is an abstract image of a feline visage.  The last sight of the hapless buffalo captured in its eye, forever. This artifact illustrates more than an image but a philosophy.  -Allen V. Deibel, The StoneCat Collection, Canfield, Ohio.

(Click this link for over 100 line drawings of figure stones in The StoneCat Collection, by Allen V. Deibel)  http://s813.photobucket.com/albums/zz56/kenbjohn/Diebel%20Cat%20Drawings/

White bison (prey) shares crystal eye penetrating flint with feline (predator) depicted on reverse side

White buffalo head right profile with horn detail protruding

Artifact from the Pam Douglass collection, Jacksontown, Ohio

Multiple art pieces found by Pam and her grandson Connor

while hunting for points. 

Also in above photo, a feline (presumably lion or scimitar) lieing on its stomach with head resting on left leg/paw (which also serves as the bison horn) may be seen in left profile with the lion's head in utmost upper left.  The bottom point of the buffalo horn triangle shape is the elbow of the lion's bent front left leg.  The lion's neck and back profile stretches along most of the top of the artifact as pictured here.  The feline's tail is fully expressed, hanging down from the cat to create the muzzle line of the buffalo. 

Eye penetrates the stone, allowing light to pass through crystals

Side 2

Pam was ridiculed for suggesting the white buffalo head iconography, knowing she had multiple other examples of people and animals, on a site sometimes known as arrowheadism.com.  A kind reader in another state suggested she contact me.  Ironically, via the internet, Pam lives 2 miles from my home in Hebron, Ohio, and sells me my favorite potato salad at the corner market!  Artifacts are Flint Ridge material, Licking County, Ohio, found at Jacksontown.

The feline in top/first photo is one of the repeated motif of "lion perched above, ready to pounce" which is seen in other artifacts as well.

click photo to expand

This piece may indicate a similar expression of an ideological value of a predator/prey depiction of "bison in the eye of the cat" as described by Allen V. Deibel in the above posting.  Both Allen's and Pam's artifacts are from east Ohio.

-kbj

White buffalo born May 12, 2011, three days after this post was made:

http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474979392881

Feline head in relief on stone panel, other art, reported by Sherry Hill, Carter County, Tennessee

Feline head in right profile, relief on panel, Carter County,Tennessee.

Sherry Hill collection
(click this photo to expand view)

Sherry Hill, an amateur archaeologist in Ritterstown, Tennessee, reports finding several anthropomorphic and zoomorphic stones in a relatively small area, which she cannot attribute to coincidence.  They are found near the Doe River, in Carter County.  This is with scale.

Artifact viewed from an angle as if from "behind the cat"

A second artifact, interpreted as a human head in left profile view by Sherry Hill

(photo is blurred but imagery is still "clear")

 

Ken Johnston interprets a mammoth head bump cresting the human's forehead

Finding multiple pieces like this in close proximity, as Sherry has done, lends support to 'artistic intent' in the "human agency vs. nature-fact" question.  More of Sherry's finds to be featured in the future.  Thanks, Sherry!

Translucent head-shaped flint nodule with worked face elements interpreted as a possible "Lithophane"

Translucent flint nodule with worked face viewed as a "Lithophane"

artifact from Irrigon, Oregon, USA, Dennis Boggs collection

click photos to expand size

Moving the stone slightly in relation to the hole allowing light to hit it from behind while in a dark room changes the image slightly.  I created a camera obscura in the strict sense of the words (a dark chamber) in order to see what the artifact might look like when illuminated from behind by the sun in a darkened hide tent.  I used a 75 watt full-spectrum bulb for the light source.

A circular flake was removed from the cortex to make a "wide open mouth" seen in the white creamy flint circle toward the bottom of the artifact as seen in photo right.  The horizontal crack in this creamy flint makes the lip line of the mouth.  The flint work on the core flake removal seems to be heavily "rolled" by environmental forces like soil and water. Please note how the mouth can take on different looks at different viewing angles as seen in the top and bottom photos.

click photo to expand size

In the first/top photo, the artifact is back lighted to demonstrate the translucent nature of the stone selection made by the artist here.  It would have been possible to achieve this type of back lighting by placing the stone over a hole in a very dark hide-based shelter and view it in darkness while lit by sunlight from outside the dark tent, much like a stained glass window.  I call these "lithophanes." 

The illuminated image seems to convey the "one eye open, one eye/ closed/missing" motif that the front-lighted version does not.  The eye and nose pits were ground into the stone material. There is a hair line or forehead line in darker flint in the top photo which is among the features not seen in broad daylight without the back lighting. 

The likelihood that there were opportunities for "discovery" of this type of back lighting (holes in tents), which could have been used for translucent flint pieces such as this one, is addressed in Matt Gatton's paleo camera theory. 

http://www.paleo-camera.com/

Close up view of the right eye when illuminated from behind as a "lithophane."  It appears a black, pitch-like, substance was applied to the hand-ground eye socket and residue is still found in the crevaces.

click photo to expand

reverse side in broad light

reverse side of face, as illuminated as a lithophane

A stone which light could pass through would likely have been an object of great interest to people of long ago.

-kbj

More icons, further interpretation made, of Peter Cottontail Has Left the Building

Peter Cottontail Has Left the Building (further interpreted)

click photo to expand size

artifact is sitting on a CM grid for scale

After the first posting of this artifact a few days ago, a bird icon was detected at the crest of the rabbit's back.  Thanks to visitor Lyn Niday of Marion, Ohio, for reporting the bird she saw.  The bird has a beak and an eye and shares its crested head with the rabbit's pointed back.  It could be taken as a "cardinal" because of the crested head and red color.  The "bird overseer" motif is also seen in the posting "Giant Cosmic Egg."  It is not marked up in the posting but may be seen on top of the man's head/woman's head.  It is strikingly similar to the one here, being separated by 2000 miles and an unknown period of time.  One must look carefully to see the bird.

 

A proboscidean representation is seen on the rabbit's hind quarter, the rabbit leg is also the trunk of the mammoth or mastodon.  An elephant eye is also worked into the flint and is marked up on the photo above.

On the right side of the artifact is yet another rabbit, looking straight on at the viewer.  The sparkling silver, lightning bolt-like, inclusion in the stone appears to have been integrated a "blade of grass" the rabbit is munching on.  The orange triangle is what would be the nose area of this rabbit face eating grass.

The red rabbit head profile inclusion of the grey background stone material is also highlighted in the top photo.  The entire piece seems centered around this iconic inclusion.  It is likely what inspired the artist to work the flint to further represent a rabbit.  This rabbit head in profile also serves as the ear of the elephant.  Click this photo to expand size.  Photos taken on a CM grid.

For those who could not see the smiling rabbit's face in the original post, I have made the markup above to compare to the original unmarked photo as seen at left.  Click photo to expand.

Dennis Boggs of Oregon detected this face on the artifact as he highlighted in the photo here.  Thanks for reporting this Dennis and for rotating the photo and marking it up so a nice comparison may be made.

Rabbits, birds and elephants are thought to be major maternal and fertility icons in Paleolithic art.

-kbj