Flint figure stone just found at the same site supports earlier interpretation of a human face profile sculpture depicted as having a symbolic "domed head" of a mammoth

Licking County, Ohio, flint with human facial profile on edge looking right. The nose of the human seen in the translucence of the material may also be interpreted as the tip of the mammoth's trunk.

Side 2 also depicts a human face, looking left. Depictions of two faces, in retouch flint work, on opposite sides of the same edge cannot be attributable to chaos, especially not in the context of a larger, analogous sculpture found at the same site, as seen just below. (click photos to expand)

Please compare side 2 to this artifact from the same site which was the subject of an earlier posting where I determined it was a human facial profile with a mammoth head form incorporated into the forehead of the human, where they are represented by the same visual "dome."

             The 2 sides of the artifact, face-to-face

The only flint objects found in this disturbed soil surface survey are these two, the white one on the bottom being a tool with no detected iconography, and the possible Georgiatite (tektite) green glass human facial profile looking left as seen in earlier posting. 

Some of the geometric forms which caught my eye at the site.

Aside from examples like the basalt columns at "Giant's Causeway" in Northern Ireland, hexagon shaped rocks seem to be quite rare in nature. Objects like this appear to have been made using a buffer technique to trim away to this desired end-shape. I made a posting about a hexagon from West Virginia, also associated with portable rock art finds.

These are two more bivalve shell shaped plaquettes from the site to be added to two others described in earlier postings here.

This heavy duty burin/borer, a type of tool described in an earlier posting, was just found at the site.

Sides 1 and 2 of an artifact from the site

(above) Side 1 and side 2 of a lithic form familiar to this site.

From Aggsbaugh's Paleolithic Blog, this is a Micoquian “Faustkeilblatt” (7 cm long) with a broken tip, made of quartzite from a field near the classic Middle Paleolithic site of Lenderscheid near Kassel / Germany, found in 1982.

Missouri scraper with worked face calls for review of existing collections for similar iconography

Bill Waters find, identified as an intended face representation on a scraper, from a Missouri collection. 

The face icon is seen in the photo at left, along the right edge of the artifact. Bill earlier identified another face icon on a diminutive quasi hand axe shaped scraper from Texas. Together, they may represent small versions of the "hand axe and cleaver" pairing related to Acheulean, Mode 2 technologies, both having face icons in the known "decorated hand axe" tradition.

American collectors should make reviews of their artifacts to see if subtle faces such as these have been incorporated into tools but so far have missed detection.

-kbj

Vultures viewed from behind, looking left, with egg icons and face icons on posteriors seen in Beegden, The Netherlands, and Piney Point, Maryland, figures

(left) archaeologist Jan van Es bird figure, Beegden site, The Netherlands, and (right) Mark Jones find, Piney Point, Maryland.

I note a remarkable image similarity in these two artifacts. Buzzards or vultures viewed from behind, their heads looking left, with egg icons and face icons on the birds' posteriors. 

The face identified by Mark Jones on the artifact at right is defined at its top by two non-linear parallel lines, almost as if to indicate the front hair line. Two eyes and a mouth are under that. A very, very, faint face icon may also be present in a similar location on the Dutch artifact. 

van Es outlines the bird and egg from the Beegdgen site and indicates the symbolic egg at the posterior of the bird, in the tail feather area, with tiny yellow speckles

I made a quick measurement on my photo edit screen (not measurements of the artifacts directly but using the photographic images) and got the values of 4 and 6.5cm for the ovate form on the back of the Mark Jones, Piney Point, Maryland figure stone. It thus expresses measurement ratios approximating Phi, or the Golden Ratio (6.5 / 4 = 1.625). A similar analysis of the van Es bird form shows 8cm / 5cm = 1.6, also approximating Phi.

American Turkey Vulture, John James Audubon

Very faint traces of a simple face may be present in the vulture tail area of the Beegden, The Netherlands, figure, just like the example from Maryland. (Click photos to expand and toggle back and forth.)

When rotated 180 degrees, the Dutch bird figure even more so resembles a human thumb. This likeness may have been perceived as significant by the stone's finder and may explain why it was chosen to express the bird and egg/face imagery by slightly modifying the stone.

-kbj

Anza, California, stone rhomboid form (with face image) found in suspected portable rock art context by amateur archaeologist Karon Schwab

Rhomboid stone form with face image, identified by Karon Schwab, Anza, California, in a suspected portable rock art context introduced in a posting last month.

Karon Schwab of Idlyllwild, California, was kind enough to send me her collection of anomalous suspected artifact finds from Idyllwild and Anza. This past weekend I discovered a distinct rhomboid form in Karon's collection and I think it is worth considering as related to stone rhomboids identified by other amateurs as seen in the posting just prior to this one. Karon identified the facial image on one of the primary sides.

-kbj

Dutch archaeologists identified rhomboid forms similar to those associated with North American portable rock art finds

From Ede, The Netherlands, Ede II site, OriginsNet.org

"Photo © A. Wouters. In Wouters, A., Franssen, C, and Kessels. A. (1981). Typologie van de artefacten van de Chopper-Choppingtool Complexen. Archaeologische Berichten 10:18-117. Stichtung Archaeologische Berichten, Elst, NL. Ede II discovered and collected M. Franssen."

"...a tradition that spans 200,000-700,000 BP" - from the OriginsNet.org web site.

Nadia Clark finds, Prescott, Arizona

Nadia's is just one of several sites where amateur archaeologists identified unnatural concentrations of rhomboid forms- associated with what they have interpreted as portable rock art objects, including this author. Nadia thinks the rhomboids themselves may have had a meaning unrelated to their possible use as tools, and thus may need to be considered art objects.

Perhaps these rhomboidal North American tools or art objects are associated with the Chopper Chopping Tool tradition of Lower Palaeolithic northern Europe. The figurative portable rock art objects found in America with the rhomboids may be associated with a Homo heidelbergensis or Homo neanderthalensis kind of human. These people had more robust and different cranial structures from our own, maybe like the depiction of the face from Washougal, Washington, seen in the posting just prior to this one.

The American similarities like Nadia's could be explained away as a coincidence, but perhaps they are deserving of close scholarly attention. And so the art objects associated with them. Maybe concentrations of the rhomboids can help identify very old sites in the United States. They had many thousands of years to make it over here from northern Europe. They need to be investigated by the so-called archaeological scientists, even though this American artifact type did not appear in their college textbooks.

-kbj

Traces of a stone face in Washington

James May find of a portable rock art human face, Washougal, Washington

A reconstruction of our human ancestor, Homo erectus, popularly known as "Java Man."  The portable rock art face Jim May identified in Washington state reminded me of images I have seen such as this one.

-kbj

Columbia River Gorge "one eye open, one eye closed" face mask added to others already identified by amateur archaeologist

James May find, Washougal, Washington

An earlier post of two other one eyed mask stone faces identified by Jim

The "one eye open, one eye shut or missing" motif has been reported from Europe and from coast-to-coast in the United States. In the west, it has not been reported north of the Washington state area, or from the Russian Far East or south east Asia. Until it is, it remains a possibility this motif arrived in America via a European based seafaring movement of people or memes. 

-kbj

Chiapparoli's feline head figure may also depict a swan-like floating water bird when rotated 180 degrees

Luigi Chiapparoli find, Piacenza, Italy

I think we must consider the possibility of the head of a swan-like floating water bird being depicted on the feline figure identified by Chiapparoli featured in the last posting. A simple 180 degree rotation of the lion visage reveals the visage of a swan, made by an eye marking, a line defining a beak and the curvature of the swan neck.

-kbj

More Luigi Chiapparoli finds from the high Trebbia River valley, Piacenza, Italy

Rock art researcher Luigi Chiapparoli find, Piacenza, Italy

Photos Copyright Luigi Chiapparoli used with permission

The Chiapparoli artifact above has a similar appearance to a one-eye open feline/human like head from California posted in February.

Photograph: Graeme Robertson/Guardian

Chiapparoli sees a similarity between his figurine (top) and the head of the The 'Lion Human' – a 32,000-year-old lion-headed human, carved from a mammoth tusk, from Hohlenstein-Stadel in Germany.

At left, a one-eyed lion in ceramic from Dolni Věstonice, Czech Republic, dated to 26,000 years before present, compared to the figure stone identified by Mr. Chiapparoli, Piacenza, Italy

One eye open, one eye shut or missing face mask motif from the Trebbia River valley

An article about Chiapparoli's book

Identification of a large (2.5m x 2.5m) rock art human head (left) with the "one eye open, one eye shut or missing" motif has been made by Chiapparoli. Here, he compares it to a menhir labeled as Neolithic from France.

 Montarsolo, Piacenza, Italy, Photo by Luigi Chiapparoli

-kbj

Oregonian identifies examples of "one eye open, one eye shut or missing" portable rock art motif originating in the European Lower Paleolithic

Nona Axsom finds, Portland, Oregon

Nona has noticed the recurring pattern of rocks from her garden with crude faces with one eye open, one eye shut. This cultural meme originated in the Lower Paleolithic and continued for tens of thousands of years at least into the Middle Paleolithic. Evidence of it in America is seen from coast-to-coast, so it may be an indicator of a broad population of some of the earliest peoples in the Americas.

This figure from Nona's garden digging is similar to an Ohio find from Licking County investigated and documented by Alan Day.

-kbj

Sculpture just recovered from site number 23JP1222, "The Old Route 66 Zoo," may depict a human head with beetling brow, broad jaws and sloping forehead

Stacy Dodd and Rod Weber find, "Old Route 66 Zoo" portable rock art site, Jasper County, Missouri

March 2013 sculpture recovered from site number 23JP1222, Missouri #OR66Z, the "Old Route 66 Zoo," may depict a human head with beetling brow, broad jaws and sloping forehead. It reminds me of an artist's depiction I saw in the news about a year ago of the "Red Deer Cave (China) Hominin" which is thought to have survived until about 15,000 years ago.

Red Deer Cave skull and artist's reconstruction

Additional postings on this blog regarding the Old Route 66 Zoo site in Missouri may be located using 23JP1222 or ZOO in the search box at the top of the right side panel on this screen.

A possible bird figure is depicted on the forehead of the human-like face. It is facing left and has a "feathered" tail.

This bird imagery is similarly seen on this limestone bird sculpture from Licking County, Ohio.

-kbj