Denisovan Ancestry in East Eurasian and Native American Populations

02 July 2013

Clive Finlayson's Vanguard Cave flint may be more than a simple flake in light of possible proboscidean iconography

Desscribed by Professor Clive Finlayson as a flake indicating human activity at Vanguard Cave, Gibraltar 

Ken Johnston identifies the stone flake here as a possible recognized or intentionally manufactured figurative representation of a proboscidean (from proboscidea, Order of elephants). The elephant representation is in profile facing right, with its head turned slightly toward the viewer and its large ear visible as a raised area of flint between the "head" and "body."

This piece may be a good indicator of the presence of more iconographic flints to be found by the archaeologists at the caves of Gibraltar. 

Photograph is from Clive Finlayson's June 21 blog posting here.

-kbj

2 comments:

  1. Lovely elephants nice one

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  2. The elephant head icon looking skywards trunk tucked under, very typical in my own finds.
    Contextualy I lean more to the idea of more sophisticated human ancestors, rather than smarter neanderthals.The artistry in these artifacts seems almost man+ not super neanderthal.
    Lovely elephants:-)

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