Denisovan Ancestry in East Eurasian and Native American Populations

24 August 2014

Human head figure may place "one eye open, other eye shut or missing" palaeoart motif on the island of Rhodes

Find by Burak Yitgin of Istanbul, Turkey, from the island of Rhodes, Greece

This find resembling a human head figure may also exhibit evidence of human modification to affect the known Palaeoart motif of a human face mask showing "one eye open, other eye shut or missing."  I made markups on the photo in white to illustrate some of the areas which one might investigate.

The area of the left eye appears to have at least four score marks as incised lines to "blank out" the eye. On the left cheek area are two lines terminating at the same point, possibly to express the injury or distortion to the left side of the face seen in other examples of these mask images. The nose and right eye may also have some human modification. Inside the circled area is likely work to define the ear and ear lobe of the sculpture.

An examination of this object by a competent petrologist could identify areas of artificial modification which would confirm this as humanly worked. Even if an all-natural found object, it seems likely it would have been noticed in prehistory on the Island of Rhodes and that Burak Yitgin is not the first person to notice its human likeness.

Right profile of human head figure

Left profile of human head figure found by Burak Yitgin on the island of Rhodes


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