Subjectivity in Stone Age art works such as figure stones, engravings, sculptures, effigies and curated manuports. See how images and icons have been realized in portable rock media since the dawn of humanity. Here, archaeologists and art historians are becoming aware of these forsaken artifacts. “And this our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in every thing." -in W. Shakespeare, As You Like It, 1599.
Denisovan Ancestry in East Eurasian and Native American Populations
Adam Arkfeld find, The Arkfeld Site, #44FK732, Clear Brook, Virginia
Illustration: some of the incised lines radiating to, or from, the right eye; a carved bridge and nose line leading to the mouth; the missing left eye; nostrils on the face.
Close up of right eye and carved nose line. It seems this channel was chiseled out.
Photo with lighting which exposes the incised lines radiating to, or from, around the right eye and the mouth. Note the depth and width of the nose line carving. The face mask subject is propped against another rock and sitting in a pot of soil for presentation purposes.
The overall shape of the stone mask has been produced by human action. The white line in the illustration shows facets with free hand flaking or buffer breaks which were rounded off or ground down to the final shape. The yellow line indicates a facet with a clear straight break produced by using a buffer or a double buffer stone working technique as described earlier on this blog.
Adam Arkfeld find, site #44FK732, Clear Brook, Virginia (2cm)
Pure quartz stone from the Arkfeld Site appears to have been humanly exposed by removal of the stone around the crystal formation and has a bit of cortex or rind remaining on its surface. There is suspected iconography on this crystal's cortex.
This is an exotic lithic material not naturally present at the Arkfeld site and was manuported to this location. Several crystals have been found among the tools and art at the Arkfeld site and indicate a Pleistocene human interest in the unique properties of this stone material.
View of the remaining cortex, a carved face, from the top of the crystal
Highlights on the cortex remaining on the crystal and interpretation of a simple micro human face icon carved into the cortex detected by Adam Arkfeld's close inspection and confirmed by my own examination of the stone. The face mask is a depiction in the known Old World palaeoart motif of "left eye missing." The left eye is carved all the way to the crystal to depict it as missing.
Adam Arkfeld find, The Arkfeld Site, Clear Brook, Virginia
Side 2 is a suspected feline head right profile and perhaps another animal head (undetermined, possible canine ) in left 3/4 profile.
Can you find the 'owl'?
Interpreted location of the feline's eye
Possible second animal head representation in left 3/4 profile. The feline's ears are also the ears of this second animal head.
Ken Johnston illustrated interpretation of an owl image mixed in with the others.
The 'ears' of the feline and the canine are also the 'ears' of the owl. It may be interpreted that the owl is sharing one ear from each of the other two animals. I highlighted the interpreted owl face features which are found on the sculpture and the contour and color of the stone should reveal the owl's 'body' in left profile. The owl's eyes are still quite distinct after more than 10,000 years.
A cutout of the owl figure
On side 2 within the interpreted feline head is a human head right profile with interpreted eye, nostril and mouth features.
The motifs seen in this sculpture are consistent with other finds by made by Adam Arkfeld at his remarkable site. A polymorphic sculpture like this could have been a very important part of the religious or spiritual lives of some of the Arkfeld Site people.
The 'anvil' in situ with associated tools. It immediately struck me as resembling a human head form typical in portable rock art. It was left with these other stone objects and covered by loess. The Smithsonian Institution has described the find as a related assemblage.
Here is a video featuring the head in left 3/4 profile seen in the 'anvil' discovered in a Paleolithic tool context by now Dr. Lowery. You may enter the video at 22:17 and get an introduction to this find by Dennis Stanford of the Smithsonian Institution.
The archaeological site has since been physically destroyed by the landowner. If the Smithsonian Institution or Dr. Lowery has the anvil stone, it should be evaluated as a possibly sculpted human head likeness.
It is also just as possible it was used as an anvil- it could have been a decorated tool incorporating iconography into a functional piece.
Here is the anvil (sculpture) with an illustration of the interpreted human head left 3/4 profile features which could be evaluated for artificiality.
Depending on how one focuses visual attention on features of the stone, it is possible to interpret a second face looking straight on with a frowning mouth and possible human depiction of the motif 'lion taking a bite of the head with damage or removal of the left eye and the distortion of injury to the left side of the face.'
A piece like this may be seen as including a neutral or content facial expression and an expression of an unhappy one. This is seen in other examples on this blog.
In this example from Flint Ridge, Ohio, two human facial profiles are worked on the same stone. This is a real bi-face!
The first may be interpreted as a content or even smiling face and the second on the reverse side may be interpreted as frowning or grimacing. (Click photos to expand.) It is my hypothesis this motif may be depicting the human condition before and after a symbolic lion bite to the head. The lion aspect is seen more explicitly in other postings on this blog and this motif is related to two important 'Old World' palaeoart memes as described by Dr. James Harrod at originsnet.org.
The Miles Point, Maryland, anvil stone may have been an object imbued with symbolism which was important to its makers. The combined happy and frowning face masks have also been seen here in two sculptures from the Arkfeld Site in Clear Brook, Virginia.
Stacy Dodd and Rod Weber find, Jasper County, Missouri
One of many bird form sculptures found at this Paleolithic portable rock art mega site. The bird has been given an eye perforation in the stone at the more or less correct artistic position. I also interpret cosmic egg imagery here where the bird is depicted as emerging beak first from the top of an egg, and where the egg depicts a human face on its side.
Bird head figures were described in the mid-19th century by the French amateur archaeologist Jacques Boucher de Perthes in Acheulean (Homo erectus) contexts. Boucher de Perthes himself said "The placement of the eye is a sure sign of intent."
Interpreted faint remnants of a human face depiction on the egg/breast of the bird sculpture. The eyes are more clear but there are also traces of a nose and mouth. This is seen in several other examples on this blog. These images were certainly more visually clear at the time of their use.
The apparent working traces seem ripe for investigation by rock art professionals to confirm them and begin to understand the age of these enigmatic artifacts. They simply are not yet accounted for by current North American anthropological science.
A bison figure from The Old Route 66 Zoo Site, 23JP1222, Jasper County, Missouri. Stacy Dodd and Rod Weber find. 20x15cm
Please note the detail of the bison face includes a clear right eye. The face seems to have a mixture of of bison and human qualities
Prof. Walther Matthes, a German archaeologist, identified many stone figures around 1960 which were associated with Mousterian stone technology tools. This Missouri figure corresponds somewhat favorably to the presumed Neanderthal one.
Lower Paleolithic find from Beegden, The Netherlands, by archaeologist Jan van Es of Roermond.
The rabbit figure is a symbol of summer and reproduction notes van Es. "This one has lips like Marilyn Monroe." - Jan van Es
Click on photos to expand view
Ball and triangle shaped eyes of the rabbit also seen in other forms which may have human shaping
Side 1 and 2
Rock art researcher Hans Grams of Germany has pointed out the possible relationship of the angles of this triangle to the angle of the sun at the summer solstice at the 51 degrees North latitude find location of this stone. (Email communication from Mr. Grams.)
Homo erectus portrait
Collection of Jan van Es, Roermond, The Netherlands
