Aleli Kelton's gravel quarry finds include suspected stone mask, bird sculpture and tools from near Yosemite, California

"Rocky"

Aleli Kelton find in landscape gravels delivered from a quarry at Chowchilla, California. 

A stone like this could be all natural, or, for example, someone in prehistory might have found it and decided to "animate it" by adding two nostril representation divots under "the nose." Only close scientific examination of objects such as this found in supportive contexts can rule human artificiality in or out. At this time, Archaeology sees no importance in determining if these kinds of objects were ever worked by humans.

Bird and human therianthropy (click photos to expand)

A possible depiction of a bird/human therianthropomorph. The bird form here has been given a human- like head with an 'eye' which is visible in the stonework. The human and bird combined forms were first identified in the United States by Alan Day at site 33GU218 in Ohio and they were probably significant in the spiritual lives of their prehistoric collectors and makers.

Close up of human head profile looking right with 'hair, eye, nose, mouth, chin and neck' elements

The view of this rock in the upper left quadrant may be an artistic depiction of a bird form with a human-like head looking right. 

Aleli Kelton's intuitive identification of possible tools in addition to iconographic items may support prehistoric human use of the gravels delivered to her home near Yosemite. These smaller items are from a quarry at Madera. This may be a core from which stone flakes were derived and it may also have been a core tool itself.

This stone exhibits evidence of human flake removal. It may be another example of Mode I Oldowan technology, which is not recognized by archaeologists in the United States. The form looking like a letter "P" may have been intentionally incised on this tool.

Many other amateur archaeologists have identified shapes such as these in association with suspected portable rock art.

I identify this object as a possible "lithic workbench" which was used as a supportive anvil type stone for working or breaking other stones or bone or wood while leveraged against its platforms, such as the two tools seen in the photo above this one.

Thank you Aleli for your photos and observations.

-kbj

Mainstream "archaeological science" not yet capable of assessing artifactuality or iconography of ambiguous items by requiring the obvious and ignoring the subtle in an uninformed 'art litmus test'

Muskingum County, Ohio, flint and quartz crystal bird figure stone, found at a new site on Flint Ridge about 5 miles from the find location of this somewhat similar flint and quartz crystal bird figure stone featured in an earlier posting.

Another freak of mother nature "Crystal-breasted flint finch" or products of the human aesthetic sense?

Side 2 view of same artifact

Side 3 view of artifact with scale

Ohio Adena culture pipestone pipe is about 2000 years old

Due to an academic bias, a true Déformation professionnelle, in favor of "Indian mound art," with a genesis in the raiders of early North American archaeology sites of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a highly distorted view of what most Native American portable rock art is like has been reported by Archaeology. 

For example, the official 'state artifact' of Ohio has come to be an Adena culture pipestone tobacco pipe which is quite singular. There is nothing wrong with this except archaeologists and the public are not aware of the fuller range of typical lithic arts produced by the prehistoric peoples of Ohio. Objects like the Ohio Adena Pipe get the attention while what are more common nature-based portable rock art figures have been completely forsaken. Unfortunately, a public expecting prehistoric artifacts typical of those most frequently presented is not likely to ever recognize or report more likely objects as 'art.' 

The bird figures like the one in this posting, for example, did not make it in to the early artifact taxonomies which were developed and it seems Archaeology has come to believe the universe of all stone artifact taxonomies in North America is known and essentially closed. Else, it would be open to true scientific examination of anomalous finds.

-kbj

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

Bird and bird's nest "skull-egg sculptures" from The Netherlands Middle Acheulean and from Flint Ridge, Ohio

"Detail little bird," Beegden site, The Netherlands, quartz stone sculpture, Middle Acheulean, identification and photos by Jan van Es

van Es interprets skull-egg icons with the bird figure

Pam Douglass find, Jacksontown, Ohio, interpreted by Ken Johnston as a depiction of an egg in bird's nest. The egg is also a micro-carving of a skull, demonstrating this iconography appears in the new world as well as in the European Acheulean.

The egg-skull looking right, seen on a cm grid for scale.

Close up of the egg-skull micro carving from Pam Douglass' find just south of Flint Ridge, Ohio, which was featured in an earlier posting on this blog.

-kbj

Flintstone may depict a "Paleolithic human/animal head with long muzzle" combined with a head profile of the extinct Harlan's Musk Ox

Ken Johnston find, Flint Ridge, Ohio, was recognized and collected for its zooanthropomorphic visual properties.

It seems possible objects such as this were also recognized in prehistory and enhanced to disambiguate the images as this one appears to have been. Please click the photo to expand and open a slide show. Note the nose and mouth of the creature looking left as they have a human-like quality. The nose is "animated" with nostrils.

I made markups on the original photo to illustrate the eye sight lines of the human-like facial profile and the possible Harlan's Musk Ox profile. What I suspect is a depiction of the curved musk ox horn is illustrated with the white outline which traces a feature in the flint.

This is an image of a Harlan's Musk Ox skull and horns. The fossilized horn core of a Harlan's Musk Ox was found at Hebron, Ohio, about 10 miles from Flint Ridge, during road construction 15 or so years ago. It is on display at the Ohio History Center in Columbus. The horns would appear to "curl back" as seen in the flint artifact when the animal is viewed is different positions.

Close up of creature on left: This head in left profile may be a depiction of human combined with animal traits, or therianthropy.

"This long muzzle imagery is recurrent in Paleolithic art"

-R. Dale Guthrie

From The Nature of Paleolithic Art by R. Dale Guthrie, page 92. Compare this illustration of a human with an animal like muzzle or snout to the the flint artifact above it.

R. Dale Guthrie's "animal to human gradient" of faces seen in Paleolithic art.

Close up of the suspected right profile of the head of an Ice Age Harlan's Musk Ox.

Side 2 of the artifact with scale.

-kbj

Polyiconic duck head with running horse head figure in a crystal-studded Vanport chert artifact from Flint Ridge, Ohio

Licking County, Ohio, find and interpretation by Ken Johnston as a "duck head" figure stone

Close up of a "running horse's head" in micro stonework on the top of the duck head icon

Horse's head attached to neck connotes forward movement. The horse has a "flowing mane of crystals." (Click photos to expand slideshow) 

Side 2 with scale. I interpret this as a flying bird/human combination form with the human head in the upper left, worked onto the reverse side of the duck bill.

When the duck head is rotated 180 degrees, it stands fully upright on a base and presents a possible fish image.

A view showing the crystals on the bill and top of the duck head

A functional large blade on the artifact is suitable for use as a tool

The blade as optimally held for use

The tool component of this piece evidences use-wear

-kbj

Tennessee bird mimetolith inspired prehistoric stone work to animate it with an eye and create a sharp edge on its belly (source of eggs), creating a bird/tool

Sherry Hill find, Doe River valley, Carter County, Tennessee

This once fully natural pebble was recognized to have a strong resemblance to a bird by someone in Stone Age prehistory. Mimetoliths are naturally occurring rocks which resemble other objects known to the viewer. A psychological phenomenon described by Bustamante, et al. as the "PAH triad" may be responsible for stimulating the desire of someone to make modifications to the stone, transforming it into an artifact in the strict sense. This stone has been modified to add an eye, which disambiguates the bird form enough to make it a "real, living bird." This animation, a kind of rectification of serendipitous finds, is seen on many postings on this blog and may be thought of as a defining characteristic of this forsaken art modality. 

Stone was chipped away on the under belly of the bird, the symbolic source of eggs, to create a sharp tool edge, as is seen in this earlier example in flint from Licking County, Ohio, where the bird's belly is also a sharp edge. For the maker of this artifact the power to slice, to cut into something, is regarded as strong as the force of life itself and analogous to the power of the symbolic cosmic egg as represented by a bird's belly.

Amateur archaeologist Sherry Hill also identified an exquisite bird figure worked around a gemstone like eye inclusion which was featured in an earlier posting on this blog.

Side 2 with tool edge visible along the bottom of the bird

Stone removal along the belly and tail of the bird created a sharp edge suitable for use as a tool 

The "bird/tool" as it is optimally held for use (click photos to expand)

Carter County, Tennessee

Licking County, Ohio

Sulldorf, Hamburg, Germany, Mousterian bird figure, archaeologist Walther Matthes, ca. 1960. (source originsnet.org)

-kbj

Flint bulb "One eye missing" motif micro mask is paired with a feline depiction on side 2, implying a "lion bite to the head" distorts the human's left face and eye

Dennis Boggs find, Irrigon, Oregon, interpreted as a one eye missing micro mask by Ken Johnston (3.5cm diameter)

This flint bulb "One eye missing" motif micro mask is paired with a probable feline depiction on side 2, implying a "lion bite to the head" is what distorts the human's left face and eye on the mask. This same connection is implied as earlier described in the compound flint sculpture of a lion and human head from the "Buckeye Lake, Ohio, flint sculpture hoard." These are Lower Paleolithic "old world" art motifs which are now seen in North America. 

Side 2 is a probable feline head depiction looking right. Notice the retouch work to the bulb flake. (click photos to expand view)

Side 2 illuminated from behind while in darkness, a possible "lithophane" which may have been recognized by the maker. Holding a translucent stone object such as this up to a small hole inside a typical hide dwelling during the day would produce the same affect for a prehistoric artist (Matt Gatton, Paleo-camera Theory).

Here is the mask rotated 180 degrees to illustrate the human modification to this flake

One eye missing mask illuminated as a lithophane

White (eyes and nose) and red (mouth) markups on the key modification points the artist used to affect the mask imagery interpreted by Ken Johnston. (Click photos to expand view and toggle between photos for comparison).

Here is another rock found by Dennis Boggs at Irrigon, Oregon, which Ken Johnston earlier interpreted as a depiction in translucent stone material of a "one eye missing" mask with a symbolic "bite" taken out of the stone to depict a "lion's bite" to the left eye and side of the face.

Artifact pictured with scale

-kbj