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Above: The flat and polished bottom of the figure, which allows
it to stand firmly upright. This surface incorporates the
very common Janus-like image of a bird-like head (left) and a more
anthropomorphic one (right). Note the clearly carved eye
and iris of the bird head, a distinctive feature of the
zoo-anthropomorphic figures at this site.
Dr. Eric Law, chair of the
geology department at Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio,
has taken an interest in the material at this site. His
specialty is petrology, the branch of geology dealing with
the origin, composition, structure, and alteration of
rocks. Besides being quite meticulous and conservative in
his assessments, in evalu- ating these objects he does not
consider the matter of incorporated imagery, but only whether or
not the physical properties of a given rock would allow it to
acquire its current form entirely through natural
processes. Following is his assessment of the object
shown above:
| In rough estimation, this rock sample is of approximately 80%
quartz grain and 20% matrix. The lack of other mineral grains
in the rock makes this rock most likely non-native to Ohio.
Judged only by naked-eye observation, it seems to be a
quartz sandstone with a weak, possibly clayey, or less likely,
carbonate cementing matrix. Most of the quartz grain of
this rock is 1 mm or larger in diameter. There is one
relatively flat surface on the sample, so the sample can stand
on it with the elongated direction up. This surface is
slightly concave, but is very smooth to the touch. Magnified
view shows all quartz grains on this surface are cut across
the grain. Some grains apparently are polycrystalline,
and crystal boundaries in the grain are clearly observable.
Such a section, which cuts across quartz grains could only be
done by phys- ical cutting or polishing. Considering that this
surface is the only flat one, and is one of the smallest
surfaces on this sample, it is also unlikely that it was
caused by glacial abrasion. So, the tentative conclusion
is that this flat surface is most likely artificial.
There
are three dents appearing on the flat surface. Grainy texture
is clearly visible on the surface of these dents. There is
no obvious natural process that would cause these three dents
(only) on the polished surface. It is highly pos- sible that these small dents are also artificial in origin.
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Dr. Law commented later in an e-mail
that the deep indentations in the smooth bottom surface must
have been made with a sharply pointed object.
The verification by a physical
scientist that this object is not likely of natural origin is significant in that this piece is
unusually explicit in its incorporation of the human and bird motifs, and the
transformation from one to the other, as well as that of one
creature emerging from the mouth of another; all this seems to
constitute part of the leitmotif in artifact material at this site
as well as others, not only in North
America.
There has
been fierce opposition to acknowledging the
presence of the usually crude but quite recognizable
stones carved in these images in North America, based mainly on
preconceptions related to the paradigm of humans arriving
relatively recently on this continent, being present only in
small bands of nomadic hunters dashing about and just trying to
survive, with no time to create symbolic objects.
And this is in the face of convincing evidence at sites like Gault,
where people of the Clovis era were apparently living well
established in large
numbers on a full-time basis, and intricately
carving stones of a purely aesthetic/symbolic nature.
Paradigms, which are based on whatever information one happens
have at a given point in time, come and go. It is time for this
one to go.
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Above: The
object rotated 180° both vertically and horizontally.
Although cruder and not displaying the human-to bird
transformation when horizontally rotated, this human
image is unmistakably similar to the one shown above. |
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