Bird Pendant - Day's Knob Site (33GU218)

Prehistoric Fractal Art

Bird Pendant - Artifact from Day's Knob Archaeological Site
Part of Bird Pendant - Artifact from Day's Knob Archaeological Site

Above:  Note that this limestone pendant incorporates three images in one.  The object in its entirety is in the form of a bird's head, the hole being the eye.  The beak is a winged bird, this being one of the more detailed and naturalistic lithic figures in the assemblage.  The wing itself is in the form of a round-faced bird.  Altogether, a recursive expansion of the almost ubiquitous bird motif at this site.

Below:  Back of pendant.

Bird Pendant - Artifact from Day's Knob Archaeological Site

Below:  Note the balance of the pendant when suspended.

Bird Pendant - Artifact from Day's Knob Archaeological Site

Below:  Note the detailing of the wing feathers, and that the wing is itself a bird image.

Bird Pendant - Artifact from Day's Knob Archaeological Site

Below:  Drilled hole from back of pendant.

Drilled Hole in Bird Pendant - Artifact from Day's Knob Archaeological Site
 
The response to this particular artifact by the more orthodox in the American archaeological/academic community gives some insight into the culture and mindset of many professional archaeologists in this country.  When the object is shown by itself, it is usually greeted with expressions of admiration and curiosity about its origin.  However, when it is presented as supporting evidence for the artificiality of simple utilitarian objects in direct context - of the same material and groundstone technology (like the scraper shown below) - it is, in most cases, dismissed as the product of natural processes.  When the viewer is then pressed for the sequence of events that produced what has every appearance of a bird-form pendant, a typical explanation given (e.g., by Ohio's state archaeologists) is that a crinoid left a fossil imprint of just one of its many appendages, forming the hole in the limestone; then the rock naturally eroded into a form giving the appearance of bifacial beveling and a multiple bird image, quite coincidentally leaving the hole in exactly the right place for perfect balance when the object is suspended by a cord - a story notable for the mental acrobatics if nothing else.
 

Limestone Scraper - Artifact from Day's Knob Archaeological Site  Limestone Scraper - Artifact from Day's Knob Archaeological Site

 

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