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One of the first
motifs recognized in numerous iconographic artifacts at 33GU218, this is an ancient, familiar, and quite recognizable Primal Image appearing in verifiably human-carved rock in many areas of the planet, but whose original meaning/symbolism is now almost certainly irretrievable.
Amid lengthy speculation, various interpretations have been proposed, including Life/Death, Sleeping/Waking, Looking Inward / Looking
Outward - essentially "shamanic" themes.
If you know of or can think of another plausible explanation, I would like to hear about it.
Please e-mail me at figurestones@gmail.com.
For whatever
reason, I have so far found that the closed (or squinting) eye
is most often the left one (viewer's right). (Not the case
on the following two figures. Many
of the people new to this say it's "one eye open, one eye
closed or missing". Maybe, but this seems
unlikely, and certainly it leaves the identification farther
open to the dreaded p-word (pareidolia). |
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Hamburg-Wittenbergen,
Germany, flint from apparently about 200,000 years BP
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(Photo by Prof.
Walther Matthes)
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figure from deep in glacial till at Groß Pampau,
Northern Germany, also displaying the
"Atemgeburt" motif (Creature Emerging from
Mouth). Early to Middle Palaeolithic. Find
by Ursel
Benekendorff. |
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sandstone figure from Australian
bushland also displaying the Atemgeburt
in both views. Horizontal length
6 cm (2.4").
2006 find by author in (NSW). |
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From Beegden,
Holland, putatively Middle Paleolithic. Jan van Es
collection.
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The eye-open,
eye-closed motif in a face emerging
from a large self-standing "Venus"-like
limestone figure in southeastern Ohio at archaeological site
33GU218, where it appears repeatedly.
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Mammoth
ivory figurine, Mal'ta,
northern Siberia, ca. 20,000 years BP.
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A
recent but traditional Inuit mask.
Eye-open / eye-closed (or squinting) is a very common theme in
Inuit/Yupik imagery, likely having entered from eastern Asia (see
Siberian figurine above) before being carried southward where it
is a common American Indian theme.
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Another
recent but traditional Inuit mask.
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At 33GU218, skillfully detailed, the theme appears on a small limestone
figure. The bird-form
mouth motif is also present here.
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In limestone,
eye-open / eye-closed on a quasi-anthropomorphic face at the
opposite end of a small canine figure.
At 33GU218.
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Also in limestone,
eye-open / eye-closed on a quasi-anthropomorphic face on the
opposite side of a rabbit figure at
33GU218. Height 45 mm
(1.8").
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Again
in limestone at 33GU218.
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Limestone
at 33GU218.
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Limestone
at 33GU218.
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From Licking
County, Ohio, a siltstone figure reportedly
found in about 1983 embedded in shale at about
18 m (60') below the terrain surface. Strange...
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