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RevolverMaps Standard GL | RevolverMaps - Free 3D Visitor Maps

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RevolverMaps Standard GL | RevolverMaps - Free 3D Visitor Maps

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RevolverMaps Standard GL | RevolverMaps - Free 3D Visitor Maps

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RevolverMaps: Interactive 3D Visitor Globes

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Welcome to RevolverMaps | RevolverMaps - Free 3D Visitor Maps

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Welcome to RevolverMaps | RevolverMaps - Free 3D Visitor Maps

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Welcome to RevolverMaps | RevolverMaps - Free 3D Visitor Maps

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RevolverMaps: Interactive 3D Visitor Globes

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Orangutan from Borneo photographed using a spear tool to fish | Primatology.net

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Orangutan from Borneo photographed using a spear tool to fish | Primatology.net

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Tool use among orangutans was first documented by Carel van Schaik. In 1994, Carel observed orangutans developing tools to help themselves eat, while conducting field work in Gunung Leuser National Park, in the northwest Sumatra.

Specifically the orangutans were using sticks to pry open pulpy fruits that have "Plexiglas needles" capable of delivering a painful jab covering them. Using the tools, the orangutans were getting past handling the prickly husk and into the nutritious fruit. From an anthropological viewpoint, tool use represents an aspect of culture, since the entire group participates in a behavior that has developed over time. One unique thing to clarify is that only Sumatran orangutans have been observed to use tools, not orangutans from Borneo.

Recently, Gerd Schuster co-author of Thinkers of the Jungle: The Orangutan Report, took this photograph of,

"a male orangutan, clinging precariously to overhanging branches, flails the water with a pole, trying desperately to spear a passing fish...

The extraordinary image, a world exclusive, was taken in Borneo on the island of Kaja...

This individual had seen locals fishing with spears on the Gohong River.

Although the method required too much skill for him to master, he was later able to improvise by using the pole to catch fish already trapped in the locals' fishing lines."

Pretty awesome image, no? If you wanna read more about orangutan tool use, here are three papers on the topic:

Schaik, C.P., Fox, E.A., Sitompul, A.F. (1996). Manufacture and use of tools in wild Sumatran orangutans. Naturwissenschaften, 83(4), 186-188. DOI: 10.1007/BF01143062

Call, J., Tomasello, M. (1994). The social learning of tool use by orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus). Human Evolution, 9(4), 297-313. DOI: 10.1007/BF02435516

van Schaik, C.P. (2003). Orangutan Cultures and the Evolution of Material Culture. Science, 299(5603), 102-105. DOI: 10.1126/science.1078004

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Orangutan from Borneo photographed using a spear tool to fish

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Tool use among orangutans was first documented by Carel van Schaik. In 1994, Carel observed orangutans developing tools to help themselves eat, while conducting field work in Gunung Leuser National Park, in the northwest Sumatra. Specifically the orangutans were using sticks to pry open pulpy fruits that have "Plexiglas needles" capable of delivering a painful...

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Japanese Prehistory: The Material and Spiritual Culture of the Jōmon Period - Nelly Naumann - Google Books

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Japanese Prehistory: The Material and Spiritual Culture of the Jōmon Period - Nelly Naumann - Google Books

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The existing literature on Japanese prehistory is mostly focussed on describing material culture; this new study surveys the early artifacts and shows that they were either neglected in previous studies or reported of by unfounded and fantastic speculation. The author identifies prehistoric ideas concerning hunting and fishing, the cult of the dead, and the after-life.

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The Zen of Haida Formline All summer I was on call while a friend of mine carved a Shovelnose canoe. I had documented the first Shovelnose he carved the year before and we decided the [...] Read more "

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The Zen of Haida Formline All summer I was on call while a friend of mine carved a Shovelnose canoe. I had documented the first Shovelnose he carved the year before and we decided the [...] Read more "

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Rocky Hill and Masange slideshow.Cueva San Borjitas. I gave presentations about this incredible site atSAA 2011 in Sacramento and ARARA 2011 in Idaho falls and Rock Art 2010 in San Diego and Balances 2010 in Ensenada and have a slideshow about ithere.Tulare. More Rocky Hill images are in theRA 2006 presentation on Rocky Hill.

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Don's Maps - Palaeolithic / Paleolithic European, Russian and Australian Archaeology / Archeology

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Don's Maps - Palaeolithic / Paleolithic European, Russian and Australian Archaeology / Archeology

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Don's Maps - Palaeolithic / Paleolithic European, Russian and Australian Archaeology / Archeology

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Resources for the study of Palaeolithic European, Russian and Australian Archaeology

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No known hominin is ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans, research says

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No known hominin is ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans, research says

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This image shows diversity in premolar and molar morphology in Neanderthals, modern humans and potential ancestral species. Credit: Aida Gómez-Robles

The search for a common ancestor linking modern humans with the Neanderthals who lived in Europe thousands of years ago has been a compelling subject for research. But a new study suggests the quest isn't nearly complete.

The researchers, using quantitative methods focused on the shape of dental fossils, find that none of the usual suspects fits the expected profile of an ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans. They also present evidence that the lines that led to Neanderthals and modern humans diverged nearly 1 million years ago, much earlier than studies based on molecular evidence have suggested.

The study, which will be published online this week by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was carried out by an international team of scholars from The George Washington University, Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research in Austria, Indiana University and Atapuerca Research Team in Spain.

"Our results call attention to the strong discrepancies between molecular and paleontological estimates of the divergence time between Neanderthals and modern humans," said Aida Gómez-Robles, lead author of the paper and a postdoctoral scientist at the Center for the Advanced Study of Hominid Paleobiology of The George Washington University. "These discrepancies cannot be simply ignored, but they have to be somehow reconciled."

P. David Polly, professor in the Department of Geological Sciences in the IU Bloomington College of Arts and Sciences, is a co-author of the study. Other co-authors are Spanish researchers José María Bermúdez de Castro, Juan-Luis Arsuaga and Eudald Carbonell, co-directors of the excavations at Atapuerca sites. The study resulted from a collaboration that developed when Gómez-Robles spent a semester at IU studying with Polly while she was a graduate student at the National Research Centre for Human Evolution and at the University of Granada, both in Spain. It also makes use of statistical methods developed by IU Bloomington biologist Emilia Martins.

The article, "No known hominin species matches the expected dental morphology of the last common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans," relies on fossils of approximately 1,200 molars and premolars from 13 species or types of hominins-humans and human relatives and ancestors. Fossils from the well-known Atapuerca sites have a crucial role in this research, accounting for more than 15 percent of the complete studied fossil collection.

The researchers use techniques of morphometric analysis and phylogenetic statistics to reconstruct the dental morphology of the last common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans. They conclude with high statistical confidence that none of the hominins usually proposed as a common ancestor, such as Homo heidelbergensis, H. erectus and H. antecessor, is a satisfactory match.

"None of the species that have been previously suggested as the last common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans has a dental morphology that is fully compatible with the expected morphology of this ancestor," Gómez-Robles said.

The study also finds that the potential human ancestors discovered in Europe are morphologically closer to Neanderthals than to modern humans. This suggests the line leading to Neanderthals arose around 1 million years ago and the divergence of humans took place much earlier than previously thought. Other studies have placed the divergence around 350,000 years ago.

The researchers argue that quantitative and statistical methods provide a better way to settle debates about human origins than the descriptive analyses that have been used in the past. "Our primary aim," they write, "is to put questions about human evolution into a testable, quantitative framework and to offer an objective means to sort out apparently unsolvable debates about hominin phylogeny." They also suggest applying their methodology to study other body parts represented in the hominin fossil record.

What comes next? Answers to the ancestry question could come from studying hominin fossils from Africa, the researchers say. But the African fossil record from the era of interest is sparse.

"The study tells us that there are still new hominin finds waiting to be made," Polly said. "Fossil finds from about 1 million years ago in Africa deserve close scrutiny as the possible ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans."

More information: No known hominin species matches the expected dental morphology of the last common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans, www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1302653110

Provided by: Indiana University

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No known hominin is ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans, research says

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The search for a common ancestor linking modern humans with the Neanderthals who lived in Europe thousands of years ago has been a compelling subject for research. But a new study suggests the quest isn't nearly complete.

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Man-worked flints of the Palaeolithic period resembling animal forms and named by Boucher de Perthes figure stones (Book, 1912) [WorldCat.org]

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Man-worked flints of the Palaeolithic period resembling animal forms and named by Boucher de Perthes figure stones (Book, 1912) [WorldCat.org]

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Man-worked flints of the Palaeolithic period resembling animal forms and named by Boucher de Perthes figure stones (Book, 1912) [WorldCat.org]

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Get this from a library! Man-worked flints of the Palaeolithic period resembling animal forms and named by Boucher de Perthes figure stones. [W M Newton; Boucher de Perthes, M.]

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In England few men of science had heard mention of his name. Still there was one English geologist who knew of the reported discovery of so-called worked flints, and who had it in view to visit Abbeville at some convenient season, and judge of it for himself.

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free archaeology ruler to print - Google Search

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round face pebble archaeology - Google Search

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round face pebble archaeology - Google Search

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round face pebble archaeology - Google Search

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The Makapansgat pebble, or the pebble of many faces, is a 260-gram jasperite cobble with natural chipping and wear patterns that make it look like a crude rendition of a human face. The pebble is interesting in that it was found some distance from any possible natural source, in the context of Australopithecus africanus remains in South Africa.

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Rediscovering Neanderthals Big Saturday | Ancient Worlds

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Rediscovering Neanderthals Big Saturday | Ancient Worlds

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Last Saturday was the Big Saturday event for the Rediscovering Neanderthals exhibition. This temporary exhibition, which is supported by the Natural History Museum opened to the general public on 22nd April. On Saturday 30th April a number of us set up tables with Neanderthal or Neanderthal related objects, including casts of human skulls, animal fossils...

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HOME - STONEAGE-ART.de = SCHAFFTWISSEN.de

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HOME - STONEAGE-ART.de = SCHAFFTWISSEN.de

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HOME - STONEAGE-ART.de = SCHAFFTWISSEN.de

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These come from another spot. A good number of pebbles, some broken. At every step, there are microliths mixed with the medium size and larger rocks. They are rectangular with a sharp point, or triangular, or very flat. Again some are in the shape of birds.

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These come from another spot. A good number of pebbles, some broken. At every step, there are microliths mixed with the medium size and larger rocks. They are rectangular with a sharp point, or triangular, or very flat. Again some are in the shape of birds.

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Paleo Insignificance (@paleo_trifles) | Twitter

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Paleo Insignificance (@paleo_trifles) | Twitter

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Reflectance Transformation Imaging For Lithics | Info about RTI for lithics documentation

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Reflectance Transformation Imaging For Lithics | Info about RTI for lithics documentation

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Reflectance Transformation Imaging For Lithics | Info about RTI for lithics documentation

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This site is a supplemental info source for my talk at the 2015 Society For American Archaeology conference in San Francisco, titled "Documentation Of Lithic Artifacts Using An Inexpensive Reflectance Transformation Imaging System" by Dr. Leszek M. Pawlowicz. Click on the links above (below the header image), or to the right, to access various sections.

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Ancient American Stone Art: Ancient America's Portable Rock Art Monuments

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Ancient American Stone Art: Ancient America's Portable Rock Art Monuments

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BRINGING AMERICA'S ANCIENT STONE ARTISTS BACK TO LIFE

If you are successful, famous, or otherwise contribute in a significant way,
you are said to have "made your mark."
The same was true in ancient times, and if you made a very significant mark,
you were included in the history books or the halls of fame.
And before there were books, certain ancient peoples sculpted
larger than life monuments to record the marks of their tenures on Earth.
But ancient North Americans also carved smaller rocks and stone art
where they indelibly left marks illustrating their lives, dreams and doings.*

* They also carved wood and bone, but most of those more perishable media haven't survived the ages. Diaz-Diaz-Granados & Duncan, eds., See, e.g., Coy, Jr., Dendroglyphs of the Eastern Woodlands, in
The Rock-Art of Eastern North America: Capturing Images and Insight (2004).

Most of the billions of rocks and stones on which millions left their marks years ago (by the few who occasionally
have in the interim become so forgotten, unknown, and serially unnoticed
they exist for the most part unrecognized in our scenery,
covered with soil and worn down by time and the elements to the point where
our senses and disconnected perspectives remain so unaware of them that,
for all intents and purposes, they simply don't exist.
And even those to whom they might actually be shown

often still refuse to believe or acknowledge their existence. do notice them)

By identifying and seeking the meanings and purposes of
the stones on which ancient artists made their marks,
I feel as though we are bringing these artists and their subjects
back to life from the deep obscurity of prehistory from which they originated
(so they can take their rightful place in today's giant media stream).
Which is kind of an amazing thing, all by itself
(and even without considering all of their other aspects and implications).

But to what end, you might ask? see "
Ancient Americans obviously made a lot of portable rock art, and among all purposes,
even if each carving were but a memorial to someone's demise,

the sheer uncountable numbers strewn across the continent Portable Petroglyphs and Ancient Rock Art Purposes ,"
likely demonstrate that many more millions of native peoples
originally inhabited America than anyone ever imagined.
And by trying to understand their photo-like records of their lives,
we today can rediscover and, as best we can, write their long-lost histories,
perhaps helping to foster a better appreciation and respect
for the real depth of America's past.

Stone artistry seems to have occasionally been a real pastime in America's stone age,*
and many of these artworks likely were handed down over the generations
until, upon the right occasion, each stone and its perceived power and "spirit"
was employed to its ultimate purpose, eventually ending up on or under the ground,
if only due to gravity.

* Cf. "Indeed, the world of Upper Paleolithic people was adorned ubiquitously with images and markings of one sort or another, from lamps to pendants, scrapers to plaques, from spatulas to odd bits of ivory. Such handiwork hardly resembles doodling; rather it appears to have been very much a part of people's lives." Lewin, Roger, In the Age of Mankind 150 (Smithsonian Books 1988).

Ancient American stone art
About as far from "what's next?" as you can get

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Ancient America's Portable Rock Art Monuments

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BRINGING AMERICA'S ANCIENT STONE ARTISTS BACK TO LIFE If you are successful, famous, or otherwise contribute in a significant way, you are said to have "made your mark." The same was true in ancient times, and if you made a very significant mark, you were included in the history books or the halls of fame.

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The Under Water Panther Serpent and Portable River Rock Art from the Serpent Mound Valley, Ohio, USA - Graham Hancock Official Website

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The Under Water Panther Serpent and Portable River Rock Art from the Serpent Mound Valley, Ohio, USA - Graham Hancock Official Website

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Editor: In this article, researcher A.W. Skelly searches for evidence that more ancient artefacts may be lying near Ohio's Serpent Mound. How well do you think the theory is supported by the evidence? Discuss your thoughts on the Mysteries forum.

This article will introduce you to the concept that a second Serpent may be located near Serpent Mound. The second Serpent is a 25 foot plus Megalith stone -the " Underwater Panther Serpent " and is located in the Serpent Mound Valley - Grotto. This will also introduce you to some of the Ancient People who lived in the Serpent Mound Valley , as told by them, in their carved and modified - river rock art - artifacts.

For the past several years, I have been privileged to spend a great deal of time, walking the streams and Valley of the Great Serpent Mound in Adams County, Ohio, in search of ancient artifacts.

I got started on this path out of plain curiosity. For years I had heard that Ancient People lived around here and that they had built the Mounds and the Serpent Mound itself. After enough history channel and Discovery channel shows on Ancient people in Mexico, Egypt, and Cambodia and having just finished reading Graham Hancock and his lovely wife Santha Faiia's amazing book, " Heavens Mirror, Quest for the Lost Civilization," which I picked up in a local used book store. I became curious about who was here in Ohio, in ancient times , and began exploring our area.

What I discovered was that Ohio and the Serpent Mound Valley, were occupied by several amazing races of people, the Ancient Ancestors of our native American tribes. These people were hunters, gatherers, farmers, astrologers, artists, engineers, shaman and magicians, and they built villages and lived through out the Serpent Mound Valley.

A visit to the Serpent Mound Valley - Grotto - is well worth your time. (The Grotto is located about a hundred feet down the path - left of the front drive to the Park. Follow the grotto path along the Ohio Brush Creek towards the Serpent Mound and you will come to a series of ancient boulders and the Grotto )

The Serpent Mound Valley Grotto is a special place. It has a feeling of power, energy, ancient mystery, and magic. When you go there it easy to visualize ancient ceremonies and rituals being performed at the foot of the hill, as the drums and chants of the people, would echo off the Valley walls.

By visiting the Serpent Mound Valley Grotto-you can walk in the same place and see and feel what our ancient ancestors felt , over 3000 years ago, when they first discovered, the Serpent Mound Valley Grotto.

You too can discover and experience the magic of the Serpent Mound Grotto and the "Under Water Panther Serpent " at the Serpent Mound Grotto in the Serpent Mound Park, Adams County-Ohio, USA.

(Like too many other ancient sites, we need to clean up the Grotto , fix it up, give it the respect it warrants, and preserve it for our children and grandchildren to enjoy).

The second Serpent effigy is located at the foothill of the Great Serpent Mound effigy, in Ohio Brush Creek, Adams County, Ohio. This second Serpent represents the Underwater Panther or Water Serpent.. The Under Water Panther Serpent is often depicted by the native people as a snake/panther combination and believed to be a "good" ruler of the water and under world- which was not a bad place. Officials call it "just a river rock"... there may be more to it than that. I believe this needs further investigation, was it modified by man? Is it 100% natural? Was it worshipped by the people?

Is there another Serpent at Serpent Mound?

There exists in the waters of the Ohio Brush Creek adjacent to the Great Serpent Mound effigy in Adams County, Ohio, a much older, but also in prehistory-a possibly-greatly revered -other -Serpent effigy.

You can find this second Serpent by taking the path to the left of the driveway, at the bottom of the driveway at the entrance to the Serpent Mound Park, and walking towards the Serpent Mound, a couple of hundred feet, along the shoreline of the Ohio Brush Creek. This other Serpent effigy is a large stone boulder that is ignored by our experts today. " It's just a river rock...".

This magnificent second Serpent would have been interpreted as the " Under Water Panther Serpent", ruler of the Underworld and of the waters and rivers- of middle earth. The ancient people who lived in the Valley, would have appreciated this formation. The Under Water Panther Serpent matches their myths and legends. It is the type of object they would observe. The Underwater Panther Serpent may indeed be the original Serpent Mound Valley- Serpent -and its location below the Serpent Mound effigy hill, may be one of the reasons why the later occupants of this special Valley choose the hilltop above it as the setting for the Great Serpent Mound effigy.

E.G. Squire one of the original archeologists to map the Ohio mounds and other sacred native sites, in Ohio and elsewhere, for the Smithsonian Institute wrote:

"The superstitions of the Indians extended to remarkable objects in nature. A tree or stone of singular form seldom failed to command their reverence. A stone which, from the action of natural causes, has assumed the general form of a man or an animal, is especially an object of regard ...".
E.G. Squier, Antiquities of the State of New York, Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge, Vol. II, 1851

There is a magical feel to the Water Serpent- Grotto that is worth a small side trip, to anyone who comes to visit the Great Serpent Mound effigy-above the Water Serpent. At nearly 25 feet in length, there is no way that native people who walked, fished, and hunted along this rivers edge-for over a thousand years -would have failed to notice this other "Water Serpent" effigy stone.

We know that this "Water Serpent "effigy was worshipped by the people of the Valley by the fact that they carved numerous rocks and stones in its shape and form. The people of the Serpent Mound Valley left us various images in rock and stone that both show us who they were and about their religious beliefs.

The "Serpent Mound Valley" is believed to have first been settled by the early Archaic people over 3000 years ago. (Although archeological finds may support an earlier date for first occupation of the Valley that takes us into Paleo times.) The last glacier in the region ended just 4 miles from the Serpent Mound hill. The first human inhabitants in Ohio (known as Paleo-Indians) migrated to Ohio at the end of the Wisconsinian glaciation over 10,000 years ago. At that time, the glacier was the literal end of the earth and rose as high as a mile into the sky. (1)What a magnificent site that must have been, to come upon, and behold. It has also recently been determined that 250 million years ago, a comet struck the earth and created the Serpent Mound Valley and hill.(2)

Adena, Hopewell, and Ft. Ancient burial mounds are located in the Serpent Mound Valley (on the hill above the Water Serpent effigy) and elsewhere -nearby. Several ancient village sites are located in the Serpent Mound Valley, along the streams that drain into the Ohio Brush Creek, both above and below the Serpent Mound Park site. (3)

Today, our archeologists call the early confirmed villagers who lived in the abundant, fertile, and magical, Serpents Mound Valley, by the names of mounds and other burial site locations-first noted in the late 1800's. These names include the Adena (800 BC to 100 AD). Adena was the name of the 5000 acre Chillicothe, Ohio estate of one of Ohio's first governors that had ancient burial mounds on it- meaning in Hebrew- delightful place. The Hopewell (100 BC to 400 AD) and later the Ft. Ancient people (1000 AD to 1650 AD) named after an Ohio, Hopewell-built ,hill top enclosure ( that does not include a Fort.)(4)

According to William F Romain, Director of the Serpent Mound Project, in his article about the Newark Earthworks, "In shamanic thought generally (e.g., Eliade1964; Furst1976) and among Native American peoples in particular ( e.g., Lankford 1987; Hudson 1976), the cosmos is often thought of as having three basic levels - i.e.,

Upperworld, earth, and Lowerworld . These three levels are vertically connected by an axis mundi. In Native American cosmology, the Upperworld is the realm of the sky, sun, and stars, as well as powerful celestial birds known as Thunderbirds. By contrast, the Lowerworld is a watery world, located opposite to the Upperworld. It is the realm of fishes, frogs, snakes, and related creatures. Chief of the Lowerworld creatures is either the Great Horned Serpent or Underwater Panther. The Upperworld and Lowerworld are antithetical to each other."(5)

The attributes of the Water Serpent- Water Spirit include :

a) an unusually long tail and often represented with a man face with horns in petro glyphs

b) often accompanied by other water animals

c) ruled the waters- underworld-not a bad place

d) could come to the earth level in the form of a man (6)

The Underwater Panther Serpent Grotto- Map Stone

According to current management of Serpent Mound Park and the State of Ohio Archeologist , the various rock formations in the Serpent Mound Grotto -are just rocks. I disagree -I believe that the Underwater Panther Serpent is represented by the huge 25 foot Grotto stone and that the Grotto area was a ceremonial site once used and appreciated by the Ancient people who lived in the Valley. Last month Mayan Elder Humbatz Men and Aztec Elder and Calendar /Time Keeper Mazatzin Aztekayolokalli were at Serpent Mound Park and visited the Grotto- both immediately felt that the Underwater Panther Serpent was sacred and held ceremony there. What convinced me that this is ancient sacred ground - is that not only does it fit into ancient lore of the people, but that a map stone of the Grotto was carved by one of them-you don't make a stone map of just rocks.

The 30 foot Triangle Marker Stone - an Intentional illusion

What is most interesting about the pointer/ marker stone- is it only is a marker stone -from one angle. This is the 30 plus foot triangle marker stone (note the Jay Leno chin). The first picture is looking up towards it from down by the Water Serpent-the only time it becomes a triangle and a pointer stone is when you are up on the hill behind the Underwater Panther Serpent looking down-it then points towards and aligns with the tail of the Great Serpent Mound on the hill above it.

Location of the Under Water Panther Serpent Grotto (this amazing Lidar of the Serpent Mound, the largest effigy mound in the world and a UNESCO Nominated World Heritage site, was made and shared by Jeffery Wilson, President- Friends of Serpent Mound).

The Great Serpent Mound-Adams County-Ohio USA

Lidar image of the Great Serpent Mound (8)

This then leads us to another obvious basic question (...it is the Serpent Mound Valley we are talking about) How do you know that the people didn't make their Serpent Mound- Serpents look like the water serpent artifacts and pictures?

The later Serpent Mound has a very unique configuration that includes a wide open mouth with a distinctive Y at the mouth with an oval coming out of it...

The occupants of the Serpent Mound Valley represented the Great Serpent Mound in their artifacts in a clear and different manner from the water Serpent. The portable rock/ stone artifact above is a good example, note the Y and the oval coming out-very different from the previous water serpent artifacts. (This artifact was also found downstream of the Serpent Mound State Park at a site in the Ohio Brush Creek near a former Village)

Another point of view of the water serpent... note the large second boulder to the right, it looks as if it might at one point in time been a part of the "Water Serpent". If it was, it creates an even closer image to what is found in our river stone artifacts representations of the Water Serpent. Wonder if the pieces fit? May be interpreted as the end of a battle between the Thunderbirds and the Underwater Panther-Water Serpent. Some say that the second stone was a ceremonial platform.

Here is a side view of the same snake rock. Note the extended mouth with spirit face in red . Below is the Spirit face from another angle. Note the drilled eye hole. Far right - Loltun Yucatan- cave drawing of spirit figure (9)

On the bottom of the Serpent Mound stone is a story...

Pigmented Birdman Shaman drawing. Similar in style to petroglyph stained/ cave art type images

It is interesting to note the similarity of the story being told on the previous Serpent Mound stone to this story in an Olmec cave drawing in Juxtlahuaca, Mexico ( although without a birdman absorbing the spirit, power, energy or knowledge.) Certainly a common "ancient " tale as to how spirit energy/ force is created. (10)

The world of Thunderbirds, Underwater Panthers, Spirits And the Snake-Bear- Birdmen of the Serpents Mound Valley

A bearded man in headdress of animal skins - water artifact

In Ohio between 12,500 and 10,000 years ago the last Ice Age wall began to melt and recede North.

The climate then was still very cold similar to Canada and Alaska today.

Between 10,000 years ago and 5000 years ago the people began to occupy various parts of Ohio, including the Serpent Mound Valley.

Between 5,000 and 2,500 years ago, a physically large race of people; a culture, who possessed ancient knowledge, and who were astronomers, engineers, mathematicians, and shamans, whom today we call the Adena, moved into the Valley. The Adena arrived about the same time as there was a shift to a greater emphasis on crop growing and less of an emphasis on merely hunting large game animals and gathering of nuts, berries and fruit for food . The Valley would later be occupied by the Hopewell and the Ft. Ancient cultures, who adopted many of the ways of the Adena.

After the glacial melt, the Serpent Mound Valley had various attributes that particularly made it attractive to our first inhabitants. 1) It had numerous streams teaming with a large variety of fish and mussels and various small game including deer , rabbit, turkey and grouse amongst others. 2) It had a magnificent array of stone and clay, including chert used for arrowheads and scrapers, spear points and knives. 3) It had iron and other minerals. 4) It had various large meadows with excellent soil and rolling hills -good for farming squash, sunflower , pumpkin, gourds, and possibly corn. 5) Serpent Mound Valley includes a broad variety of fauna and nut trees and berries and other food plants 6) Salt springs were nearby.

Over the centuries the Serpent Mound Valley would blossom into one of Ohio's true wonders. Today, it is home to various original forest black walnut trees that stretch to the sky and often have a base of 6-10 feet. It is also home to an amazing variety of animals, ranging from fox, to beaver, to deer, to wolf, to panthers and bears, etc. The majestic eagle and the stunning blue heron still call the Serpent Mound Valley and the Ohio Brush Creek home.

The world of Thunderbirds, Underwater Panthers, Spirits and the Snake-Bear-Birdmen Tribe of the Serpent Mound Valley
Thunderbirds and Serpents
In ancient times 3000-5000 years ago and perhaps earlier. The people believed in spirits, magic, astronomy, and animism.

They believed amongst other things that their was a war going on around them between powerful forces and spirits, some of which they could control, some of which they could influence through ceremony and respect, but not all. They believed that there were good and bad spirits all around them...all the time, and that those spirits influenced what happened in the peoples daily lives.

One of the key constant battles was the fight between the Underwater Panther Serpent and the Upper world Thunderbirds. The thunderbirds both create thunder and wind through the flapping of its wings and shoots lightning bolts from its eyes. People who live near the Great Serpent Mound Valley will tell you that because of the rock formation the Great Serpent was built over, it is a natural conductor and draws in electric power. That lightning strikes there often.

Clearly a battle between these great adversaries must have occurred in the Valley because the Water Serpent is broken in two.

Animism

The ancient Archaic and Woodland time period people, who occupied the Serpent Mound Valley

held a totally different perspective on things from what we do today.

In order to understand better who lived in a particular region thousands of years ago archeologists and anthropologists often turn to both artifacts left by them at their village sites and in various grave or mortuary sites. They will also look to their descendants who may have kept faith with old ways and concepts to help fill in the gap. In our case, the Adena, Hopewell and Ft. Ancient seem to have followed historical religious concepts that closely parallel the Algonquin peoples ways.

The ancient people of the Serpent Mound Valley, lived in a time when Animism was believed to be real. Animism is the belief that inanimate objects such as the sun, stars, the planets, the moon, the wind, the thunder, rain, rocks and water all have souls or spirit essence in them.

They believed that every tree, plant and animal had a spirit . They believed that you respected the spirits around you or they could cause you trouble. The spirits could also help you.

They believed that their was a constant battle going on between good and bad spirits all around you.

The people believed that they shared a common great ancestor with everything and in fact, a tree or animal nearby, could be a reincarnate of a persons spirit from a prior life.

They believed that each object with a spirit was our actual brothers and sisters because we all came from a common Great Spirit.

The People

The people believed that they had multiple spirits. That these spirits could be both human or that of an animal, plant or other object.

That a persons personality and role in the world could be influenced by the spirits that they were made of and would encounter.

They believed in duality and that there was a constant conflict going on between good and bad spirits influencing every day, daily decisions and situations.

Another key concept of their beliefs is that humans possess multiple spirits and that those spirits have life apart from our human bodies.

The people believed that Shamans and others could become their animal spirits by adopting their manner and dress. The Shamans of the woodland times could shape shift and were intermediaries to the Spirits and often medicine people. The Woodland period Shaman could help influence situational outcomes through magic for themselves and others.

Like many portable rock art stones made by the early people of the Valley, this stone has additional images appear depending how it is held or lit-turn this exact same picture over and another face appears. We must admire the talent of the ancient artist who thought this way and was able to convey the multiple images in stone.

Another example of this changing image phenomena in Serpent Mound portable rock art is when the artist carved differing images that appear depending how you hold the stone-on this one held one way we see the bird spirit Shaman face, flip it around and we have a snake with a round object in its jaws. This is no easy task to make the images not conflict but instead line up so perfectly (same stone).

Another example of this same phenomena -bringing out different images depending how a story stone is held can be seen in this birdman stone (note beaky appearance of large Birdman face- on left) when we flip exact same picture 90 degrees we now see a bird biting my hand and a bear image come out-same portable rock art

Here is another example of how when we turn a piece of portable rock art from the Serpent Mound Valley- how we end up with a separate image. In this beautiful story stone we have a female shaman-no beard. From one angle we see she has a bear image on her head, a large bird on the face side and when flipped over- an amazing undulating snake on a hill- (i..e. Serpent Mound.) The bird. Bear . Snake people. Note the triangle on her nose with small circle shell left in- means enlightened. Watch for triangle eyes in other Shaman stones. One eye open one eye covered means Sun and Moon worship. The third or all seeing eye if a triangle eye.

Transforming Shaman

In this superb story stone example- we see a Shaman transforming into his animal spirit. Depending how you hold it and where you focus your attention-at least 3 images of the bearded Shaman's transformation can be seen. This is amazing artistry in portable rock art.

Transformed bird spirit Shaman and a sample of one of many portable rock art bird spirit stones-note beak and eye

Here are two other bird spirit Shaman stones-the top one is 27 inches long and weighs 45 pounds and sits like this. Can you see the bearded mans face in the bottom bird spirit Shaman stone's tail?

The same concept can be seen in these two portable rock art stones. Note the triangle eye in the Shaman stone in the back with the circle at top. One eye open -one eye covered-Sun and Moon worship-Triangle eye- all seeing eye-enlightened Shaman.

The people of the Serpent Mound Valley believed that they could transform into animal spirits-here is a Lion Spirit Shaman-fully transformed-note the almond eye- shaved-ground so it is left in and raised.

Can you see the feline spirit coming out and dominating- in this one? Note the triangle eye- left side and the Shamans face

Another interesting style of portable rock art from the Serpent Mound Valley is stones with a story in both -the stone itself and then in the shadows a second story.

In the shadows of this bird spirit stone we see a kneeling Shaman in front of a fire. He calls forth the bird spirit which rises from the fire-yellow-the bird spirit then comes in full view with extended arms-note carved in feathers on bird spirit shadow-then from his head comes his spirit-in green -it rises to the sky where it transforms and then merges into the transformed little bird-bird spirit- thus combined it then rises further and transforms into a star. We know it is the morning star because the Sun in Yellow and the moon-cut through-in blue are at the same height-the time of the morning star.

Same stone different angles in all 4 pictures

Snake-Bear-Birdman Tribe

In this portable rock art piece (same as shown earlier) do you see the snake, bear, bird spirits? In the shadows?

Draco- Ruler of the Upper- 4 layer Cosmic World Assisted by Thunderbirds, Eagles and Falcons

Underwater Serpent Panther - with man face emerging ? Ruler of the 4 layers of the Underworld and the rivers

The Great Hare Manabazho

"Incarnation of vital energy, restorer of the Earth after the great flood, author of life, giver of animal food, lord of bird and beast" sometimes a trickster*
-Mythology of All Races- the Forest Tribes- Hartley Burr Alexander (1916- North America-Vol.10-pg.39)

The Great Hare is the reformed trickster; a Thoth like God figure. A second level deity -just below the Great Spirit-representing the male force in the balancing of the competing spiritual forces. The first bearer of medicines.

Rabbit like in appearance

Small Sampling of more traditional stone artifacts:

1) Snake-Bear- Birdman Tribe symbol on stone

2) Rabbit

3) Snake

4) Spear Blade

5) Woodland Period Face-one closed eye - looking at things from a different perspective

6) Blade

7) Axe

Additional- Small Sampling of More Traditional River Stone Artifacts

1) Arrowhead
2)Point or Drill
3) Arrowhead
4) Drill
5) Arrowhead
6) Arrowhead or scraper
7) Bird Stone of Chert
8)9)10) Tools
11) Small Clay Bird
12) Hide Scraper
13) Scraper
14) Tool
15) Nut and Berry Crusher/Grinder
16) Stone Axe
17) Scraper
18) Shaman stone- note -eye hole-drilled- small face/ nose sticking out of Bear/Panther Skin mouth

Each of the portable rock art stones shown in this article were found by me at a single private site in the Serpent Mound Valley-with permission -and are surface finds. What is shown is only part of what I have been privileged and lucky to find there.

Footnoted Sources

1. Michael C. Hansen (1997 the Ice Age in Ohio- ODNR Educational Pamphlet 7, Division of Geological Survey

2. William F. Romain (2011) Current Research in Ohio Archaeology www.ohioarcheology.com, Lidar Views of the Serpent Mound Impact Crater

3. Dale Lute, (2012) Edition, Finding Ohio Mounds a Guide to Ancient Earthworks of Ohio

4. Bradley T. Lepper (2005) Ohio Archeology, An Illustrated Chronicle of Ohio's Ancient American Indian Cultures

5. William F. Romain, Ph.D. Newark Earthwork Cosmology: This Island Earth -Hopewell Archeology: The Newsletter of Hopewell Archeology in the Ohio River Valley Volume 6, Number 2, March 2005

6. Deb Twig Director , Susquehanna River Archeological Center Website www.spanishhill.com accessed 3/3/13

7. Lidar Image-http://www.clintoncountyohgis.org/ Clinton County, Ohio GIS accessed, 3/3/13

8. Andrea Stone, Regional Variation in Maya Cave Art. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies 59(1): 33-42

9. Photo by Matt Lachniet, University of Nevada at Las Vegas A photo of a red feathered serpent from the Juxtlahuaca cave in Mexico, permission e-mail filed.

General:

Richard C. Adams (1904) The Ancient Religion of the Delaware Indians

William Martin Beauchamp (1892) the Iroquois Trail, Footprint of the Six Nations

Nelson Wiley Evans (1900) A History of Adams County, Ohio

Ross Hamilton (2012) Star Mounds Legacy of a Native American Mystery

Graham Hancock (1995) Fingerprints of the Gods

Mark Raymond Harrington, (1921) Religion and Ceremonies of the Lenape

Mary Catherine Judd (1915) Wigwam Stories of the North American Indians

Charles Godfrey Leyland (1904) The Algonquin Indians of New England- Myths and Legends

William C. Mills (1900) The Baum Prehistoric Site, November Issue, The Naturalist

F.W. Putnam (1887) Abstract of Lecture Upon the Ancient Earthworks of Ohio TRACT No. 76.before the Western Reserve Historical Society, Cleveland, Ohio

William F. Romain, (2009) Shamans of the Lost World, a Cognitive Approach to the Prehistoric Religion of the Ohio Hopewell

Edward Burnett Tylor (1920). Primitive Cultures

Fletcher Wilson and E.P. Grondine (2010) A Guide to Serpent Mound

Susan L. Woodward (1944) Indian Mounds of the Middle Ohio Valley

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The Under Water Panther Serpent and Portable River Rock Art from the Serpent Mound Valley, Ohio, USA - Graham Hancock Official Website

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Editor: In this article, researcher A.W. Skelly searches for evidence that more ancient artefacts may be lying near Ohio's Serpent Mound. How well do you think the theory is supported by the evidence? Discuss your thoughts on the Mysteries forum.

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Rock - Revelation in Stone. Prehistoric Stone art.

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Rock - Revelation in Stone. Prehistoric Stone art.

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Revelation in Stone. Prehistoric Stone art.

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prehistoric artwork discoveries found by me. Polymorphic anamorphic flint tools that show common animal, ape, bird, fish and early man motifs and symbolic imagery.

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Recognizing Faces in Lithic Artifacts (Figure Stones) - A Neuroscientific Perspective

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Recognizing Faces in Lithic Artifacts (Figure Stones) - A Neuroscientific Perspective

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Recognizing Faces in Lithic Artifacts (Figure Stones) - A Neuroscientific Perspective

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An empirical test of simple human-face pattern recognition in an archaeological context.

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prehistoric North American Figure Stones. Most of the artifacts shown here are from archaeological site #33GU218 in Ohio, but some are from other parts of the world including Germany, England, and Australia. Many of these pieces have been verified by professional geologists and petrologists, and by laboratory analysis, as being products of human workmanship. Although this lithic artifact typology is still rejected and/or ignored by most of the archaeological/academic "establishment", it has been proven to be quite real and a part of the archaeological record. The temporal/cultural association of the artifacts at 33GU218 has, for the most part, not yet been conclusively determined, but circumstantial evidence currently suggests Early Archaic through Middle Woodland, and quite possibly earlier.

This photo display (started August 2013) is just an adjunct to the still rather disjointed, very much a work in progress, and subordinated to the actual archaeological research. Most of the pictures here include links to their original postings and descriptions on the primary website, but some have no links since they are not yet shown there. More photos will be added to this display (probably quite slowly) as time permits. Thanks for your interest, and I hope you will find this worthwhile.

Copyright 2003-2018, Alan Day

You are welcome to share this material if proper credit is given.

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prehistoric North American Figure Stones. Most of the artifacts shown here are from archaeological site #33GU218 in Ohio, but some are from other parts of the world including Germany, England, and Australia. Many of these pieces have been verified by professional geologists and petrologists, and by laboratory analysis, as being products of human workmanship.

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Portable Rock Art / Figure Stones (Pierres Figures) - America's (almost) Invisible Prehistory

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Portable Rock Art / Figure Stones (Pierres Figures) - America's (almost) Invisible Prehistory

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Portable Rock Art / Figure Stones (Pierres Figures) - America's (almost) Invisible Prehistory

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Since 2003, a presentation and discussion of icongraphic artifacts (Figure Stones) from an ancient habitation site (#33GU218) in southeastern Ohio, and elsewhere. Investigated and verified artifact material, not the imaginary stuff currently infesting the internet and YouTube, eBay, etc. And of course not for sale.

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Portable Rock Art and Figure Stones - Eoliths

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Portable Rock Art and Figure Stones - Eoliths

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Portable Rock Art and Figure Stones - Eoliths

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Prehistoric art, eoliths, paleolithic animations, anamorphic art, flint tools, figure stones, hominid art, Neanderthal art, stone age, stone age optical illusions, Paleoart, portable rock art, rocks, flint, stones, figure stones, figurative art, and symbolic visual communication tools.

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Arte paleolitica, post paleolitica e storica bidimensionale e tridimensionale con interpretazione delle funzioni attraverso rapporti evoluzionistici; immagini con didascalie, in italiano e in inglese.Sito in periodico aggiornamento. Evolutionistic rapports with Paleolithic, post-paleolithic and historic two- and three-dimensional art; texts, images, and figure captions, both in italian and english.

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Warren K. Moorehead on the imperitive to collect "rough and rude" art

"... The museums are full of axes, celts, pipes, banner stones, discoidals, hematites, tubes, slate ornaments and ceremonials, pestles, hammers, etc. What the museums need (as of great value to Archaeological Science) are collections from a single locality including everything found in that locality. They want the finds of the village site, the studies in unfinished specimens, the poor and the good, the imperfect as well as the perfect. In this regard, the collectors make a great error. Most of them do not save everything but cling to the 'pretty relics' and discard the rough and the rude. Personally, I would give more for a collection, provided it contained all the types, all the finds of a certain valley than for just the fine, perfect objects of that valley. From a collection of the latter, I would be misled, for if I accepted it as indicative of the people of that valley, I would say they made the most beautiful works of aboriginal art, nothing rude or unfinished being turned out by their artisans. In such a statement, I would be unpardonably wrong."

Warren K. Moorehead, 1884

Clive Bell at 100 years

"Most people who care much about art find that of the work that moves them most the greater part is what scholars call "Primitive" ...In primitive art you will find no accurate representation; you will find only significant form. Yet no other art moves us so profoundly." -Clive Bell, 1914; quoted after Cahn and Meskin 2007: 266.

Sculptor Henry Moore

"The most striking quality common to all primitive art is its intense vitality. It is something made by people with a direct and immediate response to life. Sculpture and painting for them was not an activity of calculation or academism, but a channel for expressing powerful beliefs, hopes and fears.

Primitive art is a mine of information for the historian and anthropologist, but to understand and appreciate it, it is more important to look at it than to learn the history of primitive peoples, their religions and social customs...But all that is really needed is response to the carvings themselves, which have a constant life of their own, independent of whenever and however they were made, and remain as full of sculptural meaning today to those open and sensitive enough to receive it as on the day they were finished." --Henry Moore, 1941

A book on Siberian portable rock art could provide clues to North American possibilities

Early art of the northern Far East : the Stone Age, by M. A. Kiriyak. This book is about the portable rock art of the Russian north east area. It was written in Russian but has been translated to English by the United States National Park Service's Shared Beringia Heritage Program. The hundreds of iconographic artifacts described and pictured here should inform North American archaeologists regarding the possibilities for art modalities having arrived via Beringia during peopling of the Americas migrations. The book is available for preview at the link here.

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"... The museums are full of axes, celts, pipes, banner stones, discoidals, hematites, tubes, slate ornaments and ceremonials, pestles, hammers, etc. What the museums need (as of great value to Archaeological Science) are collections from a single locality including everything found in that locality.