"Figure Stones"
	America's
	(almost) Invisible
	Prehistory
	Day's Knob in Guernsey County, Ohio Site #33GU218 (Ohio Archaeological Inventory) ( And Other Figure-Stone Sites/Finds )

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This material is presented for consideration by anyone with an interest in the early habitation of North America, describing artifacts first recognized and recorded in 1987 at an unglaciated hilltop site in southeastern Ohio.  These have appeared in large quantity, at depths of from near the surface to well below, and the surface of this large site has only been scratched.  At this time, five doctorate-level professionals - geologists, petrologists, anthro- pologists, and a forensic biologist - have personally identified human agency in both lithic and organic material.  The Ohio Historic Preservation Office has included the site in the Ohio Archaeological Inventory, recogniz- ing evidence of prehistoric habitation, although they are unable at this point to conclusively identify temporal or cultural association.  Since they lack the funding and staffing needed even to keep up with Ohio's many popularly recognized "Indian" sites, this is as far as their involvement seems likely to progress.  Judging from a ceramic fragment and an apparent long, straight, and symmetrical earthwork oriented to true north-south, it appears that the upper artifact layer may date from the Early or Middle Woodland Period.  More important by far than just this particular site, the finds here have led to the awareness of a very simple zoo-anthropomorphic iconography appar- ently routinely and usually perfunctorily incorporated into lithic and other artifact material over thousands of years and across widely separated areas of this planet.

____ Recent: ____ Click image for details and more photos. A large sandstone turtle head with eyes on both sides, found by Dirk Morgan near Fort Ancient in Warren County, Ohio, and professionally identified as human-carved.

 

Horse                      Flint Figures (Manuports)        Yellow Ochre Figures

Human                     Human                      Human, Male and Female                Petroglyphs

Bird Pendant              Bird Microsculpture      Bird Head on Sandstone         Bird-Form Gouge

Portable Rock Paintings         "Venus" Figure                          Dog                      Gallery of Faces

Disk Pendant            Sun Disk         Quasi-Human           Bird-Human              Bird-Human

Rabbit/Human

 

The age of these artifacts has not yet been conclusively determined, but their quantity, consistency of form, distinctive carving marks, and representation of bird and shaman-like hybrid bird-human images indicate that they are of human manufacture.  Several spirally fractured deer bones have been unearthed, indi- cating human activity.  Human remains in the form of hair, usually dark brown when not faded, have appeared in direct context with the lithic artifacts.  Some of the hairs were submitted to the Center for the Study of the First Americans, where in November 2003 the late Dr. Robson Bonnichsen identified them as human.  Genetics researcher Dr. Tom Gilbert attempted mitochondrial DNA analysis of other hairs from the site, but unfortunately none of their DNA had survived, despite their outward appearance of being in good condition.  It is hoped that hairs might appear that have been adequately protected from mois- ture, and freezing and thawing.   One of the hairs remaining after the necessarily destructive attempt at DNA extraction has been verified by Dr. Scott Moody, professor of forensic biology at Ohio University, as being obviously human and apparently quite old.  Dr. Moody has also identified dyed plant fibers in context with the artifact material.

(Click images below for details:)

Carving Marks          Human Hair and Fiber Artifacts          Spirally Fractured Bones

Whatever the age of this material might prove to be, it seems to point to an important if unrecognized anthropological and cultural phenomenon - the virtually ubiquitous shaman-like bird-human figure characterizing the rock art at this site, remarkably consistent in its arrangement of readily identifiable sub- components.  Strangely, this figure incorporates iconography quite evident in modern but traditional Inuit/Yupik art, and also present in European Paleolithic artifacts, as well as in Australian material of unknown age.  The presence of "portable rock art" or "mobile rock art" has been recognized in European artifact material, and is starting to be seen for what it is at sites in North America.  At this site and others, it is often incorporated into simple lithic tools.

From the huge quantity of lithic artifact material, it seems that this site, with its commanding view, ample water supply, and terraced eastern (sheltered) slope, may have seen more than just part-time habitation.  Initially, the possibility of a "pre-Clovis" presence came to mind since while none of the popularly recog- nized "Indian" spear heads and projectile points have appeared, several of the apparently human-modified stones have been professionally recognized as in fact being anthropogenic and/or at least having a very high probability of being so.  But subsequently, similar artifact material has appeared at other sites in direct context with points, blades, etc. temporally diagnostic of time periods as recent as Middle Woodland (roughly 100 BC to 500 AD).  Nonetheless, the distinct similarity of the artifact material here to that at the Gault (Clovis) and Topper (pre-Clovis) sites leaves open the at least hypothetical possibility that the more deeply buried artifacts (apparently at at least a meter or so beneath the terrain surface) might predate the Clovis time frame.  If not temporally "pre-Clovis", they certainly are technologically, and may represent the lithic tools from which Clovis and later technology evolved.  And artifacts of this kind may simply have coexisted for a long time with the currently more recognized and familiar flint implements, serving when and where these were not readily available.  (Several small picks and scrapers of non-local flint are present at this site, however.)  At this point, the actual age of this officially unrecognized yet professionally verified artifact material is of less interest than the simple fact that it is present.

It appears (currently under investigation) that a large earthwork is present at the site, a symmetrical rounded wall roughly 6 m (20') high at its highest point, roughly 11 m (36') wide at maximum width, and several hundred meters in length.  This is quite straight and oriented to true north-south.  Such astronom- ical orientation is characteristic of Late Archaic through Middle Woodland earthworks, as is the overall morphology of this structure, which includes a shallow trench along its eastern side.

Aside from the apparent earthwork, so far only one object has appeared at this site that is, in terms of currently recognized evidence, possibly temporally and/or culturally diagnostic of the uppermost artifact layer - about 12 cm (5") down at the top of the hill.  This is a small ceramic fragment (rim sherd?) identified by an archaeologist at the Ohio Historical Society as possibly being from the Middle Woodland Period:

Lithic artifact material bearing the carved imagery characteristic of this site has been found in parts of Ohio that, unlike this location, were flattened by glaci- ation, suggesting that the material in those areas is less than 14,000 years old (unless, of course, it simply survived where it was earlier, or was carried in by a glacier).  Dave Gillilan in Pickaway County, Ohio (glacial boundary) recently discovered, at a depth of about 1.5 m (5') in apparently undisturbed terrain, a deliberately buried cache of artifacts quite similar in form and composition to those at Day's Knob, but generally more refined, and accompanied by flint and quartz points, blades, etc. characteristic of the Late Archaic and Early Wood- land Periods (roughly 2000 years BP).  And some of the other artifacts in direct context are very strange, including non-utilitarian objects of iron, the carbon content of which has been radiocarbon dated to roughly 400 AD, strongly suggesting prehistoric iron smelting by Native Americans.

The lithic artifacts found so far at Day's Knob are carved, chipped, split, and/or abraded mainly from the local limestone, sandstone, hematite, and soft yellow ochre.   Heavy V-profile incision and carving marks (probably decorative or symbolic in most cases) are a distinctive characteristic of this assemblage.  A few of the simple tools are made from non-local igneous (sometimes volcanic) or metamorphic rock.  The site is well south of the glacial boundary, beyond the extent of significant glacial outwash; also, it is on a hill rising about 120 meters (400') above any creek beds in which such material might appear.  It seems reasonable to assume that this material was imported by the site's inhabitants.

Click image for details.

There are a few small flint tools, several scrapers and one gouge or pick, as well as numerous apparently imported flint pebbles.  Why there are not more flint implements is somewhat of a mystery, but it is evident that the hard limestone abundant at the site was adequate for the population's needs at the time (it is quite capable of cutting wood, for example); they just used what was there, and flint does not occur naturally in Guernsey County.  Apparently they were unaware that 21st century AD lithics experts had not approved their material for tool making.

The original expectation was to deal here only with the artifacts appearing at Day's Knob, but it has subsequently (and not surprisingly) become clear that material of very similar form and incorporated iconography is to be found in many places in North America (as far away as California), and, rather unexpec- tedly, in other parts of the world.  Among professionally excavated potentially "pre-Clovis" sites in North America, it almost certainly is present (even if not recognized) at Topper beneath the Clovis-age strata, and at Gault among diagnostically Clovis-age material.

Topper                         Gault

Click images for details.

Several visitors to this website, collectors and amateur archaeologists in the USA and even Europe, have contacted this author to show very similar material they have found.  At least two in the USA had already independently identified their finds as obvious artifacts, and the European contributors (apparently having fewer preconceptions) have been doing this for some time now (for example, among other longtime investigators, Ursel Benekendorff  in Ger- many).  Individual interpretations of the material vary (typically as "literal" de- pictions of various animals, less evolved human physiognomies, etc.) and usually differ from those of this author, but this is not important now (the "experts" will eventually pontificate endlessly on all this once they have be- come aware of it) - the objects are clearly artificial and of essentially the same morphology and incorporated symbolic motifs, particularly significant in the context of the early habitation of North America.  And the overall implications for the worldwide migration timeline are obvious.  The visitors' contributions, and some of this author's finds from Scotland and Australia, can be seen by clicking these links:

 

North America                     Europe                 Australia                         Africa

At Day's Knob the lithic artifact material so far gives the probably deceptive appearance of a single cultural layer, and very likely this is the case at other North American habitation sites that have been overlooked because the objects are not typically "Indian".  Aside from the largely discredited "Clovis first" theory, two (among many) assumptions stand in the way of recognizing much of the Native American artifact material.  These are the notions that all smaller tools must be made of flint or similar rock, and that the remains of very early habitation must in all cases be overlain by more recent artifacts.  Neither of these assumptions is logical or supported by evidence in other parts of the world, but they are part of the belief system forming the basis of American archaeology.

____________________ Bird Forms ____________________

Strangely enough, in most cases the functional tools at Day's Knob are formed at least abstractly in the shape of birds or bird-humans, which apparently played a dominant role in the belief system (animism/shamanism?) of the people that left these mysterious objects behind.  Most of the bird forms have a rounded or even anthropomorphic face, but the overall morphology, and an eye distinctly carved in the appropriate place, are unmistakable when one even casually looks for them.

Bird-Shaped tools - click image for details.

Tools and/or decorative/symbolic objects ("portable art") of this form have also appeared in other parts of the world; some of these are claimed to date from several hundred thousand years ago, and the easily recognized form persists in tools well into the Neolithic.  

______________ Decorative/Symbolic Birds ______________ 

Besides being fashioned from rock, some of the primarily symbolic or decor- ative bird figures at Day's Knob are fashioned from various organic materials.

(Click images below for details:)

Plant Fossil(?)                           Wood                         Clay/Hair

The organic materials' state of preservation is good, apparently due to their having been packed tightly into the clay.  This includes the verified human hairs that have appeared in direct context.

Click image for details.

 

________________The Bird Spirit (Bird-Human)________________

Even more frequently than the actual bird form, the image of a hybrid bird-human creature appears - referred to here as the "Bird Spirit".  (Since this author seems to have discovered it, at least in this context, he presumably can call it whatever he likes.)  Whatever the age of this site might prove to be, the Bird Spirit image in itself is probably of considerable anthropological signifi- cance, being apparently of quite ancient and primal origin.  In artifacts of the European Paleolithic it appears consistently, resembling in small detail the image here, and persists quite identifiably into modern but traditional Inuit/Yupik ("Eskimo") "transformation art".  (Actually, it has subsequently come to this author's attention that the Inuit and Yupik have been calling this bird-human figure "Bird Spirit", or even just "bird", for a very long time.  Oops!  So much for this author's originality...)  The figure also appears in Australia, and almost certainly in many other parts of the world.

For a while, this author was tentatively identifying numerous figures on stone tools as animals such as bear and wildcat.  Then came the discovery of what appeared to be the image of a human head made of a hard clay/ochre/plant amalgam, half buried at the bottom of a washed out rut in the "driveway" up the knob, and quite distinct in composition from the surrounding mud.  In its mouth were two distinctly detailed birds joined together, and it was adorned with several other small bird figures.  Looking more closely at the mischaracterized "animal" images on the tools and large stone figures then revealed that these usually had mouths abstractly or distinctly shaped like birds, leading to the recognition of a highly standardized bird-human figure.  The constant repeti- tion of a complex and recognizable pattern was unmistakable.

The head of a Bird Spirit may be strongly anthropomorphic, with distinctly human nose and eyes at the front of the face, or more bird-like with an elon- gated head.  In either case, it usually has a mouth rather than a beak.   Below is a sketch of the general form, a simple schematic showing most of the typical components described in following paragraphs.  (Unlike the people that created these objects, this author has no artistic talent.  Do not laugh.)       

The sketch below shows the general form of the bifrontal image appearing constantly in the carved rocks at this site, with the quasi-anthropomorphic shaman-like face at one end and a more zoomorphic one at the other: 

____________

A Bird Spirit figure typically exhibits at least some of the following features: (Click on the underscored terms or the "thumbnails" for photos.)

____ A bird facing forward on top of the head, often suggesting shaman headgear. Click image for details. ____ One or more birds or quasi-human faces emerging from the mouth, an apparent theme of regeneration, like the figure-emerging-egg-like and figure-from-the-belly imagery also shown below.  Sometimes there is a succession of figures, each emerging from the one preceding it. Click image for details.  ____ The head of a bird or quasi-human emerging from the belly of the primary figure. Click image for details. ____ A bird or anthropomorphic figure emerging from the posterior, in the manner of an egg. Click image for details.  ____ A face at one end of the figure, another at the the opposite end, giving a bifrontal or Janus-like effect; typically one face is more or less anthro- pomorphic, and the other is more bird-like.  Click image for details. ____ A mouth consisting of two birds conjoined most of the way back from their heads, and facing away from each other with their heads forming or occupying the corners of the mouth.  When the figure is depicted only in profile (more common), the mouth has the form of a bird facing toward the back of the head.  This gives an appearance that easily causes the image to be misidentified as an animal such as a bear or wildcat. Click image for details.   Sometimes the mouth takes the form of a big toothy grin. Click image for details. ____ Eyes typically circular or diamond-shaped, very often with a distinct raised or indented iris in the center.  When the face appears in frontal view, the two eyes are often different in shape, or one eye is partly or fully closed.  Sometimes they are intricately carved into the form of a bird or bird-human head.  The eyes seem to have received particular attention to detail, and are among the most quickly recognizable evidence of human agency in the lithic artifact material. Click image for details. ____ A nose consisting of a bird or human-like head facing outward or downward. Click image for details.  ____ A chin, if significantly present, in the form of a bird or human-like head. Click image for details.  ____ A bird or bird-human riding on the back of another one, often suggesting copulation.   Click image for details.  ____ A bird or bird-human at the side of the primary figure. Click image for details. ____ The figures typically exhibit symmetry in that the reverse side usually bears a similar image, at least thematically. Click image for details. ____ As is obvious from the features described above, the figures are typically polymorphic - multiple images in one.  The details of an image and its multiple components are often not deeply or distinctly carved, and are usually best visible (sometimes only visible) with the light source above the figure when positioned vertically.  Often, when the figure is rotated 180 degrees, one image or set of images virtually disappears, and another comes into view.  The artisans clearly understood the interplay of light and shadow.  Likewise, rotating 90 degrees quite often has the same effect, or sometimes turning to an intermediate angle, depending on the geometry of the rock.  While often varying markedly in overall appearance, the figures appearing almost always exhibit the same general arrangement of subcomponents.   Click image for details. ____________ For some tips on effectively photographing artifacts like these (it can be tricky), click the "thumbnail" photo below: Click image for details. ____________   The image of the Bird Spirit appears to be of ancient  and primal origin, present in stone images from Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa often dating back into the Paleolithic.  This has survived from its origins in the very earliest "art" of the Old World into the Paleolithic in the western hemisphere, and in quite rec- ognizable form into the Mississippian period, as is clearly visible on the well known Cahokia Birdman Tablet:   Photo by Peter A. Bostrom, http://lithiccastinglab.com/cibachromes/birdmancibapicturelarge.htm Inuit/Yupik (Eskimo) "transformation art" incorporates many if not most of the various Bird Spirit (bird-human) themes in the Day's Knob artifact material, like the very common bird-from-the-mouth below.  A cultural affinity seems quite apparent: Click for details. It is interesting to speculate on the origin of the Bird Spirit image.  Cave paintings of the Paleolithic, with their magnificent depictions of animals of all sorts, often include people only as simple "stick" figures, if at all.  It has been conjectured that humans of that time considered themselves to be essentially separate from the natural world, having come from above.  One of this author's possibly strange hypotheses is that this Bird Spirit figure is the manifestation of a sort of "collective unconscious".  Many or perhaps most of us have had vivid flying dreams, particularly in childhood.  It seems reasonable to think that if we do it, people hundreds of thousands of years ago did it also, and took it much more seriously and literally.  And early humans poking around on the ground must have regarded birds with more than a little wonder.  When people first began to think of themselves as transcending their earthbound condition, birds must have quickly come to mind, and a "morphing" of human and bird in their physically rendered imagery seems a logical extension of this.   Given its wide geographical distribution and apparently great antiquity, one might tentatively speculate that the bird-human image originated in Africa, then was carried into Europe and the Middle East, then on into Asia and Australia, and across Beringia to North America. Click the image below for bird-human figures and related material from other parts of the world: Click image for details.   __________________Human Images __________________ Images that can be identified as distinctly human are relatively uncommon at this site.  Of those that have appeared, several are faces eye-to-eye with a Bird Spirit figure. Click image for details. ____________________Petroglyphs ____________________ Click image for details. ____________________ Rock Paintings ____________________ Click image for details. ___________________ Larger Stone Sculpture ___________________ These are usually explicitly or abstractly a bird or bird-human image, but may contain these images within a larger figure that looks like another animal. Click image for details. ___________________ Personal Ornamentation ___________________ These are two pendants - one the image of a bird, the other a disk.  The holes drilled in each are of the same size, and appear to have been produced in the same manner.               Click images for details. ____________________ Micro-Art ____________________ Many symbolic or decorative images are as small as a couple of millimeters, indicating remarkable visual acuity.  Click image for details. ____________________ Clay Figures ____________________ One of the more unusual (and certainly controversial) features of the site is the large number of bird and bird-human figures made from clay or a compressed  amalgam of mud, ochre, and plant material.  Many of these have ochre, stones, plant material, or seeds forming the eyes, and some contain verified human hairs and/or artificially colored plant fibers. Click image for details. Leaves and other plant material - including a piece of pine cone in one case - were often attached as feathers.  (There are no pine trees at the site.)  Appar- ently, packing the objects into the dense clay created a more or less anoxic environment that protected the decorative plant material. Click image for details. ____________________ Nutshells ____________________ Nutshells often appear buried in context with artifact material, sometimes bearing apparent evidence of carving. Click image for details. ____________________ Mystery Glass ____________________ Black glass artifacts appear at the site.  Their origin is unknown, although their composition has been determined by x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. Click image for details. ____________________ Wood ____________________ Wooden bird figures, as well as cleanly cut and carved wooden sticks, often appear buried in the clay, rather well preserved in context with other artifact material. Click image for details.   ____________________Tools ____________________ Among the assemblage, several very general tool templates are evident.  These do not fit well into the classic "Indian" taxonomy, so this is a poor attempt at classification (fitting square peg into round hole).  Click on the links below for photos and/or expanded descriptions.  (Please note:  This part of the website is poorly developed, showing mainly low resolution photos of just a few of the earliest tool finds.  There are better examples that will be posted later.) Since there is evidence at this site of extensive earth moving and at least some plant cultivation, it seems likely that many of the tools were simply digging implements. Small Gouges and Picks:  These are pointed implements contoured for right-handed thumb and finger grasp, typically in the form of a bird or bird head. Large Gouges:  These are pointed or chisel-shaped right-hand implements contoured either for downward or for forward thrusting.  Like the hand axes, they often exhibit the characteristic grooves and ridges for thumb and fingers. Hand Axes:  These have a bifacial bit edge and a wider, rounded proximal edge for right-handed grasping. The sides of  the implement are often grooved and/or ridged for thumb on one side and fingers on the other. Wing-Shaped Implements:  These are flared trianguloids in a generally birdlike form, including scrapers, hand axes, gouges, and abraders.  This is one of the most common templates in the assemblage, and maybe a precursor of the well known bannerstone. Misc. Scrapers and Cutting Tools:  These vary considerably in size and form.  Most are more or less in the shape of a bird or bird head. Semilunar Implements:  These are celts, scrapers, or abraders with a bifacially beveled bit edge along the circumference, and a flat or more-or-less flat proximal grasping end.  They are usually very simple, but are sometimes well detailed with contours and/or flanges for right-handed holding.  The size range is considerable. Burins:  Sharp finger-held cutting implements usually made from hard limestone. Sandstone Abraders:  Hand-held or finger-held grinding tools apparently for surface reduction and forming of other implements and decorative/symbolic objects.  These appear in huge quantity across the site.   Tool Preforms:  Rocks split and carved in preparation for further process- ing into tools. Click image for details. ____________________          ____________________ Although the implements are sometimes bizarre in appearance, close inspec- tion reveals genuine skill, creativity, and attention to detail in fabricating a functional tool from the material at hand.  It seems reasonable to assume that these tools were, when actually used, applied with considerable force over an extended period of time, and that sharp or rough edges against the hand or fingers would have been intolerable.  On this assumption, an object at this site is very seldom classified as a tool unless it meets these simple criteria:               It must fit firmly and comfortably in the right hand, or, if small, in the fingers of the right hand.  When the object is held in a position in which there is such a fit, the bit edge or point must be in the appropriate orientation to perform its func- tion.  It is remarkable that, with the exception of some of the more amorphous sandstone abraders, the tools present at this site both meet these require- ments and manage in most cases to recognizably if abstractly incorporate the ever-present bird or Bird-Human image.  It seems that cutting the image was an integral part of the manufacturing process, as much so as making the point or edge and the grasping surface.  It was seldom an intentional display of artistic virtuosity - just part of the routine, perhaps like forming the cross on hot cross buns.  Assuming an animistic belief system, maybe it was just putting the spirit's image on the rock it was believed to inhabit.  In any event, it seems that a rock was carved to incorporate both utility and symbology. In contemplating whether a given lithic artifact is a "tool" or a piece of simple "art", a fair amount of confusion has arisen because the concept of art is, relatively speaking, a very recent one in the course of humans' physical and cultural evolution.  Seeing and judging what was left behind by people many thousands of years ago only through only the lens of one's own culturally conditioned perceptions will never lead to an understanding of what was really happening.  This author would propose that many of the puzzling worked stones (often called "portable rock art") that have been examined at this site and throughout much of the world, probably most of which do not show clear evidence of use wear, are both "tools" and "art" but actually neither - just potentially if not always utilitarian objects that also routinely incorporate rudimentary iconography.  It has long been recognized, as in the Rift Valley in Africa, that early humans ("hominins") produced and left behind vastly more stone implements than were ever actually used, what would seem to be an almost compulsive behavior deriving from the fact that the manufacture of stone tools was a matter of everyday survival.  Perhaps an evolving animistic belief system (i.e., everything is inhabited by a spirit) and intellectual capacity for symbolic representation gave rise to the routine incorporation of simple imagery into potential tools.  (This seems to have been in full swing by at least 450,000 years ago, judging from some of the European finds from reasonably secure stratigraphic context.) As was mentioned above, a few years ago this author noted consistent motifs and their subcomponents incorporated into artifacts from this site and others in Europe and Australia, and a distinct correspondence in modern but tradi- tional Inuit/Yupik carvings and masks, which also derive from something quite ancient and primal in a culture intimately connected to nature. In this context, consider this quote from anthropologist Edmund Carpenter's 1973 book "Eskimo Realities": "No word meaning 'art' occurs in Eskimo, nor does 'artist'; there are only people. Nor is any distinction made between utilitarian and dec- orative objects."  (Thanks to Richard Wilson of Watford, England for pointing out this book after being subjected to this author's ravings on the similarity of Inuit/Yupik iconography motifs to those of the European Paleolithic.)  It seems likely that the symbology persisted through many thousands of years of migration and ethnic/cultural diversification.  (Belief systems, like languages, are not bound to ethnicity.) It is interesting and significant that just recently professional European archae- ologists have announced with great fanfare their realization that simple tools at Wilczyce and Lalinde/Gönnersdorf, showing no signs of use wear, are in the form of the long recognized "Venus" figurines that have appeared at various sites.  The fact of the matter is that amateur archaeologists, free of the long- standing preconceptions, have been recognizing and publishing this relation- ship for decades.  While the perceptiveness and insight of the professional archaeologists in this recent discovery certainly is to be commended, it seems that this announcement is, as is so often the case, a matter of assigning impor- tance to a given discovery less on the basis of its archaeological significance than on the academic credentials of the observers.  The presence of rudimen- tary "portable rock art" in the form of "tools" has long been rejected in Europe and elsewhere, this being "argumentation from absence"; no one (with a very few unpopular exceptions) in the professional/academic archaeological com- munity had reported it, so it was assumed not to exist.  ____________________          ____________________ The artifacts unearthed so far at Day's Knob have appeared mainly in these locations: Along the 130m (425') access path from the ridge road to the top of the hill, after years of erosion and maintenance grading, from roughly 25 cm (10") to 60 cm (24") below the current terrain surface. In a large hole dug out by deer around a salt block at the top of the hill. In several small test holes at random locations. On and below the surface of a large, relatively flat, crescent-shaped  terraced area near the spring on the east (sheltered) side of the hill. On or near the surface, or eroding from banks in quarried or otherwise disturbed areas of the site. Characteristic artifact material has, in some cases, been retrieved from far below the current terrain surface. Most of the artifacts collected at this site have been cataloged or at least sorted by the location of their appearance, but a controlled dig remains to be com- pleted.   One 1x1 m square was started in 2003, with lithic objects logged by XYZ coordinates.  This has been left on hold, mainly because of the large quan- tity of artifacts that suddenly appeared as the result of heavy rains eroding the deeply rutted "driveway" up the hill, requiring full-time attention.  Although barely started, this square has produced numerous clearly fabricated sand- stone objects, most of them bearing the ubiquitous bird/human image. Click image for details.  ____________________          ____________________ Day's Knob would have been highly favorable for habitation, with its com- manding view in all directions, ample water supply, and abundant lithic ma- terial, and it clearly was the site of much activity.   However, it is hardly unique.  There are probably many other such sites in North America waiting to be dis- covered by professional or amateur archaeologists willing and able to see beyond the current and rather rigidly orthodox paradigm for aboriginal Amer- ican artifacts.  (Topper in South Carolina is almost certainly such a site.)  Many photos of similar artifact material, resembling that here in minute detail, have been e-mailed to this author.  If one were given to wild speculation, one might present the heretical hypothesis that North America was well populated before the advent of the diagnostically "Clovis" implements.  One way or another, it is seems likely that the ground of North America will yield quite a large body of heretofore unrecognized artifact material related to but morphologically distinct from that popularly seen as Native American. Up to this point, the response from the American archaeological/academic "establishment" has been rather negative, but when they are presented with actual evidence by doctorate-level physical scientists (geologists, petrologists, forensic biologists), rock art experts, and even some archaeologists, they rest their cases with counterarguments no more convincing or meaningful than, typically, "Of course I can see the same marks and images in the rocks that you see, but I have been collecting and examining artifacts for twenty years, and I do not believe that Indians made these.  Obviously they are natural in origin".  "Believe"?  This is appropriate in matters of religion, but has no place in scientific inquiry.  It is time for someone to point out that the emperor is not fully clothed. "Know what you see - don't just see what you know." ____________________          ____________________ Click here to send Comments, Questions, and Flaming Arrows to the Author. ____________________          ____________________ Some Good Links:                                    originsnet.org             stoneage-art.de         palaeoart.co.uk    jan.innoxia.com                  andaman.org                         voila.fr/paleoart      hekoverlag.de       hans-grams.de   paleolithicartmagazine.org                   lithiccastinglab.com ____________________          ____________________ Except for photos and quotations from other sources, the material presented on this website is exclusively the intellectual property of the author.    Copyright 2003-2010.   Top of Page Visits to the Home Page since January 2003: