|
Horse
Figure in Limestone |
|
This horse-like
figure, uncommonly naturalistic down to abrading of the muzzle
area for a lighter color, was provided with two eyes on one
side, one above the other. The bottom (round) eye was,
like the nostril, pecked into the surface, and the top eye was
painted on, apparently with an iron oxide paste (red ochre)
as on other rock paintings
at this site.
|
| This artifact seems to have
some potential in the problematic matter of determ- ining the
temporal association of the site. (There are, so far, none
of the recog- nized flint blades or projectile points
characteristic of a particular time period - just a few small
scrapers and worked pebbles of imported flint, along with many
simple tools of local sedimentary rock, and a few of imported
igneous and met- amorphic material.) Horse ancestors in the
western hemisphere apparently became extinct sometime between
10,000 and 13,000 years ago. This stone figure is
intriguing in the context of another one at the site, a
petroglyph in which natural features of the rock have been
enhanced to depict what looks very much like the head of a
mastodon, also long extinct: |
| In the bifrontal
("janiform") style quite characteristic of the
image-bearing material at this site, the right edge of the horse
stone
displays the classic simple face consisting of a mouth and a
diamond-shaped eye. |
|
The obverse
side of the stone, a sitting sphinx-like figure. |
|
Top
of Page
| Click your browser's
"Back" button to return to the point from which
you entered this page. |
HOME
|
|
