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Uncovering this bird-shaped Figure Stone in 2004, I was startled (although no longer greatly surprised) by the vividly carved human face staring with a rapt expression upward at a 45° angle.
At this site I had, by this time, recognized many less detailed hybrid bird-human images in the stones at this site, and several
consistently recurring simple themes in these.
Since then I have included this one in an informal catalog of mainly common and visually recognizable motifs (e.g.,
creature atop head, creature from
mouth, one-eye-open /
one-eye-closed, etc.) apparently originating and thought to be important thousands of years ago, their actual meaning by now likely irretrievable.
Unlike most of them, this one seems (to me, anyway) even today
intuitively/existentially relatable.
A bit later in 2004 while visiting the
Cleveland Museum of
Art I encountered the little Cycladic (ca. 5000 years BP) marble statue from
Türkiye shown below, appropriately and poignantly called "Stargazer", with her human yet birdlike form and vestigial wings.
(What is she thinking, staring into the heavens and stuck on the ground?)
Immediately recognizing her thematic similarity to the rough-hewn sandstone figure shown above, I decided to name this stone after
her, and likewise several
others shown below from widely separated locations that I have subsequently encountered personally or in photos.
It's a theme that has covered a lot of territory over a long
time...
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