Portable
Rock Art in Missouri
Stacy
Dodd & Rod Weber Finds
Jasper
County
Site #23JP1222
(Missouri Archaeological Survey)
Mr. Dodd and Mr. Weber (the landowner) have
recovered a large number of limestone and flint artifacts in a
small area near Joplin,
Missouri, from surface level
to about 60 cm (2') down in unglaciated terrain, nicely representing the widespread
prehistoric Figure Stones phenomenon. Most of the
pieces are not of the popularly recognized "Indian" variety,
but two of them, shown below, have been certified by an
"authenticator" of Native American artifacts who has
identified them as "preforms". (Almost certainly these
are not preforms, but fully formed simple general-purpose hand
axes.) |
Shown below are the other human-modified
stones in direct context, exhibiting the
polymorphic/polyiconic zoo-anthropomorphic imagery characteristic of such
material. As is so often the case, bird and bird-human
motifs are predominant. These artifacts were photographed
by the author under less than optimal conditions, under a table
lamp in a motel room in Zanesville, Ohio. |
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Bird-human. |
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A recurring motif discovered by
this author in the old Figure Stones, which he has dubbed the Stargazer - a
face staring upward, often open-mouthed, the figure typically standing on a flat
or arched base. Note the distinctly carved eye.
Below, other such ancient stone images from Australia,
Ohio,
England (Richard Wilson), and Germany
(Ursel Benekendorff), and a modern but traditional Inuit
sculpture. This author has personally found the image in
Figure Stones in USA, Europe, Australia, and Dominica. |
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The name was applied in this author's
finds when, in 2004, he saw the theme in the beautiful approx. 5000-year-old birdlike 17.2 cm
(6.77") marble statue from Türkiye called
"Stargazer" at the Cleveland Museum of Art.
Photo below: |
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Below: A
bird-human Stargazer in sandstone from 33GU218 in Ohio. |
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Below: A human Stargazer in
flint from deep within glacial till at Groß Pampau in
Germany. (Ursel Benekendorff
find.) |
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Apparently a
zoomorphic drilled pendant. |
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Bird. |
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More bird. |
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Again a bird, here with, below,
the common motif of a humanlike head emerging
like an egg from its posterior (featuring fortuitous
fossil). And note here also the common theme of a creature
(bird?) emerging from the mouth. |
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Another zoomorph with a
humanlike face emerging from the posterior. |
A large balanced
bird-form pendant. For comparison, right, a
smaller one from the 33GU218 site in Ohio. |
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Left, a birdlike figure from 23JP1222.
Right, a quite similar one from a Paleolithic find site near
London, England. |
More coming...
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