Potawatomi
Ice Age Elk
11,500 years old
Arrowheads Weapon Replicas Love Charms Shaman Stones
Kokopelli Dream Wakers Venus Figurines Medicine Men Figurines
Potawatomi
Indian Maiden 2,200 years old
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Arrowheads Weapon Replicas Love Charms Shaman Stones Kokopelli Dream Wakers Venus Figurines Medicine Men Figurines |
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Shangri-La Lost: Climate was unlike anywhere on Earth
Arrowheads from this archaeological site for sale
Paleo Weapons Exotic Replicas
If you would like more information please contact us: Paleoart@frontiernet.net |
These strange rocks, along with arrowheads and other Indian artifacts, surfaced from a washout on a hill-top field overlooking the Spoon River in Illinois. (The Spoon River has over 2,600 known archaeological sites, two of which flank the discovery site.) Groups of two, three or more stones - of the same color and material - stack to make plausible figures with animal- or human-like features. Though these oddly-shaped rocks are naturally smooth river stones many show signs of being meticulously worked so that they could be stacked.
Most compelling of these ancient Indian artifacts are free-standing effigies of men and women, some sitting as if in mediation – probably representing medicine men or chieftains. Also found were animal figurines i.e. coyotes, beaver, owls, turtles, fish, snakes, ducks and geese, elk, bear, cougars, and Thunderbirds (See Figurine Index). We know these figures are ancient because extinct Ice-Age animals such as mammoth, American lion, short-face bear, wooly rhinoceros, stag moose, Ice Age camel, and Saiga antelope were also represented.
Stone age man believed that by capturing the image of his prey, he captured its spirit, making the animal easier to catch. (Even until very recently, Native North American Indians believed being photographed was bad medicine.) But more striking of these Ice-Age Indian artifacts were human fertility figures – both female and male, some quite erotic - and probably representing Shamans[1] or Venuses. There were human organ- and genital-shaped stones of realistic color, possibly used in shamanistic medicine. Some figurines had evidence of dual functions and served as tool kits. Compelling evidence detailed in the following pages leads us to believe these ancient Indian artifacts[2] are from the Pre-Clovis or early Paleo Indian[3] period of Native American culture in North America near the end of the last Ice-Age. This is also known as the Upper Paleolithic Epoch or "Stone Age" proper in Europe, in particular the Magdalenian Culture when most cave paintings were first thought to have been created. This period was also characterized by artifacts such as willow points, bone tools, stone implements and stone points - but before the invention of pottery, beads, bone fishhooks, and the bow-and-arrow and small arrowheads. In North America, the lance or spear was the principle long-range weapon. A short-range spear, throwing hammer, and possibly the 2-string slingshot were used for smaller prey.
It has long been known Native American Indians stacked stones to mark paths[4], ceremonial places and used stones to make petroforms. Stacking stones makes a statement. Why could they not also depict a concept? Throughout man's history stone have been use for artistic expression[5]. Totem poles may be residual expressions of Paleolithic times when Stone Age man stacked stones. The "casting of stones" used to predict the future in some early cultures, may have been based on original Ice Age Paleo Indian art like the horizontal figurines in our collection.
These mysterious Indian artifacts are stones originally scraped-up from Devonian bedrock, crafted and carried down by glacier. During the Big Thaw flood, they were washed out of the moraines and tumbled down several riverbeds throughout Illinois and turned into polished cobbles and stones. The receding waters panned out the riverstones with similar specific gravities into groups in eddy pockets in the clear Pleistocene riverbeds. The Paleolithic people of this site, we named the River Owl, selected the stones that formed these meaningful statuettes.
These free-standing figurines are unique and very rare. You can't just go down to a river and collect a bunch of stones that match and come together to make a meaningful and non-abstract statement. First, the rivers in this region haven’t been “clear” for thousands of years. What makes these stones so unique is after two-centuries of farming and erosion, Ice Age riverbeds have been filled-in with so much silt that finding such otherwise perfectly matched stones would now be impossible.
Neither could we have sorted out such beautifully matched and naturally smooth stones from a quarry, gravel pit or a thousand random washouts. So why were groups of matching river stones of varying specific gravities, near a site where arrowheads are found, buried high on a hill overlooking the river? Where did they come from - and who put them there?
The following pages are based on a white paper we published at the Illinois State Museum in 2004. Here, we have elaborated on that paper and hypothesized who these mysterious people were and why they created - and left behind - these intoxicating Ice Age Indian artifacts. [1] http://sped2work.tripod.com/shaman.html [2] http://www.indians.org/articles/indian-artifacts.html [3] http://museums.ncl.ac.uk/flint/archrit.html [4] http://www.neara.org/Bryant/missouri.htm [5] http://www.marja-leena-rathje.info/archives/cat_rock_art_archaelogy.php [6] http://www.daysknob.com/
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This site was last updated 02/08/10
