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Ice Age Indian Artifacts |
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Ice Age Elk Statue |
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Ice Age Mammoth figurine |
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In 2002 a cache of unusual stones wash out of an Illinois cornfield. Arrowheads and tools found near these Indian artifacts suggest they were first gathered 13,000 years ago! |
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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 or material - stack to make plausible figures with animal- or human-like features. Though these odd-shaped rocks are natural smooth river stones, many show signs of being meticulously worked so that they could be stacked.
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Homo cogitatio This ancient Ice Age Indian artifacts figurine, recovered from a site where arrowheads are found, looks as if it were man-made - part of it was. The ancient artist skillfully chipped between the shoulders so that the head could seat. Hair tied back into a bun, mouth opened in awe, and with saucer-like eyes of one-pointedness, this medicine man figure seems to contemplate thought itself: It’s mans ability to recognize and change his behavior that allows him to grow, to become the universe looking back upon itself. The base stone may have been cleaved by the river (from freezing water in a crack) creating the form of a man's body seated cross-legged with elbow on knee. It was river-polished after it broke. His wrist and hand just recently broke off judging by the fresh surface. The head is of the same jasper and also naturally formed. This rare Indian artifact is one of my favorites and is on display in our museum. Sienna jasper, 2 parts. 3.5”h; 262 gm. For more medicine man figurines click here. |
Most compelling of these ancient Indian relics 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. 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 (See Figurine Index).
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Stone age man believed that capturing the image of his prey, he captured its spirit, making the animal easier to catch. (Even until very recently, Native North American Indians considered being photographed bad medicine.) But more striking of these Ice Age Indian artifacts were human fertility figures – both female and male - and probably representing Shamans[1] and exotic Venuses. There were human organ-shaped stones of realistic color, possibly used in homeopathic / sympathetic medicine. Some of these figurines had evidence of dual functions and served as tool kits.
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Genetrix lapideus When I first picked up the bottom stone of this fertility figure, I knew what we had. The breast stone (with one breast exposed) is green Pennsylvanian Period slate. The backside (not shown) of this Stone Age love goddess statuette resembles a young maiden with smaller breasts. The head and hips are some form of hard greenstone high in olivine. Her belly, though a natural inclusion, has also been worked or accentuated with a sharp implement by the ancient artist, forming a fetus. Greenstone and green slate, 3 parts. 6.5"h; 902 gm. For more prehistoric Ice Age Venuses click here. Interested parties please email us at paleoart@frontiernet.net |
The evidence detailed in the following pages leads us to believe these ancient Indian artifacts[2] are from the Late Paleo Indian to very Early Archaic Indian Periods[3] 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 with small arrowheads. These Indian artifacts were collected around the time Göbekli Tepe was erected in southern Turkey - believed to be the first religious temple - built by Stone Age man with stone tools. The lance or spear was the principle long-range weapon. A short-range spear, throwing hammer and possibly the 2-string slingshot may have been used for smaller prey. (However, some archaeologists contend the bow and arrow were already in existence in Africa.)
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Canis latrans
Nothing symbolizes the wild
Midwestern United States at night better then the lone, howling
coyote. Thirteen millennia ago they also herald the moon. Crystalline
pits in the coyote’s muzzle form the open mouth and pointed teeth.
They contain |
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 Native American Indians 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.
Anthropomorphic stones like ours are being discovered World-Wide [6]
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 of eddy pockets in the clear Pleistocene riverbeds. The Paleolithic Indian people of this site, we named the River Owl, selected the stones that formed these meaningful statuettes.
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Arctodus simus Another figurine that uses 2 different stone materials that have identical coloration: When the giant Short-Face Bear freely roamed the contiguous U.S. 13,000 years ago, being eaten alive by a rogue was as high a probability as encountering a policeman while driving today (probability comparison only). Many recovered weapons from our site were intended primarily as insurance for an accidental encounter with this formidable animal that stood 11 feet on its hind legs. The massive triangular body stone makes this one of the largest figurines recovered to date. A stubby tail (not seen at this angle) was also with the find. Though the stones of this ancient Native American Indian artifacts figurine are of 2 different materials the colors match perfectly. Very impressive. Ginger quartzite body w ginger jasper appends. For more Ice Age Animals click here. 5 parts. 6.3”h; 1632 gm Interested parties please email us at paleoart@frontiernet.net |
These free-standing figurines are unique and very rare Indian artifacts. You can't just go down to a river and collect a bunch of rocks 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.
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Try to assemble a statue from rocks of uniform color - just one statue. |
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Odds are it will look generic or nonsensical. |
Neither could we have sorted out such beautifully matched stones with patina 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? How is it possible to find such matched stones together in the first place? Where did they come from - and who put them there?
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ursus tantillus furunculus
I
used the Latin name "Little sneak-thief bear" because that is
precisely what raccoons are. (There is no Latin word for "raccoon"
but 'coons are a member of the bear family.) These rascally raiders
likely robbed food stores of the Paleo/Archaic Indians at the
recovery site 13,000 years ago just
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like
they do in rural America today. And they raid
without remorse because they seem to know that for the most part, humans
find them cute and coons chirp in such a way that
they almost seem to purr. The fact that they also have masks across
their eyes to reduce daytime glare (despite performing their
mischief mostly at night) makes them the comical bandits of the
animal kingdom. The head is amethyst metaquartzite with high
concentration of iron hematite, body is amethyst quartzite with a
lower proportion of hematite, and tail even less. 3 parts. 5.0:h; 804 gm
Interested parties please email us at paleoart@frontiernet.netThe 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 - this intoxicating ancient Ice Age Indian art.
Next Page: More of these ancient Ice Age Indian Artifacts ...
Endnotes/Bibliography
[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/
Also see http://www.westernartifacts.com and http://www.relicshack.com
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Native American Indian artifacts, early art relics and arrowheads |
Last Updated: 01/17/2012
