BUSINESSBUSINESS NAMENAME BUSINESSBUSINESS NAMENAME Pleistocene coalition news VOLUME 13, ISSUE 3 MAY-JUNE 2021 Inside -- ChallengingChallenging thethe tenetstenets ofof mainstreammainstream scientificscientific aagg e e n n d d a a s s -- This issue we P A G E 2 Welcome to the Pleistocene Coalition provide three Palaeo-American reprints by Dr. stone figurine from Virginia Steen- the Calico Hills, CA McIntyre . The Richard Michael Gramly main one is India about George P A G E 6 McJunkin, the The fittest creatures, Raghubir Singh Thakur (MA History), black cowboy the innovators, the sadly passed away in November. His Part 5 who discovered survivors —not neces- this issue, Animal associations and Conclusion, Asia Folsom culture, sarily the same, Part 2 speaks well enough for hope of rock to follow Ray art dating with its necessarily brief Tom Baldwin Urbaniak’s article text and pictures. See Thakur p.10 . on Folsom. Also P A G E 8 Virginia’s Part 2 Experimenting Tom Baldwin , in his ‘Humanity, on taking better prehistoric art religion and evidence’ photographs, Dragoş Gheorghiu takes a long overdue and one with look at the ignored Jim Harrod on P A G E 1 0 implications of pioneering and pivotal figure stones. See Steen- Mathematical rock art creative work by Homo erectus , McIntyre p.18 , p.20 , p.15 . in India, Part 5 the Neanderthals, and the Animal associations Denisovans. See and Conclusion California Baldwin p.6 . Spain Raghubir S. Thakur P A G E 1 2 50-year interna- Nine Men’s Morris tional archaeolo- gist, Dr. Richard Part 2: Alquerque Michael Gramly John Feliks PhD , whose prolific background includes working P A G E 1 4 with Richard Leakey in Kenya, debuts a startling artifact from the Calico Hills, CA Member news & (the only New World site excavated by Dr. Louis Leakey). Confirmed by PCN expert and founding member, Dr. James Harrod, he provides full description of the other info find including comparisons with similar artifacts from the Old World readily called Brian Cairns, Tom Bald- in the popular vernacular, ‘Venus figurines.’ See Gramly p.2. win , Terry Bradford, Romania Virginia Steen-McIntyre, Engineer, rock art researcher and preservationist, Ray Urbaniak , Romanian experimental Jim Harrod, John Feliks debuts another astonishing Native American rock art image. archaeologist and artist This time it is what appears to P A G E 1 6 Professor Dragos Gheor- American cheetah be a pictographic representa- tion of an extinct American ghiu, PhD , describes a new cave experiment he Ray Urbaniak cheetah chasing a pronghorn conducted just a few weeks antelope in a photo taken by P A G E 1 7 ago in May. Gheorghiu’s rock art photographer Jennifer Hatcher . What to make of work and unique experi- Urbaniak’s nearly 10 years of such evidence mainstream Clovis/ AZ documentary pictograph mental approach to ar- in PCN continues to confound and stir the Folsom dates chaeology attempts to infuriation of some in the old-school Eurocen- understand shared per- Ray Urbaniak tric anthropology community which has ceptions common to all attacked Urbaniak’s work in knee-jerk fashion PAGES 18 – 1 9 people through timeless Revisiting 2013 as he claims early Native American skills far above where the community has kept them experiences of such as ‘Black cowboy’ brings landscape, fire, water and for decades. PCN readers are well-aware this sky. See Gheorghiu p.8 Native Americans is the same community that has sidelined into the Pleistocene Modern artist’s depiction such evidence regarding the capabilities of Virginia Steen-McIntyre Homo erectus at Bilzingsleben (Germany) More on interpreting and Valsequillo (Mexico). If Urbaniak’s new I.D. is correct it will be the 2nd animal petroglyphs ancient depiction in PCN of an extinct American cat. See Urbaniak p.16 . Ed Swanzey Last issue, inspired by R. S. Thakur’s Part 4 article, John Feliks suggested P A G E 2 0 that several popularly presumed game boards found in rock art likely did not Pennsylvania; Revisiting 2011 begin as game boards. Instead of originating as games in single places then not a game More on taking spreading throughout the world Feliks suggests the game board designs that better photographs revolve around squares and triangles are so natural to the geometric exploration of those shapes they could Virginia Steen-McIntyre easily have had many isolated origins from prehistory all the way through to the modern world. See Feliks p.12 . VOLUME 13, ISSUE 3 P A G E 2 A Palaeo-American stone figurine from the Calico Hills, San Bernardino County, California By Richard Michael Gramly, PhD , Anthropology Interior, southern Califor- Ancient industry is every- “The sheer nia in the present day is a where to be seen ( Fig. 3 ) dry, hot region deficient in barely a day’s walk from the The Calico Hills themselves wealth of moisture but rich in archaeo- Calico Hills, and artifacts are an immense lithic source, tool material logical vestiges, many of which date typologically from an early era (Campbell et al. 1937; Moratto 2004; Simpson 1989, 1998; Gramly and Walley, 2019; Gramly 2019). To some degree, the record of human pres- ence keys into the latest phase of a geomorphologi- cal scheme for the Pleisto- cene (Reheis et al. 2012). Extinct late-glacial Lake …certainly Manix ( Figs. 1 –2) was a feature of this ancient captured landscape, and if claims and held the for ‘Early Man’ at the Cal- ico Hills site are accepted, then the Fig. 2. The Calico Hills site near Barstow, San Bernardino County, California as it ap- relatively pears today. In the far distance is the low-lying basin of extinct Lake Manix, which may lush envi- have been important to Palaeo-Americans when it was better watered. For a similar ronment landscape view in 1976 see p. 34 in Herbert L. Minshall’s book The Broken Stones. around this lake must have at- tracted animal and human popula- tions. A fact that is little appreci- ated is the abundance of flaked stone raw materials Fig. 1. Map of the Mohave River drainage, within the California, showing location of the Calico Hills Lake Manix site (Calico Early Man site) in relation to Harvard basin and Hill and Jasper Hill, San Bernardino County. most of San Ber- Fig. 3. Ancient, quarried outcrop of chert and talus of quarry debris at Harvard Hill, San Bernardino County, California. Photo taken April 2021 by R.M. Gramly. attention of nardino County. The sheer Palaeo- wealth of tool material— both chert associated with made of Harvard Hill chert and everywhere the surface American sedimentary rocks and fine- and Jasper Hill felsite were of the ground is littered with groups.” grained (aphanitic) volcanic introduced to prehistoric debitage and cores in addi- rocks—certainly captured workshops upon spurs and tion to whole, flaked tools— and held the attention of ridges of the Calico Hills some still useful. Palaeo-American groups. (Fig. 4 on following page). >> Cont.Cont. onon pagepage 3 3 PLEISTOCENE COALITION NEWS VOLUME 13, ISSUE 3 P A G E 3 Palaeo-American stone figurine from the Calico Hills (cont.) Palaeo-American artifacts had been investigated ac- in order to promote our are particularly abundant at tively during the 1970s. At study of it. “The surface Calico Hills ( Figs. 5–7); the time of of the ground however, finished projectile Dempsey’s points, visit to the which are ridge during convenient the late markers of 1990s, how- temporal ever, explora- phases, tions of the are seldom Calico Early found. Man site had Nonethe- ceased. Even- less, tually the site heavy- was closed to duty pris- the public by matic the Bureau of blade Land Manage- Fig. 6. Left: Selection of stone artifacts from the cores, ment (BLM), surface of ridges and spurs east of the Calico Hills mega- and today (in site – typical of what may be collected at this lo- prismatic 2021) it is cality. A-C, prismatic blades of chert (longest specimen measures 90 mm); D, fragment of a blades, derelict. white quartz hammerstone; E, hammerstone of massive Upon the sur- green jasper; F, utilized flake made of red jasper– denticu- presumably originating at Jasper Hill, San Bernar- lates, and face of the dino County. Right: Richard Dempsey holds a kindred ridge Richard Clovis point that was anciently made by trimming objects, Dempsey ob- a flake of red jasper. It was discovered upon the are clear served and surface during 2018. collected a Fig. 4. Terminus of spur or ridge extending indicators from Calico Hills towards extinct Lake that Pa- curious chert biface Manix. The Calico Hills Figurine was discov- laeo- measuring 103 mm in ered upon the surface at this location dur- Americans, length and weighing ing the 1990s by Richard Dempsey. who be- 108.5 grams ( Fig. 8 on longed to the following page). This the Clovis archaeological artifact was undamaged is littered and unlike any other with debitage culture (or perhaps some earlier related manifesta- specimen known to him and cores in tion) were familiar with from a Lake Manix site. every rock Although not fully realiz- and ridge ing its significance, in this Dempsey curated the region. artifact carefully but did The Calico not report his find to any Hills archaeologist until 2020. Figurine That year he sent photo- graphs of the artifact to During the author and to Dr. one of his James B. Harrod—an many expert in ancient figura- trips to tive sculptures of both Fig. 7. Palaeo-American denticulates Fig. 5. Large Palaeo-American prismatic explore the Old and New Worlds. collected upon the surface of ridges blade core of chert weighing approximately archaeo- Both of us recognized and spurs east of the Calico Hills site, 3 kg (seven pounds) discovered upon the logical that this biface was a April, 2021.