Re: "Epic carving found in Vero "

[Mark Hallett <marksabercat@yahoo.com>]

>From the slope of the back, tusks and other features I think it definitely is 
>supposed to represent a mammoth, not a mastodon. --Mark

--- On Wed, 6/3/09, quailspg@frii.com <quailspg@frii.com> wrote:

> From: quailspg@frii.com <quailspg@frii.com>
> Subject: Re: "Epic carving found in Vero "
> To: dinosaur@usc.edu
> Date: Wednesday, June 3, 2009, 5:53 PM
> Quoting the article:
> 
> > "In what a top Florida anthropologist is calling
> > 'the oldest, most spectacular and rare work of art
> > in the Americas,' an amateur Vero Beach fossil
> > hunter has found an ancient bone etched with a
> > clear image of a walking mammoth or mastodon."
> > http://www.verobeach32963.com/news/News060409/060409_BoneCarvingFind.htm
> 
> The legs are drawn with tremendous sophistication -- more
> so than the
> head. Plus, the animal is doing a proper elephant pace --
> legs on the same
> side of the body moving in unison. One could imagine that
> the artist had
> lots of experience being very close to the living animals.
> 
> Additionally, I can't help but notice there don't seem to
> be any weapons
> depicted and none mentioned in the article. Who knows --
> maybe this is
> actually an example of one individual's fascination with an
> animal's form
> (an artistic exercise) rather than the standard hunting
> narrative
> (recording an event, evoking magic, or celebrating a
> kill).
> [Bald sociological speculation over.]
> 
> -- Donna Braginetz
> 
> P.S.  Tell us, Dan, exactly what were you thinking?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
>