More finds from The Fisher Site in Virginia, I have identified this as a piece of human mandible (jaw bone) a full set of lower front teeth are visible and the molars on the left side, it was found alongside carved stone pieces and other possible human remains beneath a layer of volcanic ash, the last volcano known to of erupted in Virginia has been dated to 35 million years ago. In Keith Fisher's own words, a brief description of his find site:
'I have only been in a very small fraction of the permitted area. Two small areas, within 20 feet from each other. Everything that I have found is within the 20 ft. mark. Tephra has coated everything below the iron ore and sediment. Roughly 60 ' above sea level. All artifacts and ancient remains are found together. It is very difficult to know what you have found because it is hidden below the tephra surface. The jaw and teeth that is in question, has been in my possession for over a year. It took me countless inspections of this object before I could recognize what it may have been. It takes time. 6 to 12 inches below the steam level there is a bright blue vein of fine material that contains all. I believe that the volcanic eruption ties everything together.'
Above: Note the mental foraman, the small pit in roughly the center of the photo.
Above: From left to right, the left side canine tooth, four incisors, the right canine tooth and two premolars.
It takes at minimum roughly 10,000 years for bone to become petrified but that requires special circumstances and I am unaware of any such fossilized human remains found in America , The mandible has completely turned to stone, such petrified Human remains are extremely rare anywhere on any continent. The most striking feature of the specimen is the protruding chin, Humans and elephants are the only species to carry such a feature, The teeth placement and alignment match the configuration of humans. The mental foramen (small hole in the front lower jaw matches human placement and parameters.
The above photo is used under Creative Commons from this scientific paper in the following link: Morpholoical and Morpometric Study of the Mental Foramen on the M-CP-18 Jiachenjiang Point
The mandible was found alongside figurative artworks, carved stones using the same paleo language as human made artifacts from my own Site here in the UK. Many of the carved stones found in association with the human jawbone appear to show long extinct creatures such as dinosaurs, and interestingly elephants, not mammoths or mastodons as large ear shapes are present in the carved rock images, I have displayed many such elephant like carvings on this blog before to demonstrate a repeat topology in my worked flint tool finds. More finds of Keith Fisher's are detailed in these two earlier posts of mine, 35 Million Year Old Unique Lithic's and Indian Tools, Elephant, Bear And Dinosaur Likenesses
I have long been a proponent of an ancient date for portable rock art finds, others in the field often describe ape like images as being attempts at carvings of humans, Ignoring what they see in an attempt to link such images to ice age cultures, the same goes for there mammoth interpretations often ignoring the color of the find and and large ear shapes present. North America until very recently had no fossil record of apes or monkeys, but recent finds suggest otherwise, check the following link here .
Keith has many more finds that he suspect's to be human bone fragments, mostly teeth, all from his find site and also many figure stone pieces. More post's to come from the Fisher Site in the near future.
