Effigy Id needed

[irbaddadjoe]

Been away awhile but know you guys are the best at identifying things . Friend of mine recently found this and it is a little out of the ordinary for what we have been finding. Found in north central texas. Any ideas?

 

[Felinepeachy]

The bottom pic looks like a face but you're holding it on it's side

 

[fyrffytr1]

Hey FP, is this better?

 

[Felinepeachy]

This is what I am seeing.

 

[ohioaxeman]

Very interesting piece you have there!

 

[naturegirl]

Is it clay, or stone? Sure looks like a face to me, but I don't know anything. It's really interesting, that notched rib sure doesn't look natural, even if the 'face' can be explained as natural. Good luck, I hope it is an effigy, and not off of modern Mexican pottery.

 

[Rege-PA]

If pottery looks to be a pot lug/handle, could also be part of a decorative pipe...an extension of the bowl, but I`m leaning more to the pot lug. Exceptional find, faces are always interesting as now we see how they might have looked.

 

[irbaddadjoe]

I think it is a chicken head. Almost Mayan looking.

 

[tmodel]

seems like i am allways asking for more are better photos. so here i go again, sure looks like an effigy, i need a photo or two of the other cheek like the one FP!! marked all over, thank you. Terry

 

[irbaddadjoe]

The top two pics are of both sides. You can see some color around the mouth.

 

[tmodel]

#s 1, 2 ,3 and 4 photos are not the same angle as #s 5, 6, and 7... [ # 7 ] is the shot i am asking for a shot at the same angle but the other side of the face.

 

[NorCal Gal]

Sure a cool piece... It's almost like an "amorphus" of a human and a chicken or other bird. I was just reading about "optical illusions" in art in ancient cultures. Many times the figure or painting could be viewed two different ways to suggest two different animals/animal-human combination. The particular example I was reading about was a small fetish or figure that could be viewed as a "bison" or a "mammoth" depending upon the particular parts that the viewer picked up on. There are a couple of old (as in "Victorian" old) sketches -- one that can be seen as a duck's head or a rabbit's head and another that either looks like a young woman or an old crone -- that are pretty famous. Possibly this "pot lug" or whatever it is might be an example of that?