Where were they found?

In Prescott Valley, Arizona.
In the middle of the valley, in yellow grassland and tumbleweeds, surface finds. Cattle ground.
No pottery sherds, no petroglyphs, no stone walls nearby. But yes to those in all the mountains around.

From the point of view of an artist

An artist, this is what I am. And a picture framer and a French instructor. I am open to beauty.
From this standpoint alone, these rocks would commend careful attention. I am, each time, amazed by the creativity in them. These were not done by " primitive people".
There is intelligence and sophistication.
Like this bird. The first that I found 3 dimensional. Other bird images are on one side of a stone, the carving of something else on the other side.To my amazement this one had a well defined tail with a different color than the body and because of a groove under its belly, this bird could sit comfortably on my finger.
We have found, since then, a good number of rocks with a slight curve under them which help to do the same thing- if they were meant to do that.

Not just rocks

This the phrase that my friend, Cathi Fitzpatrick, coined. Due to her sense of observation, comparison to other rocks and feelings about them. She searched the Internet for comparable rocks and found some sites which talked about unusual rocks with animal or human images called figure stones, term that I incorporated in the title of this blog. Here are their links for more information.

www.daysknob.com

www.portablerockart.com

At this point, this is all about observation and acknowledgement that these stones are different. No definite answer to who, when, how these were done.

One assumption I do not have

That these rocks are nature made.
(Sorry Mother Nature!)

Many surprises and many questions

The surprise in Jean-Paul was a rock with a nose and an eye and a mouth perfectly set.

Then it was about seeing many rocks with a human profile like this one above. Before that, it was seeing turtles, buffalos, sheep, horses, dogs, mice, bears, fish, lots of birds. I thought: "Fair enough. Animals. Nature. I don't see any bears nor fish around here, right now, but it could have been, some time ago. Who knows? Some people who stayed here on this land, this is what they saw and carved in rocks..."

Then, with the human profiles, I thought: " This is going to be very interesting ! We are going to see the portraits of the people who did those images, we'll have an idea of what they looked like!"

Well, this was not to be the simple thread of a simple story. The noses were not just Indian noses. Some were white, some black, some mayan looking noses and who knows what else!

Time to let go of all assumptions!

I decided that it would be of interest to share photos of them on a blog and see if some knowledgeable people, out there, would recognise them and know who they were.

So here it is, this blog. With many wonders and many questions.

Jean-Paul

We'll start with Jean-Paul.

The profile was so clear, with such simple lines. He looked like a modern man. A serious business man, maybe? I wanted to give him a name. The first name that came to my mind was Jean-Paul. That's a French name. No real surprise here because I am French.