What started as a collecting hobby over four decades ago recently resulted in a massive discovery by Long Beach resident and amateur archaeologist Richard Dempsey.
The 76-year-old has been credited with uncovering material that may change the way we think about prehistoric art, craftsmanship and even worship tendencies. His findings, which he coined Paleo Story Stones, have revealed repeated imagery throughout the Paleolithic era, suggesting a new link between man and mammoths during this time.
Often referred to as the Stone Age, the Paleolithic era is the earliest known period of human history, spanning from roughly 3.3 million years ago to 10,000 BCE.
The most often repeated symbols on the Paleo Story Stones are of human faces and mammoths, often one young and the other old. These symbols are present throughout geography, materials and time.
“Before my discovery, mammoth effigies [a model or statue] were somewhat rare – only a dozen worldwide,” Dempsey said.
Now, hundreds have been found across every continent yet explored. Archaeologists have found volcanic glass specimens from Mount Shasta, rose quartz bifaces from South Dakota and Desert glass from Libya, ranging from 500,000 to two million years ago.
The Los Cerritos neighborhood resident began his journey as an amateur archaeologist in the ‘80s, traveling to areas in Acton, California to collect rocks while balancing a career in insurance. Most of his research time has been spent finding and collecting Clovis spearpoints, many up to 13,000 years old.
He was exploring Lake Manix in the Mojave Desert in 2020 when he found his first Paleo Story Stone. When he took it home, he thought, “Gee, that’s a mammoth effigy.”
Initially, he didn’t pay much attention to the flake side. It wasn’t until he photographed that side one week later that he felt what he called “a super spiritual experience.”
“What I experienced was truly spiritual; it was a deep connection with our Paleo ancestors that really blew my mind,” Dempsey said in a YouTube video showing off the first Paleo Stone Face he discovered. “I had never had that kind of experience in my life, ever.”
When Dempsey saw the old and young faces, he marvelled at the beautiful engravings.
“It was like the past was looking at me, saying, ‘Richard, keep going. Find more of these and see what you can find here,’” he said.
Dempsey sent the photo to an archaeologist and Harvard PH.D graduate, Dr. Michael Gramly.
“He wrote back and said, ‘Richard, do not drop and break this piece because if you do, the Paleo spirits will get you. You wrap this in velvet and put it in a box and take care of it,’” Dempsey said.
Dempsey’s long-pursued hobby is now transforming the way archaeologists examine their findings. While cave paintings and clay figures are obvious forms of expression, these Paleo Story Stones must be rotated to reveal the symbols. It shows a level of intricacy never considered in pieces from the Paleolithic period, requiring flaking, engraving and rounding out edges. It’s also the reason why these stones have been overlooked for so long.
“At its most creative level, the discovery suggests that early humans were not merely surviving. They were remembering. They were honoring. They were encoding stories into stone,” Dempsey wrote about his findings.
Since then, Paleo Story Stones have been discovered in cobalt blue volcanic glass, periwinkle volcanic glass, ruby red glass, Libyan desert glass, citrine crystal, rose quartz, meteorite, translucent agate and other materials. Dempsey also noted that natural features in these materials were not ignored or changed, but instead incorporated into the Paleo Story Stone. A hole, shift in color or bubble could be used as an eye, hair or a trunk.
Now, Dempsey is exploring the meaning behind these artifacts. He theorizes that the repeated imagery of man aging alongside mammoths could be pointing to a kind of mammoth worship. This might explain why Paleo Story Stones are found in places around the world, if people carried them during their travels as a protective symbol.
The possible meanings are endless and will no doubt be examined for years to come: the young and old faces could represent generations, a life cycle, transformation.
“Maybe they thought we evolved from mammoths,” Dempsey mused.
