More about Malakoff Heads - One comment on this intriguing question

"I saw the three heads at the TMM ca. 1950. Here is the story, as best I remember it, that Glen Evans told me at the time about their discovery.

The first head allegedly was found by an employee of a gravel company around 1930 in basal gravels of the third terrace of the Trinity River, deposited during the Pleistocene 30,000 to 50,000 years ago by Glen's estimate. Somehow word of the find came to Glen's attention, and he went to Malakoff, where he found it being used as a doorstop by the man who had discovered it. This clearly was an artifact, with distinct eyes, mouth, nose, and ears carved into a naturally formed, rounded stone a foot or more in diameter.

Several years later, another "head" was found by the gravel crew. Some time later a third "head" was found. The third one was examined in situ by Evans and possibly by E. H. Sellards, who observed that it clearly was in undisturbed, primary position within the gravel deposit. It may have been found during exploratory excavations by TMM staff; or by gravel company employees may have found it and reported the find to the TMM--I'm not sure which. But Glen did observe it in place in either case.

The second and third heads did not look at all like the first one, nor did they resemble each other. Each had incised marks that, by exercise of some imagination, could be likened to features on a human head. However, had it not been for the first, clearly sculpted stone, I think it unlikely that anyone would have paid any attention to the second and third. Glen believed all three to be artifacts, but I am skeptical about the second and third.

It would appear possible that the first head was a hoax, as it was not observed in place by an archaeologist or geologist, and someone could have carved up the stone as a joke. But Sellards and Evans examined weathering of the incisions forming the facial features and found it to match the weathering on the natural surface of the stone, which convinced them that it had been carved before being deposited in the gravel bed.

Glen Evans is the only person who can recount at first hand all of the circumstances surrounding the discovery of the three stones. ......."

Edward B. Jelks, archeologist
University of Illinois
Normal, Illinois