This ancestor is a pop-eyed birdstone, with a trapezoidal shape and block fan tail. This birdstone resembles a caribou at the front, but a bird at the back. It is a light green/grey colour, and likely made of slate. The pop eyes are cylindrical shaped, and the beak or nose is square shaped. Due to exfoliation in the middle of this ancestor’s body, it may have been wrapped. There are a lot of exfoliations on all ridges such as its back, tail, beak, and sides. There is also a dark stain present possibility on the right eye. Currently, this birdstone resides at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 

The term birdstone is a legacy of earlier archaeological work and does not consider the full variety in shape and functionality these relatives may have had within Indigenous communities. We invite Great Lakes nations to help us improve our understanding of how to identify and name these relatives. Birdstones have been found and collected from various contexts including hearths inside houses, in fields, and burial contexts. To the best of our knowledge, none of the birdstones in GRASAC’s Knowledge Sharing Platform come from burial contexts.

This ancestor was uncovered in North America; however, this is a broad estimate as no other knowledge is known at the present time. It is difficult to know the cultural origin of this ancestor, as the maker may have travelled long distances and the stone's source is often unknown.

As provided by Dr. Tiziana Gallo, Rebanks Fellow, Ontario Archaeology, Royal Ontario Museum.