This ancestor, often called a birdstone by archaeologists, resembles a seal (?), with a titled head, curved back, and long tail. Made of smoothed stone, this relative is a brown/pale green colour. Red speckling can be seen on its face, with traces of marbled light grey throughout. Scratches and dents are visible on this ancestor, as well as a hole under its neck. The left eye on this ancestor is concave and the right eye is nodular. 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 discovered in the township of Blenheim in Oxford County, Ontario. It is difficult to know the cultural origin of this ancestor, as the artist 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.

Tiziana Gallo & Craig N. Cipolla (07 Nov 2023): Three Little Birds: Reassembling Typological Thought, Norwegian Archaeological Review, DOI: 10.1080/00293652.2023.2261945

This ancestor was discovered in the township of Blenheim in Oxford County, Ontario.