The ancestor is a pop-eyed birdstone in a red-brown colour with sets of diagonal green bands wrapping around its eyes and body. This ancestor has a broad circular base and a slightly curved backside. Its beak was broken and slightly reshaped. What is most notable is the two large protruding eyes on either side of its head, which are rounded with a pointed end. On the bottom of this ancestor are two raised slants with perforations. From the side, they appear to resemble feet and allow the ancestor to stand. Its edges are smooth, and there are a few scratches on its body, mostly on the tail and back. Currently, this ancestor 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.  

It is difficult to know the cultural origin of this ancestor due to its age, the unknown context of its collection, and the fact that birdstones have been found throughout the American northeast. It may have travelled long distances.

Information from this entry comes from the ROM's catalogue alongside Dr. Tiziana Gallo's research on Birdstones.

Royal Ontario Museum records