Birdstone Head

[CMD]

I hunt a field in RI where, back in the 1930's, the farmer found a perfect popeye birdstone and gave it to an old timer I knew, who at the time was just cutting his teeth at artifact hunting.  This popeye head was found in Plymouth, Ma. In 1939. Closest I'll come to owning a birdstone from New England! Check out the illustrated example. An old drawing by Wm. Fowler. That one was excavated in RI in mid 20th century. Pretty clever rendition of the eye. Can't imagine what it felt like pulling that out of the dirt :woohoo:

[Hoss]

awesome pictures Charlie very rare find too. Charlie did they give a size on that one pictured by Fowler?

[CMD]

Hoss wrote:

awesome pictures Charlie very rare find too. Charlie did they give a size on that one pictured by Fowler?

  Yes, a few mm shy of 4 inches. You can read the story of it's recovery here:

https://vc.bridgew.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1097&context=bmas

[Hoss]

very cool man thanks for the share. bn

[gregszybala]

That is cool, a work in progress! Thanks Charlie, really enjoy seeing pieces like this.

[rmartin]

Thanks for sharing Charlie....that is just awesome!

[cgode]

As has been said Charlie....thank you! very cool

[CMD]

gregszybala wrote:

That is cool, a work in progress! Thanks Charlie, really enjoy seeing pieces like this.

  Greg, if you look at the 4th photo, you can see where it broke off on the right. It was a finished product, the body is gone

[Stonehunter]

Very kool find!!!

[clovisoid]

That's a great Box Head style birdstone head, pretty classic example of a type (the cylindrical eyes, the thinness, and even the wobbly curve.)  Very nice piece.  I think that style tends run north of the Great Lakes, in to NY and New England, and then down the coast towards the Carolinas.  It's pretty rare compared to some of the other styles.
I'm not a computer guy, but with the way computer recognition software works, I think it would be cool to have people take pictures of miscellaneous birdstone heads and bodies (as well as broken gorgets, bannerstones, etc.) and see if the computer could match them up to the missing parts.

[SDhunter]

That is neat Charlie,   thanks for sharing.

[CMD]

clovisoid wrote:

That's a great Box Head style birdstone head, pretty classic example of a type (the cylindrical eyes, the thinness, and even the wobbly curve.)  Very nice piece.  I think that style tends run north of the Great Lakes, in to NY and New England, and then down the coast towards the Carolinas.  It's pretty rare compared to some of the other styles.
I'm not a computer guy, but with the way computer recognition software works, I think it would be cool to have people take pictures of miscellaneous birdstone heads and bodies (as well as broken gorgets, bannerstones, etc.) and see if the computer could match them up to the missing parts.

  Thanks for the detailed info, clovisoid! Cool to know all that, and that it's relatively rare as well.