Big Stone Bird?

[beerphilosopher]

Greetings all! I'm new to this forum and the website as a whole, but thought this might be the best place to start with my question. Thank you in advance to anyone who might be able to point (no pun intended) me in the right direction with my inquiry.

So I inherited a rather impressive collection of artifacts from my dad after he died. They've been stashed away safely for years now, but one particular piece comes to mind every once in a while and I'm really curious to find out what exactly it is, and where it might have come from. This piece is the only one I inherited that was singled out for its own custom-made display box and it is, by far, the largest artifact in my collection (save for maybe one massive spearhead, which I'll save for anothe post).

I remember my dad called the piece at issue "the Thunderbird," but never offered me any additional information - likely because he didn't have any idea of its origins either. The artifact is stone, light sand color, and finely detailed in the shape of a bird of prey with wings spread. The bottom of each wing is "scalloped" in a serrated knife fashion. The over all shape is very symetrical -think an elongated, inverted triangle shape. The piece measures roughly 7-8" from wingtip to wingtip and maybe 4' tal, from head to tail. The piece is pretty flat too - maybe a little thicker than 1/4" on the main body, though the thickness taperes down as you get closer to the edges all around.

Any idea what this artifact might be? I don't have a photo handy, but I'll try to post a few soon.

Again, any help is greatly appreciated!

[Mojave]

Sounds like an eccentric point form. They are rare but unheard of. Impossible to say without pics though.

[Steve Valentine]

We need to see some pictures before we can get an idea on what it might be. Is the piece in question made from Flint/Chert or is actually a hardstone?

Just a word of warning though, 99.9999% of all Thunderbirds are fake and are only novelty items. If your father didn't actually personally find it then I would have to question whether it authentic or not.

[henry english]

i agree with steve ,


henry

[Massac]

I almost agree with Steve, except I would say 100% of them are fake. No offense but I've never seen a real one.