Anyone have an idea to what this eagle is?

[BenjaminBritton]

This is the only artifact my father kept from his collection

 

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[Johncoho]

It appears to have been knapped from a piece of flint or chert. Possibly by a Native American, or someone else that did an excellent job with knapping.

 

[KENTUCKYWONDER]

Thunderbird. Real or not can't help you. Nice piece!

 

[relic lover]

Some experts should be along shortly to tell you there's no way on Earth your item is genuine. Definitely a Thunderbird effigy made by someone.

sent from my computer by frantically poking at the keyboard with a single finger

 

[cw0909]

there has been a few of those here, this thread might help
http://www.treasurenet.com/forums/north-american-indian-artifacts/171612-eagle-real-fake.html

 

[ivan salis]

the item is a real hand knapped item --known as a "thunderbird" of course -- now then the big question is it a modern made item or is it old ...if old it could be big $$$$

 

[Tony in SC]

Post it on the North American Artifact forum and see what those guys say.

 

[diggummup]

Post it on the North American Artifact forum and see what those guys say.

They will tell him that it is fake. Here is a good little read about them- Thunderbird Effigies (Carved) - ArrowHeads.com

Although knapped thunderbird (sometimes called eagle) effigies are common items regarded by archaeologists as modern fakes and fantasy pieces, genuine examples made by Native Americans do actually exist. But their form and nature is distinctly different from the fakes which are knapped from stones such as flint, chert, jasper, agate and obsidian.

Genuine items are extremely rare and almost unique to the Northern Plains area – particularly Mandan culture sites in the date range of 1,000 to 1,500 AD. Such items aren’t knapped. They’re always carved (and sometimes polished) – mostly from shell, occasionally from bone and even more rarely still from easily worked non-knappable stones such as limestone and catlinite.

These illustrations are from “Thunderbird Effigies from Plains Village Sites in the Northern Great Plains” by Robert E. Warren:

One of these items (third row, extreme right, labelled ‘l’) was found at the Swift Bird mound site, which is part of a series of early Besant and Sonota burial mounds and other related sites in North and South Dakota dating between 1,350 and 1,950 years ago. It’s the only documented find I know of which has come from a mound.

This picture of some fragmentary items comes from a generic information sheet published by the University of Iowa:

It was accompanied by this text: “A few very special artifacts were used in the ritual or ceremonial realms of certain prehistoric groups. At village sites of northwestern Iowa’s Late Prehistoric Mill Creek culture, small lens-shaped quartz or basalt discoidals and thunderbird effigies of limestone and catlinite have been found”.

There are more details on the knapped fake and fantasy items here:

http://forums.arrowheads.com/forum/i...eagle-effigies