'Birdman' copper plate: A 700-year-old depiction of a Native American warrior that may be a woman holding a weapon and a severed head

This hammered copper artifact depicts an Indigenous person wearing a bird costume and holding a severed head and a mace. (Image credit: Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (CC0)) QUICK FACTS Name: "Birdman" copper plate What it is: A copper plate with a hammered decoration Where it is from: Cahokia Mounds, Illinois When it was made: 13th century This copper plate was discovered in the late 19th century in a prehistoric Native American burial at the Etowah Indian Mounds archaeological site in Georgia, but it was likely made hundreds of miles away at Cahokia Mounds in Illinois.

While the decorative plate showcases long-distance trade and a shared ritual culture among early Indigenous groups in the southeastern United States, the nature of the human figure depicted on the artifact has been debated for over a century.

The "Birdman" relic is one of two hammered copper plates that Smithsonian archaeologist John P.

Rogan unearthed in the 1880s while digging in a burial mound at Etowah , a centuries-old village occupied by thousands of Native Americans from 1000 to 1550.

Etowah was part of the "mound-building," or Mississippian , phase of Indigenous occupation; other famous sites include Moundville in Alabama and Cahokia in Illinois.

These groups had extensive trade networks and shared a common artistic and ceremonial tradition known as the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex .

This copper artifact, known as Rogan Plate 1 or the "Birdman" plate, is in the collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

The plate is roughly 11 inches (28 centimeters) tall and had been buried with a high-status person who likely died at Etowah in the mid-14th century.

But experts believe the copper plate was an heirloom made decades earlier, at Cahokia, and traded south to Etowah.

A human figure dominates the copper plate with its elaborate bird costume.

The person carries a severed head by the hair in their left hand, while their right hand holds a club or mace.

The figure also wears a pleated skirt or loincloth that may have been made from human scalps.

This bird-human figure is commonly depicted in the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex and has been called a dancing warrior, eagle warrior, eagle dancer, hawk dancer, falcon dancer and falcon warrior.

But more often, the figure is called Birdman or Morning Star, a prehistoric Mississippian hero associated with agriculture and rebirth.