New Analysis Suggests 700-Year-Old 'Birdman' Copper Plate Depicts a Female Warrior
A 13th-century copper plate found in a Georgia burial, long interpreted as a male warrior, may actually depict a female or gender-variant individual, according to a 2017 study by archaeologist Billie Follensbee and art historian Katie Buford. The artifact, known as the 'Birdman' plate, was unearthed in the 1880s at the Etowah Indian Mounds site but is believed to have been crafted at Cahokia in Illinois and traded south. While previous interpretations, such as a 2004 study by Adam King, viewed the figure as a male chieftain's emblem, Follensbee and Buford noted the figure's slender build and prominent breasts. They proposed the image represents a 'manly-hearted woman' or a 'two-spirit' individual, a gender-variant role in Indigenous North American societies. The plate, roughly 11 inches tall, shows a figure in a bird costume holding a mace and a severed head, and is part of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex tradition.