Description: This pipe in effigy (a likeness or representation) of an opossum was excavated from Tremper Mound, a Hopewell culture site located five miles north of Portsmouth in Scioto County. The animal sits on the platform. Its eyes are drilled and inset with copper. Parts of the pipe have been restored. Made of dark gray stone mottled with black, the pipe measures approximately 1.88" x 1.75" x 3.33" (4.8 x 4.5 x 8.5 cm). This pipe is part of a large collection of pipes found at Tremper Mound. The pipes were carved of Ohio pipestone, a silica-based material that can be easily carved when freshly quarried from the hills east of the Scioto River. The pipes represent a variety of animals significant to the Hopewell, including owls, wolves, deer and beaver. Skilled Hopewell craftsmen carved the pipes with flint knives and some are embellished with pearls or copper. In Ohio, the Hopewell Indians (100 B.C.-A.D. 500) built burial mounds and large earthen enclosures in geometric shapes (circles, squares, and octagons) to mark the places where the people gathered periodically to participate in many social and ceremonial events. Some of these sites were quite large--the Newark Earthworks complex extends over a 4-square-mile area. The Hopewell people also maintained a large trade network extending as far as the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming, the Florida coast and Appalachians, and northern Lake Superior. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: Om1357_1764228_044
Subjects: American Indians in Ohio; Plants and Animals; Arts and Entertainment; Geography and Natural Resources; Hopewell Culture (A.D. 1-400); Mounds (Burials); Pipes (Smoking); Opossums
Places: Rush Township (Ohio); Scioto County (Ohio)