Raccoon effigy pipe photograph   Save
William D. Tremper Collection http://www.ohiohistory.org/etcetera/exhibits/ohiopix/index.cfm
Description: This pipe in effigy (a likeness or representation) of a raccoon, made of gray and brown mottled pipestone, was excavated from Tremper Mound, a Hopewell culture site located five miles north of Portsmouth in Scioto County. The animal is shown crouched on bowl of pipe with legs flexed, and its tail extends to the platform. The details of the face--"mask", mouth, and nostrils--were carefully carved in low relief. The left front leg and adjoining section of bowl, right side of bowl, and right shoulder of effigy are restored, as is the section of the tail that is completely in the round and a small section of the platform. 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 BC-AD 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_1136381_060
Subjects: American Indians in Ohio; Plants and Animals; Arts and Entertainment; Geography and Natural Resources; Hopewell culture; Mounds (Burials); Pipes (Smoking); Raccoons
Places: Rush Township (Ohio); Scioto County (Ohio)