Hopewellian Platform Pipes and Their Implications for Distinguishing Variation in Hopewell Mound Ceremonialism [invited paper in Mapping, Understanding, and Comparing Earthen Enclosures: Current Research from Ohio to the Amazon]

Kenneth B. Farnsworth, Thomas E. Emerson, Randall E. Hughes, Sarah U. Wisseman

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

This study examines the context of platform pipe interments in the Scioto and Illinois Valleys and its implications for understanding Hopewell ceremonialism, exchange, and crafting. We contend that a few unique votive caches of exotic stone pipes during communal rituals in the Scioto Valley have biased archaeological interpretations of these objects. Outside such caches, pipes are rare in Ohio and seldom found in villages. However, in Illinois pipe caches are absent and mound pipe interments are limited to individuals as indicators of personal status or achievement. Pipe manufacturing debris and fragments, typically of local Sterling pipestone, commonly occur in habitations. The high value of pipes as sacra in Ohio and their lower value in Illinois parallel their common occurrence in Illinois and their rarity in Ohio Hopewell. The mounded context of pipe interments highlights general observations on the dramatic difference in mound ceremonialism in these two Hopewell core areas.
Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationMAC, Midwest Archaeological Conference
StatePublished - 2013

Keywords

  • ISAS
  • ISGS

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