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Mississippian Effigy Pipes and the Glendon Limestone

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Vincas P. Steponaitis  and
David T. Dockery III
Vincas P. Steponaitis
Affiliation:
Research Laboratories of Archaeology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB# 3120, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3120 ([email protected])
David T. Dockery III
Affiliation:
Mississippi Office of Geology, PO Box 2279, Jackson, MS 39225 ([email protected])
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Abstract

Large effigy pipes made of limestone are found at Mississippian sites across much of the American South. Here we examine a sample of these pipes with the goal of identifying their geological sources, which are inferred from the fossils visible in the rock. All but one of the pipes in our sample are made of Glendon limestone, a distinctive material that outcrops most abundantly near Vicksburg, Mississippi. Based on the geological and distributional evidence, we argue that these Glendon limestone pipes were crafted in the Lower Mississippi Valley. Our study also demonstrates the efficacy of using fossils as a nondestructive way of determining the provenance of limestone artifacts.

Resumen

Resumen

En sitios misisipianos localizados en una gran parte del sur de los Estados Unidos se han encontrado largas pipas efigie de roca caliza. En este artículo se examina una muestra de estas pipas con el objetivo de identificar susfuentes geológicas, las cuales se pueden inferir a partir de los fósiles visibles en las rocas. La muestra analizada, con excepción de una pieza, está elaborada con Caliza Glendon, un material distintivo que aflora con gran abundancia cerca de Vicksburg, Misisipi. En base a la evidencia geológica y distributional, se argumenta que las pipas de Caliza Glendon fueron tallados en la llanura del Curso Inferior del Misisipi. Este estudio también demuestra la eficácia de la utilización de fósiles como un método no destructivo para determinar la procedencia de artefactos de rocas calcáreas.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 76 , Issue 2 , April 2011 , pp. 345 - 354
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 2011

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