Myths And Mystery Pipes Of The Mound Builders

The study also confirms that the people who produced these pipestone artifacts, known today as members of the Hopewell tradition, were more diverse and varied in their cultural practices than scientists once appreciated, Emerson said.

Researchers tested the mineralogical profiles of stone from sites across the upper Midwest to determine the origin of stone pipes found at Tremper Mound in Ohio, a Hopewell site. 

MAP courtesy ISAS

The Hopewell people, who lived in the region from about 100 B.C. to roughly A.D. 400, have long been the subject of speculation, as the artifacts they left behind and the manner in which these goods were disposed of are not easily understood. Those living in southeastern Ohio, especially, seemed to be “conspicuous consumers and connoisseurs of the exotic,” Emerson said.

The Hopewell people from that area collected “massive assemblages of obsidian from Wyoming, mica from the Appalachians, and caches of elaborately carved pipes,” Emerson said. They also collected shells from the Gulf Coast, along with the skulls of exotic animals (an alligator, for instance).

“Strange animals, strange minerals, strange things were really a focus,” he said.

Most of the carved stone pipes from that era have been found in Ohio, where very large caches often containing more than 100 pipes were ritually broken, burned and buried, Emerson said. The same style of pipes are found in Illinois, but many fewer have been uncovered in Illinois to date, he said, and they are dispersed, not heaped together in giant hordes as in Ohio. 

The team used a variety of techniques to analyze the material in the quarries and the artifacts. One method, called X-ray diffraction (XRD), produces a distinct signal that reflects the proportion of minerals in different types of stone. The stone must be pulverized, however, to subject it to XRD. To analyze the intact pipes, the researchers used a non-destructive portable technology, called PIMA, which illuminates a specimen with short-wavelength infrared radiation and records the refracted (unabsorbed) wavelengths, allowing investigators to identify the minerals present. They verified the accuracy of the PIMA by comparing its results to those obtained with XRD on quarry specimens and broken pipes. 

The new findings should challenge archaeologists to look more carefully at the evidence left behind by the Hopewell people, Emerson said. 

“This study really says to the archaeological community, you need to go back to the drawing board,” he said. “You’ve been telling stories for decades that are based on essentially misinformation.” 

The research team also included Kenneth Farnsworth, ISAS research associate; Sarah Wisseman, the director of the Program on Ancient Technologies and Archaeological Materials at ISAS; and Randall Hughes, a senior scientist at the Illinois State Geological Survey.

The National Science Foundation supported this research.

The ISAS and ISGS are units of the Prairie Research Institute at the University of Illinois.

Diana Yates, Life Sciences Editor, U. I. News Bureau
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign