Lot 221
North America, east-central Tennessee (Overton County), Middle Woodland period, ca. 200 to 1000 CE. A gorgeous dark greenstone platform pipe bowl in the form of an owl. Wonderful carved details include wings, tail feathers, a dramatic face with downturned beak, and, on the underside, small talons. Platform pipes exemplify smoking technology during the Middle Woodland period. Size: 8.25" L x 2.05" W x 2.65" H (21 cm x 5.2 cm x 6.7 cm)
This type of pipe is a rare effigy form, which often featured animal figures, birds like this owl being the most common. Smoking pipes seem to have played an important role in Eastern Woodland culture, which spanned from sub-Arctic Canada to the southern United States. The earliest evidence we have for the use of tobacco in this area comes from ca. 100 to 200 CE; in addition to tobacco, and often prior to it, we know from ethnohistorical accounts that people smoked a variety of other plants, including dogwood, juniper, sumac, and bearberry. These pipes were not just made for the simple act of smoking; they seem to have had a strong religious component as well, and various archaeological sites from the period, including the Hopewell Mound sites, have the remains of hundreds of destroyed platform pipes, including effigy ones like this. Others were buried with their owners individually. Effigy platform pipes are believed to be totemic animals or spirits from Native cosmology. The owl, associated with death and also with shamanism, would have been a powerful figure.
Provenance: Ex-Private LA County collection acquired in the 1980's
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#119030
- Condition: Chips to edges of spout and
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