Interesting day out today...Effigy?

[BrettCo124]

Hey all,

Had a good day out. Weather cooperated, but we didn’t find much. However, I found something that stopped me dead in my tracks. I couldn’t believe it. Can someone help me ID this thing? It looks to be part of a pipe, but it’s very heavy and doesn’t feel like clay. It feels like stone. Found on a Maryland site that produces artifacts.

What do you think??

 

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[bsit1361]

Carefully

 

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[BrettCo124]

It’s getting there! Extremely light brushing without any pressure at all on it. I’m going to stop here and not clean it anymore. I don’t care about the dirt itself, I care if it’s holding it together in any way. So here she is! Also, does anybody have any knowledge on pipes with a face on it? Does it have a meaning? Age? Just trying to figure out more. It’s stone. I confirmed that.

 

[Hawks88]

Awesome find. Nice point also. Congrats.

 

[joshuaream]

Cool find. Can you post a better picture of the backside?

 

[BrettCo124]

Cool find. Can you post a better picture of the backside?

Sure. One sec...

 

[BrettCo124]

Here you go. Thanks for looking:

 

[joshuaream]

Is this packed dirt? If it is, I don't fault your logic for not cleaning it out, it might very well be providing some structural support. On many of the broken effigy pipes I've seen (lots of Hopewell ones that are in the British Museum, and a couple that collectors sifted from throw piles of earlier Ohio Mound digs) you can see part of the inside of the pipe bowl on the broken pieces (they tended to break on the thin walls.) That might be your best bet for identifying if it is a pipe fragment or not.




I'd also check the eyes and nose with a magnifying glass or loupe, it looks like stone, but you might see little creases or "ripples" from carving clay. Some of the hardened pottery approaches stoneware like consistency, and some of the small pieces won't show a temper/grit like bigger pieces need. Like Charl astutely pointed out, Chlorite or Soapstone would logical choices.

All in all, a very cool find. I hope you get a good identification and share it back with us.

 

[BrettCo124]

Thanks for that awesome response! I am nervous to take the dirt out. I’ll have to give it some thought!

With what you can see, do you believe it is Native American? What type of age would you guess on this piece if so? We’ve found some really old artifacts on this land.

 

[mn9000]

Looks like a good match to the Iroquois clay pipe examples posted by GHP, but you say it's much heavier than clay? Is it possible that it only feels heavier than clay due to the packed dirt? Hopefully you can get back out there & find a few more pieces of it.

 

[joshuaream]

With what you can see, do you believe it is Native American? What type of age would you guess on this piece if so? We’ve found some really old artifacts on this land.

Yes, I think it is Native America, but probably late prehistoric to Historic vs really old. My first thought was a fragment of one of the "Native Style" pipes from the Point Pleasant Ohio pipe factory made for general use in the US. I don't think that's what you have, the face is too irregular and the seam is missing. You can see the PDF paper of some of the styles in the link below.

Judging by the button found on the same site, and the proximity to Philly, your area didn't have a very long Historic period where Natives would have made and lost pipes. I'd look at some of the Eastern Woodland groups, Seneca, Delaware, Conestoga, Shawnee, etc. and see if you find a historic pipe that sort of matches elements of the face (eyes, nose, the design on the forehead area and cheeks) that you can see. Pipes were made in styles, there is a matching piece to yours out there in some museum collection or old book.

https://kb.osu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/1811/38903/Point_Pleasant_pipes.pdf

 

[filmiracl]

Awesome find. Bucket list item for me is to find anything with a face like that.

 

[jmaschal]

Pretty neat read Brett on some nearby finds from some local visitors in the area it was found - http://twipa.blogspot.com/2017/10/lost-faces-in-time.html?m=1

 

[BrettCo124]

Thanks all!
John - great read. I wonder what age is really falls under. Getting some type of a glass cube display for it this week, before my cat bats it off of my table in my room.