This is from the Central States Archaeological Journal of April 2015. Our friend
Rock was kind enough to mail me this magazine. For some reason the pictures did not down load but, here is the write up;
A Vulture Effigy Pipe From Lee County, Georgia
I recently had the privilege of getting to know one of our newest friends through the Peach State Archaeological Society web site. I will honor his request by not sharing his name in this report, but his story is one that resonates with many of our members that have used our hobby of artifact collecting as a meaningful way to spend time with family members. Our friend shared with me that he and his family had taken a trip to the Kinchafoonee Creek area in Lee County, Georgia to find some relief from the 101 degree heat on July 1, 2012. The temperatures that summer had been so consistently hot and the drought so severe that the level of the creek was extremely low. The irrigation needs of local farms had further driven water tables to a record low. While standing near the creek, he had noticed a few chips of flint and some sherds of pottery that were visible in the shallow water. His eye then caught a piece of, what appeared to be drift wood, half submerged in the sandy bottom of the creek. You can imagine his surprise when he lifted the “drift wood” out of the water, discovering that it was not only a clay pipe, but that it was a “buzzard holding a human head!” After 35 years of collecting and many nice finds, the Vulture effigy pipe was the find of a lifetime for our friend. While he is proud of his find and more than happy to share it with us through this article and through our web site, he is clearly not interested in selling the pipe. He wants to leave it to his daughter for her future enjoyment.Lamar Complicated Stamped pottery (left) and Lamar Bold Incised pottery (right) were found within a few feet of the Vulture effigy pipe.
The pipe is made of shell-tempered pottery, a strong indication that it is part of the Mississippian period culture. It was found in close association with both Lamar Complicated Stamped (left) and Lamar Bold Incised pottery (right) that dates to the Late Mississippian period, probably between 1350 and 1450 A.D. The date of the pipe is early enough to retain the Quincunx or cross-in-circle symbol of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex. The Cross in Circle Motif is prevalent in most Native American religions. It has solar connotationsand usually symbolizes the sacred fire that exists in the Middle World. A Cross in Circle Motif combined with a Petaloid Motif symbolized the Above World. The arches with lines and punctations are one of the many Cool Branch Incised design variations. Frank T. and Gail S. Schnell and Vernon J. Knight Jr. (
Cemochechobee 1981) gave no suggestion of a symbolic meaning of the arches. Cool Branch pottery was made during the Middle and Late Mississippian periods between 1200 and 1400 A.D. The Vulture eating a human head effigy is clearly a death theme. The sacred fire may continue that theme into the upper world. Neither Lamar or Cool Branch pottery was shell tempered, but many other Late Mississippian pottery types in the central Chattahoochee River were.