Tag: pipestone effigy pipe

by Jim Roberson, Muscatine, Iowa

Volume 67, Number 4, October 2020 Central States Archaeological Journal

Figures 1 and 2. The pipe is 3 3/16” long by 1 ½” wide and is 2” in height. It was found near Davenport, Iowa. Photos courtesy of Terry McGuire and published with permission of the Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma. The museum accession number is 6124.1144.

This is a monitor type effigy pipe made in the likeness of a duck hawk and is made of highly polished green pipestone, Its eyes are inlaid with small river pearls, which have partially disintegrated — probably due to the corrosive agents in the soil.

This pipe is made Of pipestone which was originally thought to have been quarried from a source in Ohio, but a source Of pipestone has since been discovered along the Rock River near Sterling, Illinois. and

A plaster cast ofthis pipe Was made by the Illinois State Museum at Springfield. Illinois. in the 1950s, The pipe is so realistic that when Dr. Thorne Duel, the museum director at that time, showed the pipe to one Of the museum ‘s Ornithologists, he immediately recognized it as belonging to a definite genus and species.

The pipe Is a realistic representation Of a hawk belonging to the Genus Falconidae and the species is identified as Faleo peregrinus anarum, occurring in North America and is known as the American peregrine falcon. or “Duck Hawk.” Its scientific name means “Duck Peregrine Falcon.”

The pipe is 3 3/16″ long by I Wide and is 2″ in height, This pipe is considered by many to be one of the finest carved monitor efflgy pipes ever found.

References: Anderson, Ferrel. 2017 Personal Communication
Solomon James J. 1953 Monitor Pipe Prehistoric American pp.50-51
Solomon James J. 1956 How Lucky Can One Get? Central States Archaeological Journal Volume 3, Number 2, October 1956, pp.66
Prehistoric Art bulletin,1953 page 51 by the Greater St. Louis Archaeological Society