Squirrel effigy pipe photograph

Made of dark gray sandstone, this pipe in effigy (a likeness or representation) of a squirrel was excavated from Tremper Mound, a Hopewell culture site located five miles north of Portsmouth in Scioto County. The squirrel is seated erect with its head forward and forelegs against its chest. Slight modeling suggests hind legs. The paws on all four feet are identified by parallel incised lines. The squirrel's tail is erect against the back, and the hairs of the tail are indicated by parallel oblique incised lines. The mouth and eyes are shown as incised lines, and its ears project above the head. The effigy was broken off the platform, and a slight amount of restoration was done on animal's right pelvis and on underside of platform at mouthpiece end. The effigy pipe measures approximately 1.5" x 3.5" x 1.25" (3.81 x 8.89 x 3.18 cm). This pipe is part of a large collection of pipes found at Tremper Mound. The pipes were carved of Ohio pipestone, a silica-based material that can be easily carved when freshly quarried from the hills east of the Scioto River. The pipes represent a variety of animals significant to the Hopewell, including owls, wolves, deer and beaver. Skilled Hopewell craftsmen carved the pipes with flint knives and some are embellished with pearls or copper. In Ohio, the Hopewell Indians (100 B.C.-A.D. 500) built burial mounds and large earthen enclosures in geometric shapes (circles, squares, and octagons) to mark the places where the people gathered periodically to participate in many social and ceremonial events. Some of these sites were quite large--the Newark Earthworks complex extends over a 4-square-mile area. The Hopewell people also maintained a large trade network extending as far as the Rocky Mountains of Wyoming, the Florida coast and Appalachians, and northern Lake Superior