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"---generally known as "Big Boy," (it) is
one of the most perfectly sculpted pieces that came from the (Spiro)
site".---1952,
Henry W. Hamilton, "The Spiro Mound," p. 34.
Native American Indians were making tobacco smoking pipes for thousands of years. Some of the finest examples were made of stone during the Mississippian period in the eastern United States. The pipe illustrated here represents one of the finest examples. It has been called the "Big Boy" pipe ever since it was dug from Craig Mound in 1934 or 35. The mound was located on the Spiro Mound site in Le Flore County, Oklahoma. This pipe was sold and resold over the years until it now resides in the collection of the University of Arkansas. |
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Both Woodland and Mississippian cultures in North America produced sculpted human effigies in clay and stone. Many of these images are so well executed they allow archaeologists to record very detailed information about the people who made them. Native American artisans sometimes included such things as hair style, jewelry, clothing and body posture into their human effigy sculptures. The craftsman who made the "Big Boy" pipe incorporated all of these characteristics. This pipe measures 11 inches (28 cm) high, 9 inches (22.8 cm) wide and it weights 11 lbs. and 8 oz. |
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The Spiro Mounds "Big Boy" pipe probably represents a mythological being. Frederick Hodge (1912: 492) states "It is believed that the native artist drew, modeled or carved not with the subject before him, but relying upon the traditional conception of the particular subject, the mythological characters being of greater importance to him than the literal or specific rendering of any original." The "Big Boy" pipe is very well adorned with several strings of shell beads, ear ornaments and a headdress. The hair is very well groomed with an impressively long braid that extends down to the waist. A mantle or cape with an intricate feather design also covers the back. |
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The
"Big Boy" pipe has been described as being made of bauxite but
recent investigations by Dr. Thomas E. Emerson and Randall E.
Huges of Univ. of Illinois at Urbana and the Illinois State Geological
Survey are helping to identify the material these red stone pipes are made
of. Their research in geologic sourcing through x-ray diffraction and
spectroscopic analysis of Mississippian red stone pipes from southern
Illinois have shown that none of these pipes were made of bauxite or even
catlinite as have been previously reported. They have identified the
material this pipe and other examples were made of as flint clay or fire
clay from local sources in Missouri. It's a clay that has been
geologically compressed into a stone that can be carved into pipes. It's
also a material that is compatible with high heat. |
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"REFERENCES" 1912,
Frederick Webb Hodge, "Handbook of American Indians North of
Mexico," part 2, p. 540. |
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