THE RATTLER FROG PIPE
ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS
LATE MISSISSIPPIAN PERIOD
A.D. 1250 - A.D. 1350
Two views of the "Rattler Frog Pipe".
THE RATTLER FROG PIPE
OWNED BY THE PEOPLE OF ILLINOIS

FROG EFFIGY PIPE
LATE MISSISSIPPIAN PERIOD
SOUTHERN ILLINOIS

   This beautiful late Stone Age effigy pipe probably dates to the Late Mississippian period sometime between A.D. 1250 & A.D. 1350. It was found by W. McAdams in 1887 while digging in one of the mounds on the bluffs overlooking East St. Louis, Illinois. He described his find and wrote: "This last old Mound-Builder had in the grave with him his alter pipe, or smoking-maker, from a beautiful red stone, and representing a huge bullfrog, which in its right forefoot or hand a curious sort of mace, or scepter-like handle, surmounted at its upper end with a ball or globe". In this same mound he also wrote about finding "another of these Mound-Builder's crown-like head-dresses of copper, that had been ornamented with pearls and pretty figures from pearl shell".

"Rattler Frog Pipe" holding rattle.
CLICK ON PICTURE FOR LARGER IMAGE
"THE RATTLER FROG EFFIGY PIPE"
ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS
LATE MISSISSIPPIAN PERIOD
A.D. 1250 TO A.D. 1350

OWNED BY THE PEOPLE OF ILLINOIS

   This picture shows the object the frog is holding which appears to be a rattle with lines or streamers carved below it. 

   The "Rattler Frog Pipe" is one of the most spectacular animal effigy pipes ever found in southern Illinois.  It was skillfully carved with realistic features but what makes it unique is the object it's holding in the right front foot.

Magnified image of the "Rattle".
ENLARGEMENT OF THE "RATTLE"
OWNED BY THE PEOPLE OF ILLINOIS

   This picture shows what has been described as a rattle held in the fore foot of this frog effigy pipe, known as the "Rattler Frog Pipe".

   One comparison that has been made with the object that is held in this frog's foot is with the Rattler figure pipes from Spiro Mounds. Those pipes all involve human figures with rattles in their left hands or sometimes with a fringed object in their right hand. These fringed objects sometimes have streamers that might relate to the vertical parallel lines engraved just below the object or rattle on this pipe.

Rattler Frog Pipe.
CLICK ON PICTURE FOR LARGER IMAGE
"THE RATTLER FROG EFFIGY PIPE"
ST. CLAIR COUNTY, ILLINOIS
LATE MISSISSIPPIAN PERIOD
A.D. 1250 TO A.D. 1350

OWNED BY THE PEOPLE OF ILLINOIS

   This picture shows the plain side that was carved with natural features. Several cracks can be seen where it was broken and glued back together.

   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.
   This pipe measures 6 5/16 inches (16cm) long, 3 7/8 inches (10cm) wide and 5 1/8 inches (13cm) high.

"REFERENCES"


1982, "Mississippian Stone Images in Illinois," Circular Number Six,  by Thomas E. Emerson.
2000, "Figurines, Flint Clay Sourcing, The Ozark Highlands, and Cahokian Aquisition", American Antiquity, 65 (1), by Thomas E. Emerson and Randall E. Hughes.
2001, "De-Mything the Cahokia Catlinite Trade," Plains Anthropologist, Vol. 46, No. 175 pp. 149-161. by Thomas E. Emerson and Randall E. Hughes.

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