HUMAN EFFIGY
Perhaps the most important pipes found at Mound City are the human
effigy pipes. Although the Tremper collection didn't produce any,
the Mound City group includes four intricately carved and detailed
human heads. They are important because they record how the Hopewell
were decorating their faces, styling their hair, ornamenting their
ears and using different types of headdresses. Shetrone describes
the pipe at right as being, "one of the finest bits of Mound-builder
sculpture extant." He goes on to describe this pipe as, "Note the
haughty dignity of the face and the bonnet-like headdress. A chaplet
of pearls encircles the forehead, and incised lines probably
represent facial painting or tattooing." Mills describes the same
pipe as, "The features are boldly and strikingly executed, and the
face is adorned with incised lines, probably intended to represent
tattooing. A typical Hopewell headdress, with incipient antlers,
covers the head, while encircling the forehead and face is a row of
small freshwater pearls set into shallow cavities drilled into the
pipestone from which the specimen is made."
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