Smoking Pipes

As the name indicates, smoking pipes are artifacts that were (and still are) used by American Indians to smoke various plants. Although we tend to be most familiar with the use of tobacco, evidence for other items have also been found in pipe analyses, including pine, flowering plants, and fungi. Pipes are important artifacts for archaeologists because they have a strong association with ceremonial and ritual aspects of American Indian life.

American Indians made pipes out of both clay and stone, which is how we have divided our 3D models below. With the advent of European trade goods, pipes made from white ball clay are also found on historic American Indian sites; you can find some examples of these in the European Trade Goods section.