The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of April 18, 2024
Bird Effigy Pipe Fragment
400 BCE–100 CE
Overall: 6.6 x 2.5 x 2.5 cm (2 5/8 x 1 x 1 in.)
Gift of Arthur George Smith 1963.272
Location: not on view
Description
The modest appearance of this small bird-effigy pipe, its head now lost, is misleading—the carving is fine and imagery, complex. The upper part takes the form of a bird’s body, the wings folded over the back. The section beneath the bird’s breast, intact but difficult to read, may depict a human torso with a pronounced navel and upraised forearms and hands, the palms facing outward. If so, one creature could be carrying or transforming into the other. The pipe was created by an artist of the ancient Adena people of southern Ohio. Smoke traveled through an interior channel to the mouthpiece, a small hole on the underside.- c. 1882Found in a stone mound on the farm of Jacob Vance, about a mile west of St. Louisville, Newton Township, Licking County, Ohio, by Mr. B. Jones of Columbus, Ohio.James C. WrightCharles F. Wray, West Rush, NY?-1963Arthur George Smith, Norwalk, Oh, gifted to the Cleveland Museum of Art1963-The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
- Townsend, Earl C. "Hopewell or Adena Effigy Pipes." Central States Archaeological Journal 1, no. 2 (1954). p. 45, 47-48 www.jstor.orgSmith, Arthur George. "An Adena Effigy Pipe," The Ohio Archaeologist Vol. 14, no. 1 (1964). pp. 26-27
- {{cite web|title=Bird Effigy Pipe Fragment|url=false|author=|year=400 BCE–100 CE|access-date=18 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1963.272