Sources and Significance of Pipestone Artifacts from Fort Ancient Sites

Red-stone artifacts, primarily pipes, have come from at least 18 Fort Ancient sites, plus many less-well-provenienced locations within Fort Ancient territory. Most appear to have been made of easily carved “pipestones.” Thanks to portable infrared mineral analyzer (PIMA) analysis by Thomas Emerson and colleagues at the Illinois State Archaeological Survey (ISAS), we now know the material source areas for over 80 museum-curated red pipestone artifacts from 16 Fort Ancient sites and related localities, as well as for a selection of nonred pipestone artifacts from the region. Only two material sources were identified: catlinite from southwestern Minnesota and Feurt Hill kaolinite flint clay from southern Ohio. Forms and disposition of the relatively few catlinite artifacts indicate interaction was taking place between Fort Ancient and Oneota peoples from at least the fourteenth to mid-fifteenth centuries onward. Red and speckled nonred Feurt Hill pipestone artifacts provide evidence of intraregional interaction.