Pipestone Carving Tools: Results of Use-wear and Residue Analyses

ABSTRACT

The following research was an attempt to identify tools that were used in the manufacture of pipestone pipes and to determine the sites in which this activity occurred. Use-wear and residue analyses were applied to tool types previously identified as used in pipe manufacture and using artifacts from four Great Bend Aspect sites in Kansas. These analyses identified pipestone use-wear and residue on tools from all four sites. Additionally, new tool types were added to the list of those previously identified as used in pipe manufacture.

KEYWORDS:

• Pipestone pipes
• pipe manufacture
• use-wear
• residue
• Great Bend Aspect

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributor

Alison M. Hadley is currently a Visiting Assistant Professional of anthropology at Texas A&M International University. Her research is on the life cycle of indigenous ritual stone objects in the Plains and Southeast.

ORCID

Alison M. Hadley http://orcid.org/0000-0002-1489-9825

Notes

1. While an expanded base drill cannot be misidentified as a pipe drill, because of the distinctive blocky proximal end, many of the distal fragments classified as pipe drills could be broken from an expanded base drill. During this analysis, no attempt was made to refit the artifacts (although refitting was done by previous analysts with the Tobias assemblage). However, in the future targeted efforts to refit the drills may reveal important information about tool usage, discard practices, and site formation processes.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Kansas Historical Foundation’s Alfred M. Landon Award; Osage Chapter of the Association for Women Geoscientists’ Sean S. Thompson Service Award; the University of Kansas’ Department of Anthropology’s Carlyle S. Smith Memorial Research Award and Carroll D. Clark Awards; and the University of Kansas’ Hall Center for Humanities Summer Graduate Research Fellowship.