Ohio to get official state artifact: pipe

Plain Dealer

COLUMBUS

Ohio has an official bird (cardinal), a flower (carnation), an insect (ladybug) and even a reptile (black racer snake). Oh, and a fruit (paw paw), too.

Now the state is about to have an official artifact — a 2,000-year-old stone tobacco pipe discovered more than a century ago in an ancient American Indian burial ground near Chillicothe.

It’s a seven-inch-long pipe carved in the image of a primitive man wearing a decorative loin cloth, large loop earrings and ceremonial headgear.

The bowl is between his feet and the mouthpiece is on his head, so you would have to puff on the top of his hat to get a hit of tobacco.

“It’s the earliest representation we have of a human in all of Ohio history or prehistory,” said Brad Lepper, curator of archaeology at the Ohio Historical Society in Columbus, where the pipe is kept on display.

The state Senate has passed a bill designating the pipe as Ohio’s official artifact. On Tuesday, a House committee approved the Senate’s bill and sent it on to be scheduled for a House vote. The committee’s chairman, Rep. Terrence Blair of Washington Township, said, “I’m sure it will be favorably voted on.”

The historical society discovered the pipe in 1901 during an excavation on the Ross County estate of Thomas Worthington, Ohio’s sixth governor,

, who served from 1814 to 1818.

Worthington, who also was one of the first two U.S. senators representing Ohio when it became a state in 1803, named his estate Adena— Hebrew for “delightful place” — which is why the artifact is named the Adena pipe.

The prehistoric culture lived in the Ohio Valley between 800 B.C. and A.D. 100, according to the historical society. The pipe was carved between 20 B.C. and A.D. 40. The dig also unearthed copper bracelets and flint spear points.

Lepper said the pipe was smoked during religious ceremonies by a shaman or priest who inhaled highly potent tobacco that put him into a trance, hoping to connect to a spiritual world. “It was a special tool for a special person,” he said.

Lepper told the committee that the author of a book titled “Indian Art in the Americas,” known as the definitive reference on American Indian art, described the Adena pipe as “the finest known example” of prehistoric stone sculpture north of Mexico.

“What better artifact to represent our Native American heritage than an actual representation of an ancient Native American?” said Lepper. “This honors the ancient Native Americans of Ohio and honors our sixth governor.”

During the hearing, Lepper presented a replica of the pipe, which was passed around among lawmakers, bringing laughter in the committee room, especially when one pretended to take a toke.

The move to make the pipe an official state symbol was started four years ago by students from the Columbus School for Girls who were studying Ohio history.

During Tuesday’s hearing, some lawmakers expressed frustration over how long it is taking to adopt the legislation making the pipe official.

“There’s not much of an excuse for not proceeding with a little more haste,” Blair said.