Lay of the Land

More Reasons for Conservation Archaeology

In this issue, we take a hard look at tobacco, and its long-time use by Native Americans that may stretch back 4,500 years, or even much further. (See “Holy Smoke,” page 12.) Today, we know tobacco as a $35 billion industry and the world’s leading cause of preventable death, but to ancient people it was an essential part of their ceremonial life. Throughout the Americas, researchers have found smoking pipes in an archaeological context. They are often very elaborate in design, like the Hopewell platform pipes from Ohio that are beautifully carved. In one mound in southern Ohio, some 150 pipestone pipes were found, many carved in the shapes of bears, wolves, dogs, beavers, cougars, otters, turtles, cranes, owls, herons, and hawks.

On the Great Plains, pipes made of carved Catlinite and alabaster were very important to the ancient people who used them. But how do we know that these pipes were used for smoking tobacco? In the past few years scientists have discovered a very sensitive test that can identify tobacco in a tiny sample of pipe residue. There are hundreds of ancient pipes in museums, so it should be easy to obtain lots of samples to test for whatever was being smoked. Oh, if it were that easy. Almost all the pipes recovered by archaeologists have been cleaned. Likewise, most of the vessels that might have been used for chocolate, an important ceremonial beverage, have also been cleaned, and the telltale residues removed, making a similar test impossible.

There is a lesson here: conservation archaeology tells us that we can never anticipate every issue and every problem. Thus, we must permanently preserve archaeological sites so we will have undisturbed data that future generations can analyze using techniques our generation could never have foreseen. That’s why The Archaeological Conservancy exists.

Mark Michel, President