Vesicular Basalt Pipe
Vesicular Basalt Pipe – Interactive 3D Model (left click and drag on image to adjust view)
This object is a 3,000-year-old pipe made of vesicular basalt. It was found at the site of Las Capas, near Tucson, Arizona. This pipe was manufactured by grinding two cone-shaped voids from opposite ends of a piece of basalt. Pipes like this have been found in association with seeds from the tobacco plant (Nicotiana sp.) at other Early Agricultural period sites in the Tucson Basin. Residue analysis will help to determine what other types of plants might have smoked through pipes like this one.
Read more about this object in Archaeology Southwest, Volume 24, Numbers 1 and 2.
