rimeval smokers 



The earliest explorers— French and English— of the ter- 

 ritory that became Kentucky saw no evidence that pre- 

 historic inhabitants of the region had been inveterate 

 tobacco smokers. Even if they had come upon the evi- 

 dence, it is very probable that they would not have un- 

 derstood its significance. 



For the proof that tobacco had once been abundantly 

 cultivated in the "beautiful wilderness" lay in the mounds 

 of the Stone Age aborigines. When these earth- or stone- 

 work hillocks began to be uncovered in the early 19th 

 century, they revealed a wealth of pipes among numer- 

 ous other artifacts. Their quantity indicated clearly that 

 tobacco had been an intimate part of the ceremonial and 

 social life of a long-forgotten people who had li\'ed in a 

 primeval period of human culture. Many of these singu- 

 lar, one-piece smoking implements were remarkable 

 examples of artistic craftsmanship. (A curious specimen, 

 classified by archaeologists as an example of the handle 

 disk type, about fi\e inches long, is illustrated on page 1. ) 



Somewhere in the dim past the pipes of North Ameri- 

 can Indians had become more functional. Except for 

 special uses, their artistic form was neglected. The Ken- 

 tucky descendants of prehistoric inhabitants had evolved 

 (or adopted from other tribes) the streamlined, simple 

 pipe of clay. That was the pipe smoked by the Shawnees 

 when wliite explorers first met them. These Indians 

 maintained a few though temporary settlements in the 

 great game country of Kentucky, long a battleground of 

 Cherokee and Iroquois tribes. They grew just enough 

 tobacco for their own needs. 



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