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ALATE-MONITOR PIPE
Late Woodland Period
Western Virginia, style 600 AD

Monitor Pipes of this form were used by a Woodland Period sub-culture which sited "sinkhole caves" for ceremonies as well as burial depositories in the western counties of Virginia. Some pipes were ceremonially killed (broken) before being committed to the cave. Hart's Prehistoric Pipe Rack v.1 p.120 These people were among the best of pipe crafters and may have been ancestors of the Cherokees.

This forward leaning bowl design was imitated by the English when the began to make clay pipes. Pipe mak-ers in Holland copied the English pipe makers thus this forward leaning bowl be-came a traditional pipe shape in European tobacco pipes.

This pipe is carved from a Magnetite , Muscovite schist. Most authenticated pipes of this style are made of black Steatite with mica.