Ohio’s Adena Effigy Pipe is about to be recognized as our official State Artifact. It has been called the finest known example of prehistoric stone sculpture north of Mexico. It may be the most spectacular example of ancient art in Ohio, but it is certainly not the only one.
The Ohio Historical Society’s Curator of Archaeology Brad Lepper will share the stories behind the Adena Pipe and several other extraordinary works of indigenous art in our collections — from an exquisitely crafted spear point made when mastodons were tromping through Ohio’s forests to a pair of rare stone carvings of women from the period just before the arrival of Europeans in our state.
I hope you will be able to join me for this timely look at Ohio’s ancient masterpieces and why one of them absolutely deserves to be our State Artifact!