A short-stemmed, locally made clay smoking pipe, 2 views (bottom: view from side with pipe bowl to the left; top: view from top). Pipes like this were inspired by those used by America' s First Peoples from whom Europeans learned about tobacco. Europeans introduced tobacco smoking to West Africa during the early centuries of trans-Atlantic trade. This pipe' s bowl has a flared pedestal base, the bottom of which shows signs of abrasion. Above its base, the pipe bowl is decorated with a zone of criss-cross incisions demarcated by two horizonal incisions (one above and one below). The bowl' s rim is missing. Its stem joins the bowl above its base (a "double-angled" form). The stem flares somewhat toward its lip which is flattened. Photo scale in cm. Site Ngre Kataa. 27 May, 2009.
