In Kentucky I lived in a house that was an inn during the late 1700s. We had to replace the write septic system and it required a good deal of the back yard to be bulldozed. I occasionally hunted arrowheads when I lived in Cincinnati, Ohio so, I got the urge to dig through the soil because the area was heavily populated with native americans before the inn was built. After several days and many hours that produced nothing but sore muscles I decided to give up my hunt. As I turned to go I doed something white in the roots of a tree that had been bulldozed and pushed to the edge of our property line. I had to break a few small roots that had actually grown through it, but when I pulled it free I had a ivory pipe with a small section broken off where you placed your lips to hit it. The 200+ year old tree had tree over it! I took it to the local history museum and they dated it between the late 1600s - early 1700s. They offered me $900 for it but I refused. Its solid ivory and besides the broken stem, amazingly well preserved. I was told that it was a pipe common among upper middle class individuals during that time period and if it weren't broken would closely resemble Gandalf's pipe from Lord of The Rings. Later, when digging around the area it came from I found several bones that were identified as human finger bones. The history museum said that it was a common practice to be buried and have a tree planted over you as a marker. I gave it a good cleaning and have even smoked out of it a few times.
Kind regards,