Clay Tobacco-Pipe Research and Historical Archaeology in Germany, a Difficult Relationship

Natascha Mehler

doi:10.1007/s41636-018-0108-9

Abstract

Clay tobacco-pipe studies played an important, yet unacknowledged, role in the formation process of historical archaeology in Germany. Systematic analyses of smoking utensils and the craftsmanship involved in making them were the forerunners of the academic discipline. Clay-pipe studies were never restricted by disciplinary boundaries. Methods and approaches were drawn from ethnology, archaeology, and history, but the field remained purely Eurocentric. However, clay-pipe research has come to a halt. One important reason for this is its high degree of specialization. But, otherwise, historical archaeology is currently on the upswing, despite its unsatisfying engagement with material culture, especially that of the late 18th century onwards. This article illustrates the development and demise of clay-pipe research in Germany in the context of the emergence of historical archaeology as a discipline. It includes elements in common with clay-pipe research in the United States and in Britain, and it also highlights significant differences.

Highlights

In Germany, investigating clay tobacco pipes has never been easy
In U.S historical archaeology clay tobacco pipes were among the first artifacts studied in detail when the discipline was just finding its sea legs, and claypipe assemblages from sites such as Jamestown or Williamsburg—imported from Britain to the overseas colonies—were embraced as essential objects, important for the dating of associated features and artifacts, and for the understanding of colonial contacts and the diffusion of smoking; e.g., Harrington (1954) and Nöel Hume (1970:296–313)
The story of academic clay-pipe research and historical archaeology in Germany is a story of bad timing and missed opportunities

Summary

Introduction

In Germany, investigating clay tobacco pipes has never been easy. Far too often clay-pipe fragments were considered worthless and discarded after excavation, and even those that were kept disappeared into storage facilities at heritage agencies and museums. The academic study of clay tobacco pipes—viewed within the context of the development of historical archaeology as an academic discipline—took different turns, respectively, in Germany and the United States. The early days of the academic study of clay tobacco pipes in Germany began in the late 1980s with the discipline that was formerly called ethnology or folklore studies, in German, Volkskunde.

Results

Conclusion