Two Types of Smoking Pipes and a Global Perspective in Rua do Terreiro do Trigo, Lisbon

Abstract

Studies of clay smoking pipes represent one of the major fields of research in post-medieval archaeology due to their frequent occurrence in the archaeological record and their suitability for typological dating. During an archaeological survey in Rua do Terreiro do Trigo, located in Lisbon’s picturesque district of Alfama, very close to the Tagus River and where many different and cosmopolitan people spent their spare time during the post-medieval period, we were able to collect a significant number of smoking pipes fragments, given the site’s dimension. Amongst the sherds recovered it is possible to identify a great number of European kaolin clay pipe fragments dated from the 17th to the 18th century and also a set of unusual black and grey earthenware chibouks of (yet) uncertain origin. Therefore, this paper seeks to report the smoking pipe assemblage recovered in Rua do Terreiro do Trigo, but also to discuss the study of smoking devices in the Portuguese post-medieval archaeological contexts.