Uploaded February 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
For more than 300 years, clay pipes served the same role as cigarettes today: a mass-produce, cheap, disposable means of tobacco consumption. Because their design evolved rapidly and in broadly predictable ways, the remains of clay pipes can be used by archaeologists to date other artefacts found at the same site with a surprising degree of accuracy.
0:00 Introduction
1:23 Early History of Clay Pipes
2:49 Briar and Meerschaum Pipes
3:56 Manufacturing Techniques
4:47 Design Variations
5:23 Disposability and Pipe Cleaning
6:44 Late History of Clay Pipes
7:20 Clay Pipe Dating: Introduction
9:40 Clay Pipe Dating Step 1: Bowl Shape
10:26 Clay Pipe Dating Step 2: Makers' Marks
12:44 Clay Pipe Dating Step 3: Stem Bore Diameter
14:51 Outro
SOURCES:
pipearchive.co.uk/pdfs/Clay/Atkinson/LIVNP_2012_06_231_variousPt1.pdf
https://pipemuseum.nl/en/article/het-determineren-van-pijpvondsten-verspreid-over-europa-een-richtlijn#:~:text=The%20discovery%20of%20a%20clay,the%20taste%20of%20the%20smoker.
smokingpipes.com/smokingpipesblog/single.cfm/post/the-history-manufacture-and-use-clay-pipes
smokingpipes.com/smokingpipesblog/single.cfm/post/the-history-meerschaum-pipes
pipedia.org/wiki/A_Short_History_Of_Clay_Pipes
pipearchive.co.uk/howto/date.html
pipearchive.co.uk/pdfs/howto/Typologies/LIVNP_2012_03_02_GENERAL.pdf
pipearchive.co.uk/pdfs/howto/Typologies/Atkinson%20and%20Oswald%201969%20-%20London%20Typology.pdf
parkscanadahistory.com/series/chs/2/chs2-3e.htm
brickstoremuseum.org/education/archaeology/smar/clay-pipe-stems
toddsarchives.com/dating-colonial-pipes-and-pipestems
dawnmist.org/pipdex.htm
basedinchurton.co.uk/2021/12/13/object-histories-from-my-garden-8-pieces-of-19th-century-clay-tobacco-pipe
pipearchive.co.uk/howto/maker.html
pipearchive.co.uk/pdfs/Clay/Atkinson/LIVNP%202012_06_230_London_II.pdf
pipearchive.co.uk/pdfs/Clay/Atkinson/LIVNP%202012_06_230_London_II.pdf
pipearchive.co.uk/pdfs/Clay/Atkinson/LIVNP_2012_06_227_LONDON_II.pdf
For more than 300 years, clay pipes served the same role as cigarettes today: a mass-produce, cheap, disposable means of tobacco consumption. Because their design evolved rapidly and in broadly predictable ways, the remains of clay pipes can be used by archaeologists to date other artefacts found at the same site with a surprising degree of accuracy.
0:00 Introduction
1:23 Early History of Clay Pipes
2:49 Briar and Meerschaum Pipes
3:56 Manufacturing Techniques
4:47 Design Variations
5:23 Disposability and Pipe Cleaning
6:44 Late History of Clay Pipes
7:20 Clay Pipe Dating: Introduction
9:40 Clay Pipe Dating Step 1: Bowl Shape
10:26 Clay Pipe Dating Step 2: Makers' Marks
12:44 Clay Pipe Dating Step 3: Stem Bore Diameter
14:51 Outro
SOURCES:
pipearchive.co.uk/pdfs/Clay/Atkinson/LIVNP_2012_06_231_variousPt1.pdf
https://pipemuseum.nl/en/article/het-determineren-van-pijpvondsten-verspreid-over-europa-een-richtlijn#:~:text=The%20discovery%20of%20a%20clay,the%20taste%20of%20the%20smoker.
smokingpipes.com/smokingpipesblog/single.cfm/post/the-history-manufacture-and-use-clay-pipes
smokingpipes.com/smokingpipesblog/single.cfm/post/the-history-meerschaum-pipes
pipedia.org/wiki/A_Short_History_Of_Clay_Pipes
pipearchive.co.uk/howto/date.html
pipearchive.co.uk/pdfs/howto/Typologies/LIVNP_2012_03_02_GENERAL.pdf
pipearchive.co.uk/pdfs/howto/Typologies/Atkinson%20and%20Oswald%201969%20-%20London%20Typology.pdf
parkscanadahistory.com/series/chs/2/chs2-3e.htm
brickstoremuseum.org/education/archaeology/smar/clay-pipe-stems
toddsarchives.com/dating-colonial-pipes-and-pipestems
dawnmist.org/pipdex.htm
basedinchurton.co.uk/2021/12/13/object-histories-from-my-garden-8-pieces-of-19th-century-clay-tobacco-pipe
pipearchive.co.uk/howto/maker.html
pipearchive.co.uk/pdfs/Clay/Atkinson/LIVNP%202012_06_230_London_II.pdf
pipearchive.co.uk/pdfs/Clay/Atkinson/LIVNP%202012_06_230_London_II.pdf
pipearchive.co.uk/pdfs/Clay/Atkinson/LIVNP_2012_06_227_LONDON_II.pdf
