It is commonly assumed that when excavating tavern sites of the colonial
period one should expect to encounter numerous clay tobacco pipe
fragments for the obvious reasons.  However, it appears that this is not
necessarily the case.  A case in point:  a tavern site I located
recently (occupational date range: 1765-1803) resulted in the recovery
of approximately 20 white clay tobacco pipe fragments.  Granted, our
testing has been minimal but in no case have we found more than one pipe
fragment per 2.5- foot square test unit.  A colleague of mine has found
similar results at a tavern site partially excavated in Portland,
Maine.  Have others found this to be true on some tavern sites or is
this just a fluke?  Conversely, on another 18th century homestead site
that was occupied for twenty years (1765-1785), we have recovered over
12,000+ clay tobacco pipe fragments.  Primary documents indicate that
the occupants also retailed goods from the home and this may account for
the unusually large number of pipe fragments.  In one five foot square
unit we uncovered 498 tobacco pipe fragments!  Ninety five percent of
the clay pipe bowl fragments do not exhibit burning (no blackened
interiors), and thus I have concluded that the majority of pipes were
not smoked when broken.  This would add support to the retail theory in
that it's likely that a shipment of pipes meant for  retail were damaged
upon shipment, and discarded about the site as sheet refuse.  Does this
seem a reasonable explanation to others... that if pipe bowls lack a
blackened interior then they likely were never smoked?  I suppose it
depends how many times the pipe was smoked.  If it was smoked only once
or twice perhaps the interior would not be stained.  Sounds like I need
to purchase some pipes and pass them out to smokers.

At any rate, I would be very interested to hear other peoples comments
on tavern sites and the number of pipe fragments found and on whether
unblackened pipe bowl interiors is a good criteria for determining pipes
that were never smoked.

Tim Dinsmore
archaeological consultant