The Use of Tobacco Pipes in Identifying and Separating Contexts on Smuttynose Island, Maine

Summary

Five years of excavation on Smuttynose Island, Isles of Shoals, Maine has recovered a vast quantity of artifacts related to nearly four hundred years of European occupation of the island, including over 7,000 fragments of white clay tobacco pipes. Unfortunately, the specific soil conditions on the site often made field identification of different contexts difficult during excavation. This paper explores the use of clay pipes in the separation and identification of different stratigraphic contexts. Questions addressed include the utility (or lack thereof) of various stem-bore dating methods, and identifying the provenance of pipes and how this can be used to link specific stratigraphic contexts to known historical occupations of the island, particularly the early migratory period of the Gulf of Maine cod fishery. Finally, this paper provides a chronological framework for further study and interpretation of the archaeology of Smuttynose Island.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2014   •
• Clay Tobacco Pipe Studies: Where Will the 21st century Bring Us?

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): SYM-39,04