Revisiting Clay Smoking Pipes

Summary

An assemblage of 280 white clay smoking pipe fragments were recovered from a disturbed context during the construction of a marine basin and wharf at Barcelona Harbor, New York, on the southeastern shore of Lake Erie. Apparently packed in a wooden box or crate, this collection represents one of the largest unique and homogeneous collections fabricated during a brief period in a single manufactory from only a few molds. I summarize descriptive and quantitative analyses, probable provenance, and focus on date of manufacture. English pipe stems are assessed using four procedures: Harrington’s (1954) histogram of time periods; Binford’s (1962) linear formula; Hanson’s formulas (1971) and the Heighton and Deagan formula (1972). Harrington’s histogram of five basic time periods proved useful but the idea was critiqued and expanded; Binford converted the progression an easily-understood mathematical straight-line regression formula applied to most pre-1800 British colonial and federal sites. However, Noël Hume and Walker provided examples of Binford’s formula that yielded dates inconsistent with other dating methods. Hanson proposed ten straight line regression formulas to replace Binford’s single formula, and Heighton and Deagan developed a curvilinear regression formula based on bore size research. The results are contrasted.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21663