Clay Pipe Dating: an Exercise in Industrial Archaeology

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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:
www.pipearchive.co.uk/pdfs/Cla...
pipemuseum.nl/en/article/het-....
www.smokingpipes.com/smokingp...
www.smokingpipes.com/smokingp...
pipedia.org/wiki/A_Short_Hist...
www.pipearchive.co.uk/howto/da...
www.pipearchive.co.uk/pdfs/how...
www.pipearchive.co.uk/pdfs/how...
parkscanadahistory.com/series/...
brickstoremuseum.org/educatio...
www.toddsarchives.com/dating-...
www.dawnmist.org/pipdex.htm
basedinchurton.co.uk/2021/12/...
www.pipearchive.co.uk/howto/ma...
www.pipearchive.co.uk/pdfs/Cla...
www.pipearchive.co.uk/pdfs/Cla...
www.pipearchive.co.uk/pdfs/Cla...

[@CrowSkeleton]

Thank you for helping explain to the public how archaeologists obsessed with different shapes of ceramic goods really do help us understand what's going on when and theorise why, it's appreciated. I used to mudlark a bit when in London, loved irridescent/glass-rotted Victorian medicine bottles best, but once I found an entire mini-beach of pipe stems under a pier near the Globe, sorted by the tide. There are a lot of 'em!

[@piccalillipit9211]

*THAT WAS COOL* the fields used to be absolutely full of these when I was a kid in the 1970's - we had hundreds of really ornate bowls

[@ezpoppy55]

Absolutely fascinating! A personal note, re: John P. Harrington. He did extensive study and published his findings on the Chumash American Indians, a tribe along the Central California Coast (roughly present day Malibu to San Luis Obispo). His published work was, not surprisingly given your reference, on the material culture of the Chumash. I am keenly aware as my mother was an elder in the Chumash tribe and so this is of personal interest and relevance to me. Really fascinating the scope of his studies, from California to Virginia, and from American Indians to modern European manufacturing in the colonies. Thank you for a highly interesting topic as always!

[@petebeatminister]

Fun fact: here in Germany, there was a custom to give a gingerbread man to children on certain occassions. Those gingerbread men also had a small (10cm) clay pipe stuck on them, in a way as if they were smoking it. I got a few of those as a kid in the early 60s myself, and I always kept the pipe for a long time after eating the gingerbread. I have not seen such gingerbread men for a long time, I guess its not PC anymore to give a pipe (they were made very simple, but functional) to small kids. Interesting video, btw, thanks!

[@abigailhowes5944]

Weren't they for blowing bubbles. As children, although not clay, we had bubble pipes.

[@petebeatminister]

@@abigailhowes5944 Hm, thats possible... I never thought of that, especially not back then. You would have to make your own liquid then, wich sounds easier as it is. Anyway, I was already happy to have a pipe. :)

[@manatoa1]

You can still get them online. Just search for Weckmann clay pipes.

[@rossdtool]

I was a kid in the early 1980’s in Australia and we had lollies shaped as cigarettes and cigars so kids could pretend to smoke. They are still sold but the red bit on the end that was supposed to be the burning bit is gone and they aren’t called “Fags” anymore.

[@petebeatminister]

@@rossdtool Yes, we had chocolade cigarettes as well, chocolade sticks in a paper sleeve, looking like a cigarette, packed in a box like a cigarette pack. I have not seen them anymore for ages as well.

[@Megabean]

Heyy! I'm from fake London! It's cool.... in the winter. lol

[@TheCatBilbo]

Years ago we lived in a village in Essex, UK. At the end of our lane was a Norman church. When we dug our garden over we found lots of clay pipes - the worshippers obviously threw their old pipes away before going into church!

[@2degucitas]

How many were intact?

[@Redacted-Arms]

So basically the clay pipe *was about as disposable as a plastic solo cup.

[@spookisghostly4619]

It's funny to think that archaeologists of the future might date things happening today by what kind of plastic bottle was used

[@petebeatminister]

Well, for poor people it was not a disposable item. The tried to preserve it as long as possible, because for them every penny was valuable. But sooner or later it would break of course. Many poor people couldn't even afford the clay pipes, they carved their own pipe from wood.

[@Tunkkis]

​@@petebeatminister Wood, or sometimes corncobs.

[@Redacted-Arms]

@@petebeatminister or even corn cobs

[@jeffdroog]

...That's assuming all technology,including all forms of written language,are gone lol No one is looking back that this sort of stuff any day soon.Theyre just going to look at written records.

[@CathodeRayNipplez]

You never cease to surprise. This topic was way more interesting than I would have ever guessed. 👍

[@Ed_Stuckey]

Years ago, when I smoked a pipe, I sometimes smoked Sir Walter Raleigh tobacco. I only used briar pipes and had a number of them to select from. I still have at least one somewhere. It's been about 40 years since I used it.

[@ItsHyomoto]

This isn't specifically related to the video but I find it interesting to have grown up in the bridge between smoking being acceptable and it gaining a rather radical social stigma. Like, we went from people being able to smoke on television to needing a warning just to show it existed. I'm certainly happy to see the positive aspects of this reform, but at the same time: tobacco has a long history. It's kind of embarrassing that we have such a selective bias, like we don't have to explain that we're not glorifying violence when we talk about guns but we do to discuss tobacco? Then contrast that against the legalization of marijuana (aka smoking tobacco as socially and personally harmful versus marijuana representing personal freedoms). It's been a really interesting ride.

[@NefariousKoel]

My friend found one in a sparsely populated area of the Ozarks, in the US of all places. Way back in the early 90s near a stream while looking for ancient spear points, aka "arrowheads". Much of the stem was gone but the bowl was in good shape. Albeit with little decoration. It was much easier finding ancient spearheads there than clay pipes since I've only heard of one other find, and that only second-hand.

[@justindunlap1235]

That's interesting, I loved finding little out of place trinkets like that.

[@matttheknife8293]

I worked in a tobacco shop for over a decade and I run a pipe club. I love my clay pipes.

[@MatthewDoye]

Our family home in the UK was built on what has previously been allotments and before that small plots. We used to find mostly Victorian ceramics all the time and amongst them numerous fragments of clay pipes, largely sections of stem.

[@dvunck1]

I found a clay pipe when I was in kid in the 1970's while walking on the shore of York river in Virginia and assumed it was a native American artifact. I brought it to school for show-and-tell, ended up forgetting it in my book bag and breaking it into tiny pieces. I felt very guilty, thinking I had destroyed an important piece of history. Until today I had not realized how common and industrially produced they were. I don't feel so bad now. Thank you

[@jeffdroog]

Depending on who it belonged to,or when,and where it was made,you still likely destroyed a precious artifact.Good going!

[@dvunck1]

I was only 8 years old, so I don't think I'll lose any sleep over it @@jeffdroog

[@bytesandbikes]

I once had a building renovation company, and was converting an old cattle barn in Herefordshire. We found hundreds of these things.

[@Andrew-rc3vh]

You have solved a long mystery for me. I keep on finding these fragments of clay pipes on my garden in the soil. They are white, have a 3mm hole in them and about 3cm long.

[@abigailhowes5944]

As you probably know already, a good source of information on clay pipes is Nicola White, at Tideline Arts. She has a nice You Tube series and collects clay pipes. If you have more interest in them, I would watch her videos and perhaps contact her. Thank you for this video, as it added alot of information I didn't know earlier from watching her videos.

[@jimurrata6785]

I love your channel ❤ I've finally found someone who can always keep my interest. Snippets of etymology, reasonably intelligent dialogue that doesn't seem dumbed down for 8 year olds. People tell me i don't know how to shut up, or are just incredulous and think im lying. Im really appreciative of you peeks at the mundane objects and technology we find all around us.

[@rowead]

Fantastic program. I love these deep dives into the wonders of innovation

[@jimurrata6785]

Esoteric and arcane minutae.... Consise and well delivered! You have my rapt attention! 🧐

[@VEC7ORlt]

Oh, a pipe, a man of style! Hah, nvm, these intros are becoming a thing, I'm here for the intros for sure!

[@donmear6654]

I'm loving the introductions, you hit my funny bone every single time

[@loopernoodling]

Growing up in a factory town in the UK during the 1960s, messing around on building sites, or my grandfather's allotment, I'd find these very, very often. They were unremarkable, in fact - we knew what they were, but didn't really think of them as 'historical' artefacts at all. They were too common for that. Mind you, I did once find an unexploded 20mm cannon shell (we live quite near Birmingham, which saw a lot of bombing during WW2) - as soon as my parents saw it, they carefully put it at the bottom of the garden and called the Fire Brigade. I'd been throwing the thing around all the way home!

[@coreym8580]

That opening bit! Oh geez lol this automatically gets a 'like'

[@galeng73]

Well yeah... I've watched me some Time Team! I've watched every single episode, in fact.

[@_f355]

same here! I'm also chipping in a few quid to their Patreon page for the new episodes, and I suggest you do too (if your finances allow, of course).

[@galeng73]

@@_f355 Holy crap! I didn't even know they had new shows. You're pretty much my hero, because I forgot to take my sleep meds and it's too late for that now. So, I'm up until tomorrow night. I haven't seen ANY of the new stuff. So, it turns out I was wrong and I've not seen every episode.

[@_f355]

@@galeng73 oooh you're in for a treat! of course it's not the same, as a lot of the old crew is not a part of the show anymore, but the new episodes are still very, very solid.

[@phantomkate6]

I miss Phil from the new episodes (he's busy elsewhere) but I agree they are pretty good!

[@galeng73]

@@_f355 I have a lot to catch up on. I'll find the time to do so and they'll get added to my Patreon. I support a number of channels.

[@prodiver7]

I was told by the late London master potter Simon Pettet, who made new and reproduction clay pipes, that the stems were often made by rolling clay round a straw or reed, which burnt away during firing, and the bowls were shaped on the index finger, sometimes showing finger prints on the inside.

[@frogz]

i dont know HOW you dont havce more subs/views per video, your channel is facinating, also dont forget, not ALL pipes were tobacco, especially in the mexico area ;)

[@User_Un_Friendly]

I'm here. And watching. It's been 8 minutes since post.

[@ataricom]

11 minutes for me. I'm ALWAYS late.

[@Muonium1]

Just unfathomable levels of meticulous detail. Gilles' IQ must absolutely fucking stratospheric. This is extemporaneous. Watch his eyes; he's not reading. It's in his head. Astounding. Anyway, you can visit the largest collection of churchwarden clay pipes in the world at Keens Steakhouse on 72 West 36th Street in New York a couple blocks North of the Empire State Building. I was just there at a hotel literally a hundred feet away on the same street and never knew it was there until I'd already left, or I would have definitely tried to stop in and take a look.

[@IgnatSolovey]

There is a teleprompter there but set at a proper distance, so that eye motion is indiscernible. There was some B-roll of the studio room somewhere, so I noticed a prompter there. Also, I'm a cameraman and sometimes train lecturers for teleprompter work, so I notice very minute details.

[@Shinzon23]

He has an idiot box in there a k a a teleprompter.

[@Muonium1]

@@IgnatSolovey He literally just restated the absence of any teleprompter use a day after you posted this.

[@Muonium1]

@@Shinzon23 nope

[@IgnatSolovey]

@@Muonium1 okay. I actually can do this way too on subjects I'm proficient in, and not in one language but two. But I'm too lazy for vlogging, being a cameraman and a video engineer with own gear at the service for others brings roughly the same money but requires much less effort on my part, occasional script edit is a welcome change of subject and not tedium ad nauseam. I don't want to work 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, strict release schedule no matter what, struggling for ad revenue, sponsorships, and all that...

[@TerryClarkAccordioncrazy]

I read that churchwarden pipes were made long because churchwardens were a sort of night watchmen to guard valuables in the church. The long stem ensured they could enjoy a smoke on the job without the cloud of vapors from the bowl obscuring their view.

[@SandrasSpicySpanishSalami]

Great anecdote, but as any pipe smoker will tell you, it's not vaping, you aren't blowing out clouds and smoke escaping the top of the bowl is absolutely minimal. Tobacco pipes with long stems are desirable for cool, dry smoke but they are only practical for situations where at least one hand can remain entirely occupied with holding it and there isn't likely to be a need to quickly stash it in a pocket, meaning they are suited to a reasonably sedate job with periods of inactivity.

[@Ccccccccccsssssssssss]

Another delightful video. I learn something new every time! Thank you!

[@terrypitt-brooke8367]

Another great video, Gilles. And I dig your hand-tied tie!

[@90762709]

Loved the intro!

[@Sgtklark]

I often saw painting and very old photos of sailors smoking clay pipes upside down, so rain or splash wouldn't enter the bowl. I read somewhere that cigarettes came into vogue in the UK after the Crimean War when British soldiers saw their Ottoman allies smoking self-rolled cigarettes.

[@sdvcv]

with this mindset, if archeologists find my vacuum tubes they'll conclude I was from a different era.

[@uncletiggermclaren7592]

That was interesting, very interesting. You explained it very well too.

[@HarrysHouseChannel]

Not sure if anyone has written anything about this, but I have a hypothesis that the pipe stem diameter decreased over the course of 2 centuries as tobacco was grown better and cleaner. Of course if they grow the tobacco to burn cleaner, then it’ll also burn faster and hotter. If it’s too hot, then reducing airflow (smaller diameter stem) would lessen your chance of tongue bite because you’re drawing less air through the tobacco as it burns.

[@fetus2280]

I am SO JEALOUS of you ! One of my top bucket list items, Mudlarking. I follow a few mudlarkers on the youtubes and the things they find and the history of each item is great to learn about. Always something new.

[@jfu5222]

I'm a fan of Nicola White's mudlarking channel, she mixes history and humanitarian storytelling in a very entertaining way.

[@fetus2280]

Nice, me too! Shes great,same with Sy finds and their friends. Love hearing the stories and history. Cheers.@@jfu5222

[@dpeter6396]

Wow! Just wow!! Outstanding stuff.

[@Dsschuh]

Enjoyable and informative, as always. :) I will be sending this to a friend who is an ex pipe smoker

[@herbcraven7146]

Thank you for a video incorporating two of my favorite subjects, pipes and archaeology. Though I was familiar with Lew Binford's work in the area of processual archaeology, I didn't realize he had devised a formula for clay pipe dating. Fascinating subject, Gilles!

[@SiskinOnUTube]

We've replaced it all with disposable vape litter instead. My dad said he remembered my great-grandfather smoking stubby little clay pipes. He would break the stem of a new pipe, as he preferred it short. He worked on a farm, so he must have enjoyed the hot bowl on his cheek on cold days. Apparently there was nicotine and tar scorched into his cheek, much like some cigarette smokers have yellow fingers.

[@user-pf3cu4lo7u]

Absolutely fascinating. This has quickly become my favorite channel, bravo!

[@larsbkurin1740]

Absolutely wonderful start to the day, chalk pipes development over 300 years. Thanks to a nice channel with so much knowledge and joy for technology.

[@jackmambawitsin]

A friend of mine gave me a preliminary study of a Woodland Indian camp that was located close to were we live. One of the markers to try to date the site was clay pipes they believed to be used by French trappers trading with the local Indians. The site didn't get further funding for a full dig so all the cores sample holes were filled, covered with visquine and then covered back over with soil.

[@ianbennett5245]

This video is far more interesting than I would have expected, even by the standards of this channel. Kudos!

[@danirizary6926]

Very entertaining video. Im not into pipes, but loved this video for all the details on manufacture and dating.

[@plainnpretty]

Very interesting thanks

[@ibrahimkocaalioglu]

Good job. Thank you. 👏

[@rexrodecolt]

Good stuff

[@bradlevantis913]

I was in London. The cool one not the Ontario one 🤣🤣🙂that was awesome

[@AndyG-_-]

My dear Sir, this was exquisite! :pipe_emoji_sadly_lacking:

[@Legitpenguins99]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that The Great War was what caused cigarettes to surpass pipe smoking in popularity?

[@petebeatminister]

I think it was partly a fashion thing and partly a money matter. In the beginning 20th century it was "cool" to smoke ready made cigarettes, often also by using fancy cigarette tips. But for poor people that was too expensive. A pipe is cheap and you can stuff anything you want into it. Especially of importance during war times.

[@51WCDodge]

Interesting social facts of London. -I smoke a pipe, have done so for years. It is now so uncommon that people will actually comment on my habit, but, mostly positivley! They say it reminds them of Grandfathers (I DON'T want to be thought old!!! ) and better times. 🤔In social culture, especially black and white films of the 1950-'s the pipe is associated with , a calm upper middle class, proffesional such as a Bank Manager or heroes such as detectives , fighter pilots. Even now I have had strangers, ask me for directions or local advice, further conversation as to why the asked me speciffically , the answer is , 'You were smoking a pie'. Weird! The best tobbaco blends are still Dutch by the way.

[@petersage5157]

I was just listening to "A Complicated Song" by Weird Al and thinking that we didn't have enough "relative dating" jokes. Clay pipes lend themselves to even more of these jokes. "My grandfather smoked the same pipe! Waitaminute..."

[@SmithMrCorona]

If you're ever in NYC, hungry for red meat, and have a couple hundred USD to drop on a dinner, you should pop into Keens Steakhouse. It's been around since 1885, They have loads of churchwarden pipes on display from when they used to keep them on-hand for customers.

[@tenchraven]

When I smoked, I was 90% a pipe man (cigs are more convenient) and I miss my old brair. that you can date clay pipes by the bore size is impressive.

[@errwb404]

Yooo! That ceramic Lego Joker head is super rare, shame the face paint was completely gone...

[@markworden9169]

Interesting

[@ChrisAthanas]

Bad ass details

[@benholroyd5221]

So do you find them grindr or some ither site? And gicen the proximity to valentine's day, some advice on whether they would prefer roses or chocolate would have been helpful

[@thelittlehooer]

At the start I was waiting for the Hamlet tv ad music, Air on the G string.

[@davidholder3207]

Can mass spectrometry be used to ident5ify the trype of tobacco used in a pipe such as BigBoys Shag?

[@thurin84]

hey, i though london ontario pretty cool. at least in the 90s when i was there.

[@jp-um2fr]

I was an avid pipe smoker who enjoyed Dutch tobacco. One day after starting a new packet, it didn't taste right. I found out that the maker had been bought out by what was and still may be the largest tobacco company in Europe. They had changed to using camel dung.

[@Shinzon23]

So they were still using poop , but a different type of poop when you were buying it before they got bought out?

[@naughtiusmaximus830]

Jaavanse jongens?

[@SandrasSpicySpanishSalami]

I hope you had your MudLarking License! (Said in jest, but is infact a real thing).

[@phantomkate6]

I thought this sounded nuts even for the UK but I found it right away in a web search! Foreshore permits. The meme is real. "Oi! You got a loicense for that bit of old refuse you found on the ground?'

[@NefariousKoel]

Oi! You got a loicense for that TV/butter knife/pron/junk ?

[@user-gs6lp9ko1c]

@@NefariousKoel I had one of the first pocket TVs, capable of North American, British, and European reception, in the 1980's. When flying across the "pond" I'd watch the nightly news in New York and the morning news show in London waiting on connections. And yes, I always carried the British TV licence just in case I was asked. Never was though.

[@andrepohle7485]

Wow okay das war interessant 😊

[@cbhlde]

What a piping hot channel for the curious mind! ;) On other channels, we would have seen a guy,... dating a pipe! :p

[@420bongking]

this video will be made again in 200 years about disposable vapes

[@mikaeelmalik1724]

Did you get a license to mudlark?

[@dennisolsson3119]

The archeologist dogging up your house in a thousand years :)

[@jpreziose]

Call me crazy but is this a reupload or something. I swear I saw this video before maybe you did another one like it

[@bunyipdragon9499]

The Raleigh of surveakter Raleigh is pronounced closer to rally rather than the american rarlee or rawlee 💜

[@MrHouseparty6]

not getting updates from you...

[@brianbarker2551]

so advanced that they even have math formulas used with them.

[@hedgehog3180]

Didn't know that clay pipes were an index fossil.

[@geoffreypiltz271]

I thought the Ontario London was cool, that is cold!

[@Yolo_Swaggins]

I dated a clay pipe once, it was a fragile relationship.

[@tbretten]

The 'ou' in Gouda is pronounced pretty much like the one in 'hour'... So not a 'uhhh'-sound, but rather a starting with a standard 'ah'-vowel

[@CanadianMacGyver]

I should have known better that to think a Dutch word would be straightforward to pronounce...

[@tbretten]

@@CanadianMacGyver :D though not straightforward, the rules are at least consistent! Every "ou" in Dutch will be like the one in "hour", every "oe" will be like a German "u" (no English equivalent, I am sorry), every Dutch "u" will be like the German Umlaut "ü" (again, no equivalent) etc...

[@grottybt5006]

I put them in my aquarium as decoration lol

[@VeroniaStudios]

I just took up pipe smoking again. You've got me wanting to take up pipemaking as well and bring these back.

[@CLipka2373]

Took me a moment to parse the first part of the video title, and realize that this was not about a Hookah Hookup event...

[@dennisyoung4631]

Portable Volcano!

[@brushbros]

You should look much older in order to match your level of knowledge. I like your approach to history.

[@BitchinSpectre]

"Exhibit-Q"

[@Legitpenguins99]

What's that? Smoking tobacco is awesome and GREAT for your lungs? Well if you insist...

[@51WCDodge]

Getting to point in UK Europe, criminlise tobacco, but legalise Canabbis. Try figuring that one out.

[@LewdCustomer]

If we don't smoke, how will the other kids know we're cool?

[@richardtjan4757]

Only Dutch speakers can pronounce "Gouda" correctly.

[@pattijacksonpattipowerswrestle]

OK you got me, first a notice that you're not promoting tobacco use followed instantly by lighting a pipe. I've never smoked but if I ever did I presume something like this would happen. I just never got why people smoke, be it weed, tobacco or anything else. So if I were a male and an Indian Chief wanted me to smoke a peace pipe and I said no thanks I guess that would be it for me. Meanwhile back at the saloon since I don't drink alcohol I guess when some gunslinger told me to have a drink and I said no thanks I'd be equally screwed. Of course I probably wouldn't be in a saloon to begin with.

[@BlaMM74]

No views?!

[@elliswatanabe]

london is not cool