Ceramiczne fajki z badań archeologicznych w Słupsku

Research conducted in 2017 at ul. Stary Rynek in Słupsk provided numerous post-medieval archaeological sources, constituting material evidence of the everyday life of the town's inhabitants in the period from the 17th to the 19th century. The article presents for the first time 266 fragments of clay pipes, the presence of which confirms tobacco consumption in the town. After determining the provenance of the products, it was indicated that both the 17th-century specimens and those dated to the first half of the 18th century come from Netherlands workshops (Types 2 and 3). Parts of pipes dating from the second half of the 18th to the 19th century were identified as products of Prussian manufactures, including Rościn and Weissenspring. The main profile of clay pipe products used by the inhabitants of Słupsk are one-piece pipes. A preliminary thesis can be formulated that the use of this category of pipes is part of the culture of tobacco consumption characteristic of Pomeranian centres and the western part of today's territory of Poland. This distinguishes the material setting of tobacco consumption from the phenomena recorded in central, southern and eastern Poland, where clay compound pipes were used, appearing in assemblages in proportions larger or similar to those of one-piece pipes. Słupsk is located in the communication zones and transport network between three main historical commercial centres – Szczecin, Kołobrzeg and Gdańsk. Comparison of the materials obtained from these cities and surrounding areas with the finds from Słupsk allowed for the formulation of the first observations regarding the specificity of these products. Pipes from the first quarter of the 17th century are recorded in Gdańsk and Szczecin. There is a significant difference in the number of these pipes in both centres, of which Gdańsk stands out for the abundance of this category of products, while in Szczecin only single items were found. In Stargard, neighbouring Szczecin, one specimen was registered dated to around the mid-17th century. Materials from Słupsk dating from around the mid-17th century correspond more closely to Kołobrzeg and Szczecin in this respect. Among the products dated to the first half of the 18th century, type 2 bowls from Słupsk with the following signatures: a pipe under the crown, the Gouda coat of arms, a crescent (from the top) correspond to products from Gdańsk, where they are also repeatable in this co-occurrence. Instead, younger type 3 pipes, including those with the Hamburg coat of arms signature, not previously recorded in Gdańsk, refer to assemblages from Szczecin and Stargard. In terms of numbers, individual products with the snake signature are registered in Gdańsk, while their presence is quite numerous in the West Pomeranian region. A similar situation was recorded for materials dating from the second half of the 18th to the 19th century. For Słupsk, they are more comparable to the West Pomeranian region, where both early products from Rościn and Weissenspring are registered, which have no analogy in Gdańsk. To sum up, at the current stage it can be preliminary indicated that the oldest pipes from Słupsk confirming tobacco consumption in the town, are dated from around the mid-17th century. This situation differs from the phenomena observed in larger port cities, where this reaches the end of the 16th or the beginning of the 17th century. A preliminary analysis of the profile of products used for tobacco consumption in Słupsk from the material side shows its greater connection with Eastern Pomerania in the period from the 17th to the first quarter of the 18th century. The change takes place in the second quarter or around the mid-18th century, at which time the range of products corresponds to the pipes distributed in Western Pomerania. The preliminary conclusions formulated on the basis of the analysis performed require further verification in terms of enlarging the source database. The state of research on pipes from Pomeranian towns, with the exception of studies relating to Stargard and Gdańsk, has practically not been updated in relation to the first publications from about thirty years ago. Studies on issues related to tobacco consumption require expanding the source base, therefore even small collections of artefacts, including those from archaeological research in Słupsk, constitute valuable information for further analyses.