Ottoman Smoking Pipes (16th – Early 20th Cent. CE)

Tobacco pipes are a common find in any excavation of sites from the last centuries. Smoking pipes did exist before-hand, but only became truly popular after American settlers and explorers brought tobacco back to the Old World in the 16th century. The pipe took the world, and the Ottoman Empire by storm, and many decorated pipe bowls were molded out of clay, and attached to a wooden reed stem. The decorated bowls feature floral and geometric motifs, and some were inscribed. These pipes come from workshops throughout the Ottoman Empire, including the dozens of workshops which operated in Jerusalem.