Berecz Mátyás - Bujdosné Pap Györgyi - Petercsák Tivadar (szerk.): Végvár és mentalitás a kora újkori Európában - Studia Agriensia 31. (Eger, 2015)
VARGA EMESE: A dohányzás megjelenése és elterjedése a magyar végvárak katonaságának körében
Emese Varga THE ARRIVAL AND SPREAD OF SMOKING AMONG THE BORDER CASTLE SOLDIERS The passion for smoking spread like wildfire throughout Europe at the end of the 16th century. The local population became acquainted with the new habit via western European mercenaries and those soldiers in the Ottoman army who were stationed in Hungary. It was the Ottoman influence which proved to be the stronger of the two, and it was for this reason that the smoking culture that emerged among the Hungarians was based on eastern traditions. They began by smoking the so-called Turkish-type pipe consisting of a clay bowl, a wooden stem and a special mouthpiece. Pipe-smoking became an important part of everyday life for the border castle soldiers, and a leisure activity that helped the smokers to cope both physically and mentally with the stresses and strains of everyday life. It wasn’t long before the new habit had spread to the civil population as well. It is by examining the clay pipe remains that one can best get an idea of people’s smoking habits at the time. It is primarily from the pipe material unearthed at the excavations that have gone on at castles that one can reconstruct the kind of pipe types that were in use in Hungary in the early modem period. In the finds you come across heeled and oval bowls, with some groups featuring ribbed and rosette detailing. Although there are great variations in the forms and decorations used among the Turkish-period pipes, mass-produced pipes are also in evidence. These are simply conceived, more solid pipes that were probably available at a lower price, whose usage can most probably be linked with the smokers in the army. In the Turkish period the new habit spread, and smoking took root among the local Hungarian population. By the 18th century, however, the Turkish-type pipe had evolved into a variant whose form and preferred motifs were more Hungarian in style. It was a pipe whose use was to become an important part of everyday life for centuries to come. 415
