Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 1. (2019)
Oana Toda: Tobacco Clay Pipes from Rupea Castle and their Historical Context
Tobacco Clay Pipes from Rupea Castle and their Historical Context 121 were well-individualized (Fig. I).7 It was during the 17th and 18th centuries that the last building additions were made and when frequent upkeep work was documented. The entire lower castle precinct, part of the middle one, and most of the inner houses and rooms were built during these two centuries8 (Fig. 1). The property transfer, taking place in favor of the Saxons, mainly caused this late evolution. Hence, the new administration had a huge saying in all the ulterior developments of this ensemble, as the fortification also became the administrative center of the Saxon Seat of Rupea. The presence of an active local community, along with the political instability of the entire region during the 17th century, determined and accelerated the spatial and functional mutations of the castle itself and the function of some of the interior buildings (e.g. the public and private houses and rooms9). Nevertheless, the political and military disarray set path for short-time changes in the control of the fortification, driven by military causes (e.g. the army of Prince Gabriel Báthory in 1611, or the Habsburg forces in 1692-1701), that influenced its destiny, the construction work and, consequently, the material traces the archaeologist is faced with. However, most of the debris and demolition layers from the castle can be dated to the late 18th and early 19th centuries, when the spaces were gradually abandoned, the castle ceased to play an active defensive role and its smaller and precarious structures were quarried for building material.10 ARCHAEOLOGICAL CONTEXTS OF THE TOBACCO CLAY PIPES Inside this net of constructions and late building phases stand the artifacts described in the article. As indicated by Fig. 1, the 16 retrieved tobacco clay pipes11 (Pl. 1) come from various areas of the fortification, starting with the castle’s dry moat and drawbridge pit in front of the northern defensive line, and ending with the most recent deposition layers of the upper precinct. The majority of the pieces come from demolition phases that were often prone to secondary disturbances, hence ending up in mixed contexts, some with a late dating if compared to their production and usage period. The most relevant archaeological contexts will be discussed in detail, as these can be more accurately dated based on the small finds and the archival data. Four of the clay pipes (cat. 6, 8,2, and 3) were found in a closed context in the lower castle, namely in the fill of the drawbridge pit (turned into a refuse pit) located right in front of the gate tower. Two more (cat. 13, 16) come from the fill of the castle’s dry moat. This was the main entrance area into the fortification by the middle of the 17th century. The drawbridge pit (Fig. 2) was archaeologically sectioned in 2010 and half of it was excavated along with small parts of the castle moat. It was a rectangular enclosure made of stone and mortar that stretched in front of the gate tower, with an inner surface of approximately 9.6 m2 (3.2 X 3 m) and a maximum depth of 2.5 m. Several archival data can account for the construction and use of these defensive structures: the pit, the moat, and the associated drawbridge. The account registers of the Rupea Seat clearly show that the precinct elements of the northern side were built by the middle of the 1600s and the castle’s drawbridge was first mentioned in 1663.12 It was probably put up a 7 For the early history of Rupea castle and the main construction phases, see especially: Teutsch 1883; Müller 1900, passim; recently, Fabini 2002, 588-591; Marcu Istrate 2010, 664-665. 8 A list of the recorded construction work based on the account registers of the seat and of the magistrates protocols, in: Müller 1900, 26-30. 9 For the construction and late use of the houses in the upper and middle precincts, see: Toda 2019. 10 A detailed presentation of these episodes in: Müller 1900, 28-30. 11 One such artifact (covered in green glaze) was discovered during the trial excavation from 2005 (Pascu-Toma 2005, 310), but it was not included in this publication. 12 Müller 1900, 27.
