Marisia - Maros Megyei Múzeum Évkönyve 1. (2019)
Oana Toda: Tobacco Clay Pipes from Rupea Castle and their Historical Context
124 О. TODA The undecorated pipes, dated to the 17th century (though, not entirely absent from the subsequent one), represent one of the Ottoman types. The fourth pipe find from Rupea (PI. 1/4), could belong to this category. Even though badly preserved, it seems to be an undecorated pipe with smooth profile. Its bowl shape was either a smooth cylindrical bowl or one with a backbone line in the upper part. For a clearer image of the whole piece in its second variant, one can point to the analogies from Timisoara,21 Varna (BG), Szeged,22 Eger (HU),23 or Härsova.24 Some other fragments come from Cluj-Napoca25 and Oradea,26 and two analogies were excavated in Órásul de Floci, where they were dated early, during the 16th and 17th centuries.27 The decorated backbone example (cat. 6, Pi. 1/6) is one of the best-preserved pieces discovered in this Saxon fortification. The stamped decoration of the bowl, representing concentric 21 Kopeczny-Dincä 2011, 174-175, cat. 70, 71. 22 Ridovics 2009, 66, fig. 4. 23 Kondorosy 2007a, 315, cat. E46. 24 Bilavschi 2017, 230, 232, pl. III/3 and IV/8. 25 Gruia 2013,43, fig. 7. 26 Marta 2002, pl. LXXXVII. 27 Ene 2013, 200, cat. 1,2, 9. 28 Kovács-Rózsás 2014, 248 and 250, fig. 6/6 and 7/5. 29 See above cat. 4 with analogies. 30 Haider et al. 2000, 130, cat. 5g/2. 31 Gaál 2004, 287 and 288, cat. 85 and 89. 32 Gacic 2011,75, cat. 1. 33 Kopeczny-Dincä 2011, cat 55. 34 Kondorosy 2014, 2. tab/V36, V37. 35 Gruia 2013, 43-44, fig. 8. circles with dots on the edge, has parallels in Szigetvár and Babócsa (HU), on 17th century pipes with tulip-shaped bowls.28 One of these also combines the stamped motif with a linear cogwheel decoration (Fig. 5/6) on the ring. The latter was already popular during the 17th century and remained so during the following one. The backbone element of the bowl shape from Rupea can be traced back to the same period.29 This piece shows significant differences from the classical undecorated backbone pipes described by A. Ridovics, as its shank is shorter, the angle between this element and the bowl is smaller, and it presents an individualized torus-shaped ring. Thus, a regional (probably later) evolution has to be considered. Another one of the early pieces (cat. 5, PI. 1/5) in Rupea is poorly preserved, as only the ring and part of its shank are still available for analysis. It was most likely part of a grey fabric Turkish pipe for which these cogwheel decorations (Fig. 5/5) were specific and is similar to the small pipes with semispherical keel (or, generally, interrupted profiles). The fat shape of the shank end and its stepped ring termination, along with the decoration, have a good analogy in Buda, on a piece dated during the 18th century.30 But, more distant analogies of the ring (with decorated ring torus) from Jeni Palank31 and the Serbian territory,32 Timisoara,33 and Oradea,34 some in kaolin clay, other in red clay, are dated during the previous century. The two white kaolin clay pipes with wellburnished surfaces (cat. 7 and 8) also have 18th century analogies in Cluj-Napoca.35 Out of the two, the more fragmented one (Pi. 1/8) could Fig. 4. Elements of a pipe head.
