Budapest Régiségei 38. (2004) – Tanulmányok dr. Gerő Győző tiszteletére
Kovács Gyöngyi: Cseréppipák a 17-18. századból 121-131
CSERÉPPIPÁK A 17-18. SZÁZADBÓL PIPE COLLECTION The rise of smoking in Hungary is associated with the period of the Ottoman-Turkish conquest. The use of tobacco in Hungary was adopted first and foremost from the Turks, and it was from the Turkish language that the Hungarian word for tobacco - dohány - was taken. Nevertheless, soldiers from Western Europe who were stationed in the royal fortresses and castles also played a role in the growth of smoking in the country. According to written and archaeological sources, smoking became widespread in Hungary only from the 17 th century onwards, and although the appearance of the habit can be demonstrated in the castles and towns from the late 16 th century, during excavations it is principally in 17 th and 18 th century layers that clay pipes - artefacts characteristic of smoking - are found. For those interested in this particular category of finds from the time of the Ottoman conquest, Béla Kovács's 1963 study describing and analysing a large number of pipes from Eger is still a key work. Studies in the exhibition catalogue A magyar pipa története [A History of the Pipe in Hungary], which was published in 2000, offer an excellent survey of the subject. When writing his analysis of 17 th- and 18 th century pipes unearthed in Hungary, Gábor Tomka made, among other things, a compilation of the more important archaeological literature generated on the subject up until now. The pipes in the collection at the Thúry György Museum comprise a distinctive grouping in the finds from excavations conducted in the town by István Méri and subsequent researchers: they augment the stock of artefacts qualifying as personal belongings of the Turks there. From the standpoint of sheer quantity, the pipes do not bear comparison with those found in Buda or Eger, settlements that have yielded many hundreds of examples respectively. However, in our view, publication of the Nagykanizsa pipes is warranted, since Turkish-era (i.e. early modern age) pipes from southwest Transdanubia are little known. The fortress of Kanizsa (today Nagykanizsa) passed into Ottoman hands in 1600. From that time until its recapture in 1690, it was the centre of an important border vilayet of the Ottoman Empire. In Kanizsa, the Turks built a completely new suburb (Topraklik). The artefacts found on the one-time territory of this suburb are mostly 17 th century, the pipes included. THE 17M8* CENTURIES The majority of the pipes exhibited are Turkish-type pipes. Their material is very fine clay and their colour mostly brown, reddish-brown or greyish-white. One example (No. 15) is black from being fired in a reducing atmosphere; the surface of many (Nos. 2-4, 12-13) is covered with a green, yellow or brown lead glaze. Turkish stylistic marks are the polygonal fashioning of the neck (No. 1); the moulding of a wavy-edged ridge at the meeting-place of the lower and upper parts of the head, giving a plate-like form to the lower part (Nos. 3-4, 13); and the flaring of the lower part of the head (Nos. 2, 9-10, 12, 16-17). With regard to embellishment, the segmentation of the semi-spherical lower part of the head is characteristic (Nos. 2-4, 10, 12-13, 16); at the same time, the ring marking off the end of the neck is in a number of cases ornamented with fluting that produces a turban-like effect (Nos. 2, 7, 9, 15-16). On Turkish-type pipes, lines made with toothed wheels are common, as are very various fine patterns made using thin metal tubes and punches. These patterns might be little circles, diamond shapes, rosettes, stylised flowers, and so forth, or various combinations of these (Nos. 7-10, 14-16). Sculpted embellishments were carved into the pattern (e.g. the spots on Pipe No. 12, or the rosettes on Pipe No. 17). Only Pipe No. 7 has a maker's mark: a worn impress that at one time may have depicted a lily. No exacts parallels have been found for the Nagykanizsa Turkish pipes. This is not surprising, since Turkish pipes - at least those that have been published - are extraordinarily varied. Based on Béla Kovács's observations on the Eger pipes, but on Gábor Tomka's Classification Table No. 1, the Nagykanizsa Turkish pipes can be dated to the 17 th century (perhaps to the second half of it), which accords with the historical data for their sites. As regards their place of production, we have no evidence to go on, but considering the importance and size of Turkish Kanizsa, they may have been made in the town itself. Identification of possible workshops would require the processing of large numbers of finds. Owing to the preponderance of Balkan ethnic elements in the Turkish castles and towns of 16 th-17 th century Hungary, knowledge of Balkan material, too, would be called for. Pipe No. 6 in the published material has, on the basis of its style, been assigned among the "pipes 127
