Ongoing Studies into the Borgund Finds: The Clay pipes

This week Natascha Mehler is visiting Bergen from Germany to look at the more than 300 fragments of clay pipes found in the excavation.

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Woman sitting by her desk studying archealogical finds
Natascha studying a clay pipe mark. Photo: Mathias Blobel, UiB

With tobacco becoming a commodity in early modern Europe, clay pipes became a common sight and they are one of the defining categories of archaeological finds of the period. The post-medieval period in places like Borgund is often poorly understood and artefacts like clay pipes can help illuminate this era.