Bill D. (VA)
Silver Member
I finally got around to checking out the 50+ pipe stems I dug on Sat from the early colonial pit site with my friend Stan. I've made it a habit after each pit dig to examine the stems closely and see if I can match any of them up. But it's very rare to even find 2 small pieces that fit together as there are usually the remains of a large number of pipes in each pit. This morning I picked up the longest stem piece first which was about 4.5" long. The first thing I tried was to see if it would match up with the almost complete bowl I found that had a long stem attached. I was shocked that they did indeed match up perfectly. I used the product "Liquid Nails" to glue them together, and the result was an awesome 8" long display piece. I measured the bore diameter of the pipe and it was in between 5/64s (1710-50) and 6/64s (1680-1710). Based on this I think it's a reasonable conclusion to assume this pipe likely dated to around 1710 give or take a few years. This matches up nicely with the age of the black glass, the bottle seals, pottery, and other artifacts that were recovered in this hole. This is the longest reconstructed colonial clay pipe I've ever been able to put together, and I'm very happy about that. And yes, I did check to see if I could find another piece to add to the end and extend the pipe even further, but that was not the case. I guess I now have the motivation to go back to my boxes of previous pit recoveries and see if I can get lucky again.
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