2014 Saidel, Tobacco pipes and Ophir Expedition to Southern Sinai

Material Culture MattersEssays on the Archaeology of the

Southern Levant in Honor of Seymour Gitin

Edited by

John R. Spencer, Robert A. Mullins, and Aaron J. Brody

Published on behalf of the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeology by

Eisenbrauns Winona Lake, Indiana

2014

Offprint From:

v

Contents

Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viiPreface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi

John R. SpencerSy Gitin: A Fellow’s Reminiscences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvi

Aaron J. BrodyPersonal Reminiscences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviii

Robert A. MullinsBibliography of Seymour Gitin—Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi

The Umayyad Pottery of Palestine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1Marwan Abu Khalaf

Marked Jar Handles from Tel Miqne–Ekron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17David Ben-Shlomo

The Southwestern Border of Judah in the Ninth and Eighth Centuries b.c.e. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

Jeffrey A. Blakely, James W. Hardin, and Daniel M. Master

Interregional Interaction in the Late Iron Age: Phoenician and Other Foreign Goods from Tell en-Nasbeh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

Aaron Brody

Three Middle Bronze II Burials from Tel Zahara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69Susan L. Cohen and Wiesław Więckowski

A Late Iron Age Cult Stand from Gezer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81Garth Gilmour

Tomb Raiding in Western Ramallah Province, Palestine: An Ethnographic Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Salah Hussein al-Houdalieh

Lambs to the Slaughter: Late Iron Age Cultic Orientations at Philistine Ekron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

Edward F. Maher

Competing Material Culture: Philistine Settlement at Tel Miqne–Ekron in the Early Iron Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131

Laura B. Mazow

vi contents

Mother-and-Child Figurines in the Levant from the Late Bronze Age through the Persian Period . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

Beth Alpert Nakhai

The Evolution of the Sacred Area at Tell es-Sultan/Jericho . . . . . . . . . . 199Hani Nur el-Din

“Ashdod Ware” from Ekron Stratum IV: Degenerated and Late Philistine Decorated Ware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 209

Steven M. Ortiz

New Perspectives on the Chalcolithic Period in the Galilee: Investigations at the Site of Marj Rabba . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221

Yorke M. Rowan and Morag M. Kersel

An Overview of Iron Age Gaza in Light of the Archaeological Evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239

Moain Sadeq

Tobacco Pipes and the Ophir Expedition to Southern Sinai: Archaeological Evidence of Tobacco Smoking among 18th- and 20th-Century Bedouin Squatters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 255

Benjamin Adam Saidel

King David in Mujīr al-Dīn’s Fifteenth-Century History of Jerusalem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265

Robert Schick

An Iron Age II Tomb at ʿAnata . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281Hamdan Taha

The Ups and Downs of Settlement Patterns: Why Sites Fluctuate . . . . . . . 295Joe Uziel, Itzhaq Shai, and Deborah Cassuto

The Horned Stands from Tell Afis and Hazor and the “Crowns” from Nahal Mishmar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 309

Alexander Zukerman

255

Tobacco Pipes and the Ophir Expedition to Southern Sinai: Archaeological Evidence of Tobacco Smoking among 18th- and

20th-Century Bedouin Squatters

Benjamin Adam Saideleast carolina University

IntroductionItzhaq Beit-Arieh’s excavations at the site of Nabi Salah in southern Sinai un-

earthed “Canaanite” material culture that provided a means to date this settlement to the Early Bronze Age II (Beit-Arieh 1974; 2003: 11–30, 273). The presence of Early Bronze Age II material culture at this site prompted him to launch a large-scale survey project in order to ascertain the scope of this period in portions of central and south-ern Sinai (Beit-Arieh 2003: 273). Beit-Arieh and his colleagues surveyed 1,700 sq. km and located 306 sites that ranged in date from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A through the Mamluk periods (Beit-Arieh 2003: 273, 275–76). Among the artifacts collected by this project were three undated “smoking pipes” (Beit-Arieh 2003: 288, fig. 2; 301, fig. 3; 304, fig. 2) and an additional artifact that may be a roughout of a stone smoking pipe (Beit-Arieh 2003: 302, fig. 2).

Using parallels drawn from archaeology and ethnography, I date the clay and stone smoking pipes to the 18th and 20th centuries c.e., respectively. These smoking de-vices, when combined with ethnohistoric sources, shed light on four aspects of Bed-ouin society in southern Sinai (fig. 1): first, some Bedouin acquired their clay smoking pipes through exchange with the outside world; second, the Bedouin used stone as

Author’s note: This essay is written in honor of Sy Gitin. As director of the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research, he has built and continues to nurture a thriving, stimulating, and inclusive community. Aside from tending to the daily tasks of managing an underfunded institution, Sy has also shepherded numerous newly minted Ph.D.s through their transition from graduate school to their first academic position. I have always valued his open-door policy and thank him for his advice, friendship, and humor (“Yeah, yeah, yeah”). I also thank Aaron Brody, Robert Mullins, and John Spencer for their comments on this manuscript.

Offprint from:Material Culture Matters: Essays on the Archaeology of theSouthern Levant in Honor of Seymour Gitin, edited by John R. Spencer, Robert A. Mullins, and Aaron J. Brody© Copyright 2014 Eisenbrauns. All rights reserved.

256 benJaMin adaM saidel

Fig. 1. Regional map illustrating the general location of the Sinai Peninsula (top). Map of southern Sinai illustrating the archaeological sites that contain tobacco pipes (bottom). The top map is redrawn after Google Earth, while the inset is redrawn and modified after Beit-Arieh 2003 (inside back cover).

257Tobacco Pipes and the Ophir Expedition to Southern Sinai

a raw material in order to make smoking pipes and household impedimenta; third, ethno historic sources demonstrate that the Sinai Bedouin smoked the chibouk in a dif-ferent manner from their contemporaries in the agricultural and urban sectors of Egypt and Palestine; fourth, the smoking pipes are evidence of Bedouin squatter occupations.

The ChiboukTwo of the four artifacts are clay stem-sockets from Turkish smoking pipes. The

Turkish chibouk is a three-piece smoking pipe, comprising a clay pipe head, a shaft, and a mouthpiece (fig. 2; Robinson 1983: 267, fig. 1; 1985: 154, fig. 1). In the Aegean and Near East, this type of pipe is found in archaeological deposits that vary in date from the late 17th century through the early 20th century c.e. (e.g., Robinson 1983; 1985; Simpson 2000). The appearance of clay pipe heads in archaeological contexts is

Fig. 2. The various parts of a clay Turkish tobacco pipe. Redrawn after Simpson 1990.


interpreted as evidence for the adoption and spread of tobacco smoking from the New World to the Old World (e.g., Robinson 1983; 1985; Simpson 1990; Baram 1999).

In the literature on clay smoking pipes, it is often assumed that these implements were used for smoking tobacco (e.g., Robinson 1983; 1985; Simpson 1990: 8). Chem-ical tests on the clay pipe assemblage from Suba in Israel have concluded that the ma-jority of clay smoking pipes were used for tobacco (Simpson 2000: 147, 171 n. 2), confirming previous assumptions (Simpson 2000: 150, no. 25; 163, nos. 149, 161). Given the absence of evidence for clay tobacco pipes prior to the 17th century, it is clear that they are associated with the introduction of tobacco and subsequently were also used for smoking hashish (e.g., Stewart 1857: 51; Robinson 1985: 150–51 n. 4; Simpson 1990: 8–9). 1

The Smoking PipesThe clay smoking pipes collected by the Ophir Expedition in the Sinai are dated

using parallels from the Ottoman and British Mandate period village of Suba in Israel (Simpson 2000). This village is located approximately 7 km west of Jerusalem. It is

1. Within the clay tobacco pipe assemblage from Khirbet Hatara, there is one group of smoking devices identified as “poppy-headed” pipes (Matney 1997: 74–75; 79, nos. 4–5; 82, nos. 21, 24; 83, nos. 25, 26(?); 84, nos. 31, 34). The form and incisions found on this type of smoking pipe resemble an “inverted poppy” (Matney 1997: 75); however, Matney maintains that this form of smoking pipe was used “only for the consumption of tobacco and that its similarity to the opium poppy is purely fortuitous” (Matney 1997: 75).

Fig. 3. Tobacco pipes collected by the Ophir Expedition. (A) Clay tobacco pipe from Site 1039. (B) Clay tobacco pipe from Site 1051. (C) Stone smoking pipe from Site 1023. (D) Roughout of a stone smoking pipe from Site 1041. Pipes A–D are redrawn and modified after Beit-Arieh 2003: Site 1023, 288, fig. 2; Site 1039, 301, fig. 3, 302; Site 1041, fig. 2, 304; Site 1051, fig. 2.


constructed on top of and within the remains of Belmont Castle, a Crusader period fortress (Pringle 2000: 17–20; Barak and Kark 2009: 1–5). The clay tobacco pipes in the Suba assemblage range in date from the 17th to early 20th centuries c.e. This well-published assemblage is often used as a source for dating clay smoking pipes found at other sites located in the southern Levant and greater Near East (e.g., Simpson 2002: 160; al-Senussi and Le Quesne 2007: 175–76; Matney et al. 2007: 28; Saidel 2008: 60–66).

Beit-Arieh and his associates (2003: 301, fig. 3 top; 304, fig. 2) collected two clay smoking pipes from Sites 1039 and 1051, respectively (figs. 3:A, B). 2 These two artifacts comprised the portion of the smoking pipe known as the stem-socket. This is the part of the chibouk where the shaft would have been inserted into the clay pipe head. These pipe heads are similar in form to 18th-century Splash-Glazed pipes found at Suba (Simpson 2000: 151, fig. 13:2, nos. 33, 34).

A fragment of a broken smoking pipe comprising the stem-socket was recovered at Site 1023. In contrast to the examples mentioned above, the raw material used to make this pipe is not mentioned in Beit-Arieh’s caption (see fig. 3:C here; Beit-Arieh 2003: 288, fig. 2). The stem-socket of this pipe is not similar in form to the clay to-bacco pipes found at Suba. Rather, I suggest that this smoking device is similar in form and design to the limestone tobacco pipes that were made and used by the Bedouin in Sinai (e.g., Goren 1999: 36, no. 35; Yisraeli 2006: 267, fig. 275:א [see larger pipe with wooden stem and tweezers attached to stem by chain]) (here, fig. 3:C). 3 Illustra-tions of these stone smoking pipes are unusual, and those that have been published are broadly dated between the 1930s and 1970s (Murray 1935: 84, fig. 8; Goren 1999: 36, no. 35). Therefore, this broken smoking pipe is attributed to this period.

A “worked stone” (Beit-Arieh 2003: 302, fig. 2) was collected from Site 1041 by Beit-Arieh’s team. This artifact measures approximately 5 cm in length, 4 cm in width, and 3 cm in height (fig. 3:D). At one end of this worked stone, there is a bowl measuring approximately 1 cm in diameter and 2 cm in depth. The bottom of this concavity is perforated by the tip of a conical-shaped shaft that measures less than 2 cm in length. Based on the location of the horizontal and vertical perforations, I propose

2. The reader is referred to Beit-Arieh’s monograph for a thorough description of Sites 1023, 1039, 1041, and 1051 (Beit-Arieh 2003: 287–88, 299–301, 302, 304).

3. The same stone pipe appears to be illustrated in both Goren’s exhibition catalog (1999: 36, no. 35) and Yisraeli’s Ph.D. thesis (2006: 267, fig. 275:א [the larger of the two pipes in this image]). The Bedouin artifacts in Goren’s publication were drawn from the collections of the Israel Museum and the Museum of Bedouin Culture—Joe Alon Center, Kibbutz Lahav. In Goren’s cat-alog, the terms Lahav and TIMJ (Goren 1999: copyright page) accompany each artifact description to denote where the artifact is curated. The catalog description accompanying this stone pipe does not indicate where it is housed. A similar stone smoking pipe, from the collection of the Museum of Bedouin Culture—Joe Alon Center is illustrated in Yisraeli’s Ph.D. thesis. Given the similarities in the appearance of these two pipes, I suggest that the same pipe is illustrated in both Goren’s and Yisraeli’s publications.


that this artifact is a roughout of a stone smoking pipe. The positioning of the vertical and horizontal perforations on this artifact is similar in design to those found on a Bed-ouin stone smoking pipe from Sinai (e.g., Baram 1996: 192–93; compare figs. 3d–4 in this essay).

Discussion and ConclusionThe tobacco pipes dated above provide additional information on Bedouin life-

ways in southern Sinai. The clay pipe heads found at Sites 1039 and 1051 are potential evidence of long-distance exchange because the Sinai Bedouin did not make clay smoking pipes that are similar in form, finish, and decoration to the pipes found in the agricultural and urban portions of Egypt and Palestine (e.g., Simpson 2000). 4 The nature of exchange between the Bedouin and the inhabitants of Cairo and Suez raises the possibility that the Bedouin acquired some clay tobacco pipes that had originated in Cairo or Suez (e.g., Rabinowitz 1985). 5

The broken stone pipe recovered from Site 1023 could have been acquired via long-distance exchange. Jarvis reports that some Bedouin in Sinai smoked tobacco in stone smoking pipes that originated from central Arabia. Unfortunately, Jarvis does not mention how the Bedouin obtained these pipes (e.g., Jarvis 1936; 1938: 296); nor does he mention why they wanted them. Alternatively, one cannot rule out the possibility that the stone pipe from Site 1023 was made by Bedouin in southern Sinai.

I suggest that the roughout from Site 1041 is evidence for the local manufacture of stone tobacco pipes. This proposal is supported by ethnographic and ethnohistoric sources that demonstrate that the Sinai Bedouin made stone tobacco pipes (e.g., Goren 1999: 34–36). Jennings-Bramley (1906: 258), for example, provides a brief description of some of the stone smoking pipes that were made by the Bedouin: “Some of these bowls are made out of a soft white stone which is found in the country. Very roughly cut, and of a most inconvenient shape, these pipes are often little more than a straight hollow tube, with a perforated piece across the centre, which prevents the substance smoked from being drawn into the mouth.”

Besides the stone tobacco pipes, the Sinai Bedouin also made a variety of imple-ments out of stone, such as mortars, pestles, and grinding stones (e.g., Palmer 1871: 82; Goren 1999: 34–36; Avner 2007: 34). Apparently, some Bedouin continued to knap rotary grinding stones out of limestone and granite until the 1970s (Goren 1999: 34, 35, fig. 32; Avner 2007: 34, fig. 32). Among the Ahaywat tribe, the skill and knowl-

4. Milwright noted that Bedouin and villagers in southern Jordan used handmade, unbur-nished, undecorated clay tobacco pipes (Milwright 2000: 200; 2010: 178); however, these crude smoking pipes are not illustrated in his publication (2000: 200).

5. Jarvis reported that some Sinai Bedouin smoked tobacco in gray-colored, clay smoking pipes; perhaps these tobacco pipes were manufactured in Gaza and/or Faluja in Palestine (e.g., Yis-raeli 2006: 264, Type 1; 265, Types 2–3; 266, Type 4).


Fig. 4. Profile view of a “softstone” Bedouin tobacco pipe from the Meshorer collection (Baram 1996: 192). The original illustration of this smoking pipe does not contain a scale, and the text does not mention the dimensions of this tobacco pipe.

edge necessary to make such tools was passed down from father to son (Goren 1999: 34). Historically speaking, grinding stones were one of a number of goods that the Sinai Bedouin sold to Egyptians in order to acquire foodstuffs and commodities that they needed for their subsistence (Palmer 1871: 82; Goren 1999: 34).

Ethnohistoric sources demonstrate that some Sinai Bedouin smoked the chibouk in a different manner from their contemporaries who lived in agricultural and urban areas of Egypt and Palestine ( Jenning-Bramely 1906: 258): “Some Bedouins have stems to their pipes, but by far the greater number smoke out of the bowl, that is, the very short earthen stem of the bowl into which the pipe-stick should be inserted.”

The smoking pipes collected by the Ophir expedition provide archaeological ev-idence of Bedouin squatter occupations. The four smoking pipes were found at the same archaeological sites that contained extensive architectural remains from the Early Bronze Age II (Beit-Arieh 2003: 287, Site 1023; 299, Site 1039; 302, Site 1041) and Byzantine (Beit-Arieh 2003: 304, Site 1051) periods. The presence of pipes at these locations indicates that some Bedouin sought shelter among these ruins during the 18th and mid-20th centuries. Evidence of similar squatter occupations is also found in the Negev Highlands (e.g., Avni 1992: 27, Site 1; 36, Site 23; 127, Site 272; Rosen 1994: 41, Site 34; 76, Site 130).

The activities and patterns of behavior mentioned above are not unique to the res-idents of southern Sinai. In Arabia, portions of the Bedouin population dispensed with the stem and smoked directly from the stem-socket (e.g., Saidel 2000: 208, fig. 4 [in-dividual smoking pipe and holding matchlock musket to the left of the photograph]). The Bedouin who lived in Arabia and the Levant also crafted smoking pipes, personal ornaments, (Doughty 1888: 180) and household impedimenta, such as “coffee-pestles” and “hand mills,” out of stone (e.g., Doughty 1888: 180; Musil 1928:91, 127).


The smoking pipes recovered by Beit-Arieh and his associates provide a glimpse into craft production and exchange as practiced by the Bedouin in southern Sinai. Perhaps more important is that these modest artifacts are evidence that Bedouin squat-ter occupations can be chronologically identified in archaeological contexts.

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2014 Saidel, Tobacco pipes and Ophir Expedition to Southern Sinai

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