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Global Markets, Local Practice: Ottoman-period Clay Pipes and Smoking Paraphernalia from the Red Sea Shipwreck at Sadana Island, Egypt

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Shipwreck archaeology provides unique evidence for trade, commercial relationships, and the day-to-day existence of occupational communities defined by residence and employment within the industrial space aboard a ship. These concerns are addressed particularly well by finds of utilitarian items such as a small assemblage of 21 clay pipes and three other smoking-related artifacts recently excavated from the ca. 1765 Sadana Island ship which sank at anchor while loaded with coffee, porcelain, qulal, and other goods. Analysis of the assemblage specifically contributes to questions of chronology and typology and presents new evidence for regionalism, style, and the impact of far-reaching trade routes on markets with a global perspective.

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Excavation of the Sadana Island Shipwreck by INA-Egypt took place between 1995 and 1998 in cooperation with Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities, under the direction of directors Abdul Nur el Din and Gaballah Ali Gaballah and with the assistance of the underwater section and its inspectors. The excavation was funded by generous gifts from corporate and private donors, the participation of volunteers, INA-Egypt staff, and grants from the Committee for Research and Exploration of the National Geographic Society, The Amoco Foundation, The John and Donnie Brock Foundation, The California Community Foundation, and support from the Institute of Nautical Archaeology, the American Research Center in Egypt, and the Egyptian Antiquities Project. Artifacts from Sadana Island are curated in the Alexandria Conservation Laboratory for Submerged Antiquities, a joint project of INA-Egypt and the SCA. The authors would also like to thank the anonymous readers of an earlier version of this manuscript for their thoughtful commentary.

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Ward, C., Baram, U. Global Markets, Local Practice: Ottoman-period Clay Pipes and Smoking Paraphernalia from the Red Sea Shipwreck at Sadana Island, Egypt. Int J Histor Archaeol 10, 135–158 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10761-006-0006-2

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