141 Geoarchaeology and Archaeomineralogy (Eds R. I. Kostov, B. Gaydarska, M. Gurova). 2008 Proceedings of the International Conference, 29-30 October 2008 Sofia, Publishing House “St. Ivan Rilski”, Sofia, 141-146. STUDY OF THE COMPOSITION OF A STONE TOBACCO PIPE FROM THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESERVE ”PAUTALIA-VELBUZHD-KYUSTENDIL”, BULGARIA Rosita Stoyanova 1 , Oleg Vitov 2 , Irina Marinova 2 1 Regional Historical Museum “Acad. Yordan Ivanov”, 2500 Kyustendil; rossita1961@abv.bg 2 Central Laboratory of Mineralogy and Crystallography “Acad. Ivan Kostov”, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1113 Sofia; vitov@abv.bg ABSTRACT. First data of the composition of a stone tobacco pipe from the archaeological reserve “Pautalia-Velbuzhd-Kyustendil” are presented. The stone tobacco pipe is found in a cultural layer from the Ottoman period during a rescue excavation in the town of Kyustendil. It has no analogue among the museum exhibits in Bulgaria so far. The studied stone tobacco pipe is made of massive homogenous microcrystalline dark green rock with a greasy luster. Its outer surface is polished. The stone pipe is 6.7 cm in length and 4.6 cm in height with a bowl and a stem united at an angle of 66°. The base of the bowl resembles a bud of flower with six petals, and at the top it attains a funnel-like shape with seven sides and faceted edge. The surface of the bowl is engraved with curves resembling onother seven petals. The stem of the pipe has a thickened tip shaped by seven sides and decorated with engraved stylized curves, which edge is also faceted. For identification of the rock used to make the stone tobacco pipe its powder was investigated by X-ray powder diffraction method. The X-ray diffraction pattern of the powder sample is consistent with chlorite. Quartz was observed under the binocular microscope. Thus, the studied rock is determined as a quartz-chlorite stone. The chlorite is iron- magnesian with a close FeO and MgO content, but with predominance of the latter. It is ferrous clinochlore (ripidolite and pycnochlorite according to the nomenclature of Hey, 1954). The approximate temperature of chlorite formation estimated by the compositional chlorite geothermometer of Cathelineau (1988) ranges from 289 to 353°C, and indicates green-schist facies of metamorphism or hydrothermal-metasomatic process. Possible source rocks for the studied stone tobacco pipe are a massive layer of chlorite phyllites and schists or chlorite rocks formed during alteration of ultramafic rocks from Bulgaria or chloritites as a product of hydrothermal alteration of volcanic rocks outside Bulgaria. All these rocks could be worked easily by metal tools and are suitable for miniature products and sculptures. If the studied tobacco pipe is unique for Bulgaria, most probably it is made outside Bulgaria and is imported in the country. Introduction During a rescue excavation in the archaeological reserve “Pautalia-Velbuzhd-Kyustendil” a stone tobacco pipe is found as the mouthpiece is absent. It is registered in the Regional Historical Museum in the town of Kyustendil under inventory N964. So far it has no analogue among the known tobacco pipe collections in Bulgaria as material and decoration. That is why it cannot be compared to other tobacco pipes and cannot be classified properly. The only reliable information about the object is that the cultural layer in which it was found is from the Ottoman period. In Europe the tobacco pipes are known since the V c. BC – Herodotus informed about them. Since tobacco was imported in Europe in the XVI c. until this time dried leaves and grass were smoked. In the Middle East, Central Asia and India opium was smoked instead. In the Ottoman Impire the smoking of tobacco is known since 1599 according to written sources (Robinson, 1983). In Bulgaria during the Ottoman Period and the Bulgarian Renaissance every large craftman centre, including Kyustendil, was producing clay tobacco pipes (Stancheva, Medarova, 1968). In the Regional Historical Museum in the town of Kyustendil there is a collection of clay tobacco pipes for chibouks. The studied pipe is from the same collection but only formally – it is made of stone and obviously has another origin. Tobacco clay pipes were mostly used in England and Canada from the XVI to the XIX century. They were formed in moulds and then were fired in furnaces. Stone tobacco pipes made of sepiolite are known from Turkey – the sepiolite deposits are located in Central Turkey. Ancient white tobacco pipes made of alabaster (mixture of the minerals gypsum and calcite) are also known. The American Indians had a long tradition of smoking with stone pipes, only the mouthpiece was carved of ash-tree. The stone tobacco pipes of the Arapaho tribe were made of black schists from the Rocky Mountains, and those of the Dakota – of catlinite (pelite rock) from the Missouri River valley (SW Minnesota). There are also findings of stone pipes made of talc schists (West, 1935; Brown, 1978; Bates, Jackson, 1987). All these rocks and minerals are worked easily with metal tools. During the Ottoman period the town of Kyustendil was the centre of a large county (“sandjak” in Turkish) including the towns of Vranya, Kratovo, Shtip, Veles, Strumitsa, Petrich, Melnik, Dupnitsa and Radomir. Kyustendil is situated on one of the most important trade and military roads in the Balkan Peninsula, which in Tatar-Pazardzik was diverted from the main road from Istanbul to Belgrade and via Samokov, Kyustendil and Skopie led to the Adriatic ports in Albania and Dalmatia (Irechek, 1899). All travelers passing through the town of Kyustendil in the XVII-XIX c. have noted its importance as trade, craftsman and administrative centre. That is why it is