200-year-old Tasmanian tiger-shaped smoking pipe

The clay pipe is still intact and is considered an important archaeological discovery of the island of Tasmania.   

Stephen Sleightholme, Ph.D., from the Tasmanian Tiger Specimen Data Project International (ITSD) project, bought a clay pipe at auction and informed Darren Watton, archaeologist at Southern Archeology, ABC News . 5/5 reported. The pipe was discovered in a bottle dump near Launceston, Tasmania Island. The bottles here have existed since about 1830.

200-year-old cigarette butt made of clay. (Photo: ABC News).

Watton commented this was an extremely interesting finding. "The pipe has some special features that we seldom come across. A local has created it, which can be used by itself , " he said.

The pipe is intact with the Tasmanian tiger pattern , which has been extinct since 1936. The ancients preferred clay pipes before tobacco was widely produced in the 19th century. They made their pipes with mold. Smoking pipes are often produced in England or European countries, then exported to other areas. However, this pipe is handmade locally with clay taken from the river.

Tasmanian tiger motif carved on the pipe. (Photo: ABC News).

"The Tasmanian tiger pattern with the distinctive zebra fur on the pipe unrelated to any 19th-century images can be used as a model. That means this pattern is original, one of the images of the tiger. The oldest Tasmania we've ever discovered , " Sleightholme said.

In addition to the Tasmanian tiger, the pipe also has a pattern very similar to the kingfisher kookaburra . This creature was brought to Tasmania Island in 1902, while the pipe was born dozens of years earlier. That suggests the manufacturer lived in mainland Australia before coming to Tasmania. The second hypothesis holds that this pattern actually describes a different type of Tasmanian kingfisher, or just a bird in general.

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