About This Artifact
A clay pipe stem bearing the maker's mark TD was recovered on Lot 5 by archaeologist Helen Sheldon during Season 12 filming. Sheldon was working with Moya MacDonald and Jillian Parsons in an area Laird Niven called an annex to the main foundation, where the team had been exposing the north wall of the stone structure after removing large stones the previous year.
The TD stamp identifies the pipe as the work of Thomas Dormer, an English pipemaker based in London who was active during the mid-1700s. Thomas Dormer's pipes circulated widely in the North Atlantic trade and have been recovered at colonial-era sites along the eastern seaboard of North America. Helen Sheldon made the attribution on screen.
The find places verified English colonial-era material on Lot 5, in proximity to the foundation that the team had been investigating since Season 10 alongside ancient tools and a Roman half coin recovered earlier in the season. By the close of Season 12, archaeologist Laird Niven reported that eight pre-1760 items had been recovered from Lot 5, confirming activity on the site earlier than previously documented. The Dormer pipe stem sits in the mid-1700s end of that range, providing one of the more closely datable artifacts from the lot.
Historical Context
The Curse of Oak Island, Season 12, Episode 7, "It's All Your Vault" (History Channel, January 7, 2024). Eyewitnesses on screen: Helen Sheldon, Moya MacDonald, Jillian Parsons, Laird Niven, Rick Lagina, Craig Tester, Gary Drayton. Thomas Dormer attribution standard reference: Adrian Oswald, Clay Pipes for the Archaeologist (BAR British Series 14, 1975); pipe-maker rolls of London and Bristol.
Where It Was Found
Found at Lot 5, north annex to the stone foundation — Oak Island, Nova Scotia, Canada.
