Theo the Pipe Smoker (* around 1790; † around 1820 in Kleinbasel) is the fictitious name of a man whose skeleton was found in 1984 in a former potter's field near the Theodorskirche (Theodor Church) in Kleinbasel (part of the Swiss city of Basel). He was named after the church's cemetery in which he was found.
Kleinbasel around 1800
Although Kleinbasel was part of the city of Basel since the Middle Ages, it remained independent in many respects due to its location on the right bank of the Rhine. It was home to middle class tradespeople with their families and domestic workers. The census of 1799 showed a population of just under 3000 people for the densely populated Kleinbasel, plus those not recorded, such as day labourers or passing travellers. When Theo was born, the Middle Bridge was the only link across the Rhine in the region, as the Wettstein Bridge (German: Wettsteinbrücke) was only built in 1879.
Back then, the center of Kleinbasel was the “Pond” (German: Teich), a network of canals with water from the river Wiese that was used for commercial purposes. It was used by sawmills, dye works and fulling mills, by tanners and millers, for gypsum mills, tobacco mills and others. In 1823, the canals drove a total of 64 wheels, 34 of which were grain mills. They were heavily polluted by sewage and faeces. Kleinbasel's "Pond" was filled in between 1907 and 1917. The “Teichgässlein” (“Pond Alley“) between Claragraben and Ochsengasse still recalls this pond today.
On the southern and eastern side of Kleinbasel, that were not traversed by watercourses, many of Kleinbasel's inhabitants lived on agriculture, as winegrowers or sailors.
Cemetery
The former vineyard area to the west of the Theodorskirche was purchased in 1779 by council member Remigius Merian. After the last grape harvest, it was prepared for the long-needed extension of the regular churchyard; the first funeral took place on 5 October 1779. The new cemetery was enclosed by a wall and was named “Merianscher Totenacker” (Merian's Graveyard) after its former owner. Members of the lower social class were mainly buried there. However, as its capacity was quickly exhausted, two more areas were used as cemeteries, the “Kleeacker” in 1805 and the “Mättelein” in 1831; these too did not prove to be sustainable. In 1832, a new cemetery was established outside the city near the Messeplatz for the rapidly growing population of Basel. The Merianscher Totenacker near the Theodorskirche was closed as of 1 May 1833. The Theodor schoolhouse, built in 1855/56, stands on the site of the former graveyard.
During these 54 years, a total of 4334 people died in Kleinbasel. They were buried there in the different cemeteries, but most of them in the small Merianscher Totenacker. Amongst those were inhabitants of Kleinbasel: craftsman, small traders, carters, fishermen, and their families. All burials were recorded in the register of deaths of the St. Theodor parish with first and last name, age, and often also with profession and origin.
Discovery
A heat pump was to be installed in this schoolhouse in 1984, which required new pipes to be built. The discovery of graves in the area west of the Theodorskirche next to the schoolhouse was to be expected. Thus, the excavation work was accompanied by archaeologists of the Archäologischen Bodenforschung Basel-Stadt, the archaeological department of the Canton of Basel-Stadt. In the winter of 1984, workers came across the remains of 24 graves in the western part of the former cemetery.
