Oldest evidence of humans using tobacco discovered in Utah

By Charles Q. Choi 1 day ago

Archaeologists found charred tobacco seeds in the remains of a hearth in Great Salt Lake Desert in Utah, dating back more than 12,000 years. Here, Kelly McGuire is digging at the hearth. (Image credit: Daron Duke)

Sementes carbonizadas encontradas no deserto de Utah representam o uso humano mais antigo do tabaco, evidência de que algumas das primeiras pessoas a chegar às Américas usaram a planta, de acordo com uma nova pesquisa. A descoberta revela que os humanos usaram o tabaco quase 10.000 anos antes do que se pensava, disseram os pesquisadores.

De todas as plantas tóxicas que os humanos usam e abusam, o tabaco provavelmente teve o impacto social e econômico mais crítico, disseram os cientistas do novo estudo. Muitas vezes desempenhou papéis sagrados, cerimoniais ou médicos entre os antigos maias e outros grupos indígenas americanos, e ajudou a impulsionar a economia colonial americana e, portanto, a expansão ocidental no Novo Mundo.

Além de fumar, mascar e cheirar, as pessoas usaram o tabaco de várias maneiras diferentes ao longo dos séculos. Por exemplo, os antigos rituais maias às vezes usavam enemas intoxicantes com fluidos misturados com tabaco, e os médicos ingleses do século 18 davam às vítimas de afogamento enemas com fumaça de tabaco na tentativa de salvar suas vidas.

Até agora, a primeira evidência conhecida do uso de tabaco em humanos era a nicotina encontrada em cachimbos no Alabama, que datava de cerca de 3.300 anos, de acordo com uma pesquisa publicada em 2018 no Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. Agora, os cientistas descobriram sinais de que as pessoas usaram tabaco cerca de 9.000 anos antes do que se pensava.

Related: 10 things we learned about the first Americans in 2018

In the new study, archaeologists excavated the remains of a hunter-gatherer camp on mud flats in the Great Salt Lake Desert in Utah. Wind helped expose the site over time, said study lead author Daron Duke, an archaeologist with the Far Western Anthropological Research Group in Henderson, Nevada.

The scientists identified an intact ancient fireplace surrounded by stone artifacts, such as spear tips commonly used to hunt large game. The hearth also contained more than 2,000 bones and bone fragments, mostly belonging to ducks, which cut marks and other evidence suggested the people there cooked and ate.

At the excavation site in Great Salt Lake Desert in Utah, the researchers found spear tips often used to hunt large game.  (Image credit: Daron Duke)

The fireplace held pieces of charred willow wood that was probably the best firewood option in the region, as it commonly is now in modern nearby areas. The researchers then analyzed the wood with carbon dating, which involves measuring the amount of a radioactive form of carbon with a known rate of decay; the results suggested this wood was about 12,300 years old.

Within the fireplace, the scientists found the remains of four charred tobacco seeds. "The tobacco seeds were an unanticipated surprise," Duke told Live Science.

Although the researchers cannot say for sure how people at this site used tobacco, they said the seeds hinted at the presence of nicotine-loaded tobacco leaves and flowering stems. Perhaps the people there chewed or smoked tobacco by the fireside, the team said.

The scientists noted that others might argue the tobacco was not used for its nicotine, but perhaps it came from the stomachs of the ducks that had eaten it, or it was used as fuel for burning. The researchers noted that birds do not eat tobacco, and that tobacco lacks woody material and so burns too quickly to generate a fire of enough strength or duration for most cooking.

These findings suggest that people used tobacco for thousands of years before the unknown point in time at which humans first domesticated this plant, Duke said.

"People in the past were the ultimate botanists and identified the intoxicant values of tobacco quickly upon arriving in the Americas," Duke said.

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Further research on this and other ancient sites with tobacco-use evidence could help shed light on the driving cultural forces behind the cultivation, use and subsequent domestication of tobacco, the researchers said.

"We have been working to get Indigenous input about the meaning and importance of the find," Duke said. "This will not only help us understand the find for the common scientific reasons, but also help us learn more about its values to the people whose forebears camped at the site and lived throughout the region. This is really important for the broader purpose of doing this science at all, so we can understand implications from a diverse set of interests."

The scientists detailed their findings online Monday (Oct. 11) in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.

Originally published on Live Science.