Use of tobacco began around 12,500 and 12,000 years in North America. A new study suggests that they smoked the plant approximately 9,000 years before the oldest evidence of it being used in pipes. As a result of this discovery , pipe smoking theory no longer stands as the oldest evidence of human use of tobacco.
Excavations at the Wishbone site in Utah’s Great Salt Lake Desert turned up four charred seeds of wild tobacco plants in a small fireplace, according to archaeologist Daron Duke of the Far Western Anthropological Research Group in Henderson, Nevada. The seeds are highly likely to have come from plants gathered on foothills or mountaintops up to 13 kilometers from the Wishbone area. Radiocarbon dating was performed on three of these seeds by the researchers. The findings were published on October 11 in ‘Nature Human Behavior’.
Read more: Gmail, Google’s email service, is down in India
The site was surrounded by vast marshland at the time of its occupation. In the ancient North American hunter-gatherer culture, the use of tobacco still remains a mystery. As a result, tobacco leaves, stems, and other plant fibers were likely to have been rolled into balls and chewed or sucked, while the seeds were discarded.
Post Your Comments