Evidence of early tobacco in Northeastern North America?

Author(s): Sean M. Rafferty

Year: 2006

Summary

While tobacco use was a widespread and important social practice among Native Americans during the Historic Period, the prehistoric origins of the practice are poorly understood. Smoking pipes significantly predate botanical evidence of tobacco in Eastern North America. A promising technique for addressing this problem is gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy (GC/MS) analysis to identify nicotine or related compounds in smoking pipe residues. GC/MS analysis of a smoking pipe dating to approximately 300 B.C. from the Boucher Site, a Middlesex-complex site from Vermont, has produced evidence of nicotine decay products. This is interpreted as evidence for an Early Woodland Period origin for tobacco use in Eastern North America. The cultural and chronological implications of this finding are discussed.

Cite this Record

Evidence of early tobacco in Northeastern North America?. Sean M. Rafferty. Journal of Archaeological Science. 33: 453-458. 2006 ( tDAR id: 391849) ; doi:10.6067/XCV8MW2K96

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

Keywords

Culture
Early Woodland • Middlesex Complex • Woodland

Material
Dating Sample • Macrobotanical

Site Name
Boucher SIte

Site Type
Archaeological Feature • Artifact Scatter • Domestic Structure or Architectural Complex • Domestic Structures • Settlements • Smoking Pipe

Investigation Types
Ethnohistoric Research • Methodology, Theory, or Synthesis

General
chromatography • Mass Spectroscopy

Geographic Keywords
Lake Champlain • Missisquoi River • Vermont (State / Territory)

Temporal Keywords
Early Woodland • Middlesex-Complex

Temporal Coverage

Radiocarbon Date: 885 to 115 (Site occupation duration)

Spatial Coverage

min long: -73.65; min lat: 43.676 ; max long: -73.073; max lat: 44.988 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contributor(s): Anthropology Department, University at Albany, SUNY

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