Organic Analysis of Smoking Pipe Fragments and Residue Scrapings

Summary

Chemical analysis of organic residues from archaeological artifacts is shedding new light on past human activities. Here we report on the residue analysis of smoking pipe fragments and residues scraped from pipe sherds. Our goals were twofold: 1) to ascertain whether nicotine was present in the residues, thereby providing a positive indication for tobacco use; and 2) to identify the presence of other biomarkers that would allow us to establish which other plants were smoked, furthering our understanding of the natural resources exploited for religious activities. Our samples included residue scrapings from Woodland and Mississippian period pipe sherds collected at the Glass Site (9TF145) in Telfair County, Georgia. We also analyzed pipe fragments from the Feltus Mound Site (22JE500) in Jefferson County, Mississippi, considered to be from the Late Woodland period. Our methods included methanol:chloroform solvent extractions using ultrasonication to isolate the organic compounds in the residues. Our analysis utilized both gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and gas chromatography flame ionization detecting (GC-FID). The results demonstrate the presence of nicotine in many of these artifacts, along with other compounds that could signal the existence of a complex smoking tradition among indigenous populations of the southeastern United States.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15959