Tobacco usage dates back to 12,000 years? Charred seeds discovered in US reveal so

Marking another historic discovery, scientists have now come across the earliest-known evidence of tobacco usage that dates back to around 12,500 to 12,000 years ago. According to the study published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, the researchers discovered four burnt seeds of a wild tobacco plant at the Wishbone site in Utah’s Great Salt Lake Desert. It was further revealed that the seeds were used by ancient North Americans nearly 9,000 years before the earlier documented evidence, as per Science News. 

New finding refutes previous discoveries

The recent findings of the charred tobacco seeds reportedly date back 9,000 years before humans were believed to have first used tobacco. Previously, the nicotine recovered from a smoking pipe over 3,000 years ago from Alabama was considered to be the earliest evidence of tobacco usage. Although this did prove that humans used a pipe to consume the product at the time. 

As per a report by Science News, archaeologist Daron Duke of Far Western Anthropological Research Group in Henderson along with his colleagues found the burnt seeds near a small fireplace in the desert. After dating the seeds using the radiocarbon method, scientists speculated that the seeds were likely gathered from plants on the foothills or mountains located around 13 kilometres from Wishbone. 

The study further revealed that the findings also included bones of water birds like ducks and seeds of several edible wetland plants as the site earlier used to be a widespread marshland. Talking about their methods of consumption, Duke said that the ancient humans must have twisted the leaves, stems and other fibres of the tobacco plant to chew or suck while the attached seed must have been discarded and spit out. Although, even the smoking of tobacco cannot be ruled out, said Duke.

He further stated that there is evidence that shows people from modern-day Arizona chewed wild tobacco around 1,000 and 2,000 years ago. Meanwhile, the earliest evidence of domesticated tobacco usage from South America dates back to 8,000 years ago. Duke also suggested that the usage of the plants spans across different times in history and certain human clans might have even cultivated certain species of tobacco plants. 

Image: Twitter/@bioonthego