Evidence of early tobacco in Northeastern North America?

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.

尽管在历史时期，烟草使用是美洲原住民中广泛流行且意义重大的社会习俗，但该习俗的史前起源仍不甚明晰。吸烟烟斗的出现时间显著早于北美东部烟草的植物学实证。针对这一研究空白，采用气相色谱-质谱联用法（gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy，GC/MS）对吸烟烟斗残留物中的尼古丁及其相关化合物进行鉴定，是一项颇具前景的技术手段。对来自佛蒙特州、属于米德尔塞克斯复合体遗址（Middlesex-complex site）的布谢遗址（Boucher Site）中一件年代约为公元前300年的吸烟烟斗开展GC/MS分析，检出了尼古丁降解产物的相关证据。该发现被解读为北美东部烟草使用起源可追溯至伍德兰早期（Early Woodland Period）的有力佐证。本文还探讨了该发现所蕴含的文化与年代学意义。