Oldest evidence of humans using tobacco discovered in Utah

[skychaser]

"Charred seeds found in the Utah desert represent the earliest-known human use of tobacco, evidence that some of the first people to arrive in the Americas used the plant, according to new research. The discovery reveals that humans used tobacco nearly 10,000 years earlier than previously thought, the researchers said." .....

...."Until now, the earliest known evidence of human tobacco use was nicotine found in smoking pipes in Alabama that dated back about 3,300 years, according to research published in 2018 in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. Now, scientists have unearthed signs that people used tobacco about 9,000 years earlier than previously thought."

Read more here. https://www.livescience.com/earliest-human-tobacco-use-found

 

[deluxestogie]

...people used tobacco about 9,000 years earlier than previously thought.

What we really need to know is, what brand was it?

Bob

 

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What we really need to know is, what brand was it?

Black Mammoth

 

[skychaser]

It seems humans were also in north America much earlier than previously thought.

New Mexico mammoths among best evidence for early humans in North America

About 37,000 years ago, a mother mammoth and her calf met their end at the hands of human beings.

phys.org

"A recent study led by scientists with The University of Texas at Austin finds that the site offers some of the most conclusive evidence for humans settling in North America much earlier than conventionally thought.

The researchers revealed a wealth of evidence rarely found in one place. It includes fossils with blunt-force fractures, bone flake knives with worn edges, and signs of controlled fire. And thanks to carbon dating analysis on collagen extracted from the mammoth bones, the site also comes with a settled age of 36,250 to 38,900 years old, making it among the oldest known sites left behind by ancient humans in North America."

 

[BarG]

If I was an Indian I'd smoke it, oh wait I'm 1/8 Cherokee , we love tobacco.

 

[BrotherJ]

This is yet another reason to avoid the typical interpretations of human history. Archaeologists and anthropologists really do believe that lack of evidence is evidence of lacking. That's the way they analyze things whether they admit it or not. They said there's no reason to think that humans used tobacco prior to 3,300 years ago. ONE SINGLE DISCOVERY LATER: So, it looks like humans might have been using tobacco 12,300 years ago. That's a bit of a different picture, yeah? Nay-saying is not science. Assuming a negative is no more rational than assuming a positive. I know people tend to cut them slack, but I've talked to and listened to enough of these guys to roll my eyes at their preferred world view. If you had asked them before the discovery if humans used tobacco prior to the Holocene, they would have said something like, "That's not impossible, but our earliest evidence is 3,300 years old, so we don't consider it to be very likely." One discovery is worth more than all the conjecture in the world! Nay-saying is NOT science!

Don't even get me started on the assumption that people on different continents never knew about each other, even though all you need to get from one to another is a sailing culture and big, wooden boats.

 

[deluxestogie]

Sorry. That's how science works. You hypothesize, based on available evidence. Then you say, "Oops!", as more evidence becomes available, then take another crack at it.

Bob

 

[Jer]

"Charred seeds found in the Utah desert represent the earliest-known human use of tobacco, evidence that some of the first people to arrive in the Americas used the plant, according to new research. The discovery reveals that humans used tobacco nearly 10,000 years earlier than previously thought, the researchers said." .....

...."Until now, the earliest known evidence of human tobacco use was nicotine found in smoking pipes in Alabama that dated back about 3,300 years, according to research published in 2018 in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports. Now, scientists have unearthed signs that people used tobacco about 9,000 years earlier than previously thought."

Read more here. https://www.livescience.com/earliest-human-tobacco-use-found

Being Utah born and raised I am not surprised at this archaeological discovery.
Many people seem to believe that the history of Utah began with the Mormon Pioneers.
In reality the Native American populations existed here many centuries earlier.