Scientists have first identified the presence of a non-tobacco plant in ancient Mayan drug containers.
Researchers from Washington State University found Mexican marigold (Tagetes lucida) in residues taken from 14 miniature Mayan ceramic containers.
The barrels were originally buried more than 1,000 years ago on the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico and also contain chemical traces in two types of dried and cured tobacco, Nicotiana tabacum and N. rustica. The research team, led by anthropology postdoctoral fellow Mario Zimmermann, believes the Mexican marigold is mixed with the tobacco to make smoking more pleasant.
The discovery of the contents of the barrels paints a clearer picture of ancient Mayan drug use. The research, published today in Scientific Reports, also paves the way for future studies investigating other types of psychoactive and non-psychoactive plants that have been smoked, chewed or sniffed among the Maya and other pre-Colombian societies. .
“Although it has been established that tobacco is widely used in the Americas before and after contact, evidence of other plants used for medicinal or religious purposes is largely unexplored,” Zimmermann said. “The analytical methods developed in collaboration between the Department of Anthropology and the Institute of Biological Chemistry give us the ability to investigate drug use in the ancient world like never before.”
The work of Zimmermann and colleagues was made possible by research funded by NSF, which led to a new method based on metabolomics, which can detect thousands of plant compounds or metabolites in residues from containers, pipes, bins and other archaeological sites. artifacts were collected. The compounds can then be used to identify which plants have been consumed.
Previously, the identification of ancient plant remains was based on the detection of a limited number of biomarkers, such as nicotine, anabasine, cotinine and caffeine.
“The problem with this is that while the presence of a biomarker like nicotine shows that tobacco has been smoked, it does not tell you what is still consumed or stored in the artifact,” said David Gang, a professor at WSU’s Institute for Biological Chemistry and a co-author of the study. “Our approach not only tells you, yes, you have found the plant you are interested in, but it can also tell you what is still being consumed.”
In the spring of 2012, Zimmermann helped excavate two of the ceremonial vessels used for the analysis. At the time, he was working on an excavation led by the National Institute of Anthropology and History of Mexico on the outskirts of Mérida, where a contractor uncovered evidence of an archaeological site of Maya while clearing lands for a new housing complex.
Zimmermann and a team of archaeologists used GPS equipment to divide the area into a grid-like grid. Then they made their way through a dense jungle in search of small hills and other signposts of ancient buildings where sometimes the remains of important people such as shamans occur.
“If you find something really interesting like an intact container, it gives you a sense of joy,” Zimmermann said. ‘Normally you’re happy when you get a jade bead. There are literally many earthenware shards, but complete vessels are scarce and offer very interesting research potential. ”
Zimmermann said the WSU research team is currently negotiating with several institutions in Mexico to gain access to more old containers from the region that they can analyze for plant debris. Another project they are currently working on is the investigation of organic residues preserved in the dental plaque of ancient human remains.
“We are expanding the boundaries in archaeological science so that we can better investigate the deep time relationships that humans have had with a wide variety of psychoactive plants that have been consumed (and are still used) by humans around the world,” he said. Shannon Tushingham said. a professor of anthropology at WSU and co-author of the study. “There are many inventive ways in which humans manage, use, manipulate and prepare native plants and plant mixtures, and archaeologists are only beginning to scratch the surface of how old these practices were.”
Head Credit: WSU