1,000-year-old vessels found in Guatemala held tobacco possibly used as 'narcotics to induce deep sleep, visions and divinatory trances'
Residue on pre-Hispanic ceramic vases unearthed in Guatemala contain traces of nicotine, a new chemical analysis reveals. Archaeologists discovered the pottery collection at the archaeological site of Cotzumalhuapa, which served as one of Mesoamerica's "greatest cities" during the Late Classic Period (A.D. 650 to 950), according to a study published Monday (March 4) in the journal Antiquity . While early colonial accounts and past studies have confirmed that tobacco use occurred in Mesoamerica, there had been little physical evidence of the practice until now, according to a statement. "We knew that tobacco was a very important substance employed for a variety of ritual and therapeutic purposes in ancient Mesoamerica and across the New World," study co-author Oswaldo Chinchilla Mazariegos , an associate professor of anthropology and the director of undergraduate studies in Archaeology at Yale University, said in the statement. "However, archaeologi...