Experts Discover Hard Evidence that Native Americans were Smoking Tobacco 3000 Years Ago

According to the Science Magazine, experts who have been examining an ancient Native American pipe for several years have made a remarkable discovery. New techniques have allowed them to detect with a great degree of confidence traces of tobacco in a pipe and this is allowing them to date when the first Americans were smoking. A team of researchers working in Alabama has discovered that people have been smoking tobacco much longer than believed and this has implications for our understanding of the history of Native Americans.

Discovery of the Pipe

Archaeologists in the 1930s excavating an ancient Native American site at the confluence of the Flint and Tennessee rivers made some interesting discoveries. The dig took place at a site that was going to be submerged by the rising waters caused by the construction of the Guntersville Dam. The excavators, working under great pressure were able to make a series of finds, including an archaic pipe that was deposited in a plain paper bag in the Alabama State Repository. The pipe was in good condition and had been expertly carved from limestone. The artifact was then left and had not been examined for some 70 years.

http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/experts-discover-evidence-native-americans-smoking-tobacco-021948