Nicotine in residues of smoking pipes and other artifacts of the smoking complex from an Early Ceramic period archaeological site in central Chile
Artículo

Publication date
2014Metadata
Show full item record
Cómo citar
Echeverría, Javier
Cómo citar
Nicotine in residues of smoking pipes and other artifacts of the smoking complex from an Early Ceramic period archaeological site in central Chile
Abstract
Consumption of psychoactive substances has been important in the lives of indigenous American people
for several millennia. While numerous studies have reported the occurrence of smoking pipes at
archaeological sites, only a few have addressed the question of the substances being smoked. The study
of smoking pipes is of particular interest at the Early Ceramic period archaeological site La Granja in
central Chile (500e1000 A.D.) given its ritual connotation. Analysis by gas chromatography coupled to
mass spectrometry showed the presence of nicotine in a large proportion of the residues extracted from a
wide variety of grinding and smoking artifacts from La Granja (total N ¼ 116). Additionally, the likelihood
of finding residual nicotine varied along pipe segments, decreasing from the bowl to the mouthpieces.
This research has studied the cultural operative chain of the smoking complex of the Early Ceramic
period of central Chile and described Nicotiana sp. as a plausible plant source with nicotine as the
compound involved in the physiological effect, micromortars and pestles as the artifacts used in the
preparation of plants for smoking and finally, the smoking pipe through which the plant compounds
were incorporated into the smoker’s organism.
General note
Articulo de publicacion SCOPUS
Patrocinador
FONDECYT
Identifier
URI: https://repositorio.uchile.cl/handle/2250/119802
DOI: dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2014.01.016
Quote Item
Journal of Archaeological Science 44 (2014) 55e60
Collections