Humans have been using tobacco since the time of the mammoths

Archaeologists from the USA have come to the conclusion that Native Americans began smoking or chewing tobacco more than 12 thousand years ago, that is, nine thousand years earlier than it was believed.

The tradition of smoking and chewing tobacco leaves originated, as is known, among the indigenous peoples of the Americas, and after the discovery of the continent spread around the world. Previous studies have shown that tobacco use began about 3,300 years ago - that's how tobacco pipes with traces of the plant from the southeastern United States were dated.

Scientists from the Far Eastern Anthropological Research Group and the Crow Canyon Archaeological Center (USA) conducted excavations at the Wishbone archaeological site in the Great Salt Lake Desert in Utah, near Salt Lake City. There they found a man-made hearth for a fire, and nearby they found stone spearheads, bird bones and - most importantly - charred seeds of various plants, including wild tobacco.

They were dated to about 12,300 years ago. This means that people began to use tobacco in times when the earth was still roaming mammoths, finally disappeared about 10 thousand years ago. As the researchers note, tobacco did not grow in the area they studied. It turns out that the ancient Indians collected it a few kilometers away from there and brought it.

The plant clearly could not serve as a good fuel for a fire. The authors, who published their article in the journal Nature Human Behavior, believe that tobacco was brought for some other purpose. Scientists believe that ancient Indians chewed it and spit out the seeds. The use of this plant may have been religiously motivated in order to achieve an altered state of consciousness.