Humans Have Been Smoking For at Least 12,300 Years

ARCHEOLOGISTS DISCOVER HUMANS HAVE BEEN SMOKING TOBACCO FOR AT LEAST 12,300 YEARS

So smoking is something we’re all familiar with. And no, I don’t mean we all smoke, or even have tried it. But the latter is likely likely, if you know what I mean. And I’m also not talking about if you inhaled in college, or silliness like that. I’m talking about smoking tobacco, something we’ve called an age-old practice seemingly forever. But what does age-old really mean? Well, archeologists have a new, insanely old answer. They say that we now know, for sure, that humans have smoked tobacco for at least 12,300 years. As you might imagine, that’s older than what we call civilization.

HUMAN SMOKING HISTORY MADE IN NORTHWESTERN UTAH, WITH OPEN-AIR HEARTH SITE

Oddly, this smoking (but not hot) news comes from an archeological dig in Utah. Yes, Utah. A team was working a dig in what is now known as the Wishbone site, part of an arid area of northwestern Utah. There, they found duck bones and some charred plant matter just beneath the surface of the ground. The archeologists quickly realized this was actually an open-air hearth, roughly 12,000 years old. Then they found tobacco seeds nearby. If the research and findings hold up to scrutiny, it marks the oldest known instance of humans smoking tobacco to date.

SMOKING FOLKS WERE PART OF INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, THE WESTERN STEMMED TRADITION

Back when the open-air hearth was actually used, the area used to be marshland from an ancient and now gone river. An arid area today, you won’t find any ducks or their contemporary bones either. The people who ate duck meat and were smoking tobacco were probably part of a group called the Western Stemmed Tradition. They were indigenous locals who were a nomadic culture in the area. And like humans all across the planet, they smoked tobacco for its nicotine effects and high.

Who knew the Marlboro Man was a veritable babe when it comes to smoking?