Abstract
A particular type of miniature ceramic vessel locally known as “veneneras” is occasionally found during archaeological excavations in the Maya Area. To date, only one study of a collection of such containers successfully identified organic residues through coupled chromatography–mass spectrometry methods. That study identified traces of nicotine likely associated with tobacco. Here we present a more complete picture by analyzing a suite of possible complementary ingredients in tobacco mixtures across a collection of 14 miniature vessels. The collection includes four different vessel forms and allows for the comparison of specimens which had previously formed part of museum exhibitions with recently excavated, untreated containers. Archaeological samples were compared with fresh as well as cured reference materials from two different species of tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum and N. rustica). In addition, we sampled six more plants which are linked to mind-altering practices through Mesoamerican ethnohistoric or ethnographic records. Analyses were conducted using UPLC-MS metabolomics-based analytical techniques, which significantly expand the possible detection of chemical compounds compared to previous biomarker-focused studies. Results include the detection of more than 9000 residual chemical features. We trace, for the first time, the presence of Mexican marigold (Tagetes lucida) in presumptive polydrug mixtures.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 1590 |
| Journal | Scientific Reports |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Dec 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2021, The Author(s).
Funding
We thank the Instituto Nacional de Antropolog\u00EDa e Historia for permission to carry out the research. Funding for this project was provided by the National Science Foundation (Grant numbers 1419506 and 1918966), as well as PARME and PASUC. This work was also supported in part by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Hatch project 227700 (DRG). We extend our gratitude towards the staff of restorers at Museo Palacio Cant\u00F3n for the great care with which all PARME vessels were handled during curation and exhibition. In addition, we are in debt with Dr. Sergio Rodr\u00EDguez Morales and his staff at the Laboratory for Natural Marine Resources, Dept. of Chemistry, UNAM, at Sisal, for providing access to his rotary evaporator and lyophilizing equipment. We also want to express our gratitude to Dr. Anna Berim for reviewing our metabolomic datasets and providing important insight. Finally, we thank two anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and constructive critiques of our manuscript.
| Funders | Funder number |
|---|---|
| Center for Selective C-H Functionalization, National Science Foundation | |
| PASUC | |
| Center for Hierarchical Manufacturing, National Science Foundation | |
| PARME | |
| U.S. Department of Energy Chinese Academy of Sciences Guangzhou Municipal Science and Technology Project Oak Ridge National Laboratory Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment National Science Foundation National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center National Natural Science Foundation of China | 1918966, 1419506 |
| US Department of Agriculture National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Agriculture and Food Research Initiative | 227700 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General