New study finds first inhabitants of Caribbean brought drug heirlooms with them

October 20, 2008

A new study led by North Carolina State University's Dr. Scott Fitzpatrick is the first to show physical evidence that the people who colonized the Caribbean from South America brought with them heirloom drug paraphernalia that had been passed down from generation to generation as the colonists traveled through the islands.

The research team used a dating technique called luminescence to determine the age of several artifacts found on the Caribbean island of Carriacou, in the West Indies, and discovered that the items dated back to between roughly 400 and 100 B.C. These dates are well before Carriacou was colonized in approximately A.D. 400. Luminescence testing involves heating a substance and measuring the amount of light it gives off to determine how long ago it was last heated.

Heirlooms are portable objects that are inherited by family members and kept in circulation for generations, Fitzpatrick says, and are frequently part of important rituals. The objects tested for this study are ceramic inhaling bowls that were likely used for the ingestion of hallucinogenic substances. Fitzpatrick says the luminescence dates of the bowls, as well as analysis of the material from which the bowls were made, indicate that the artifacts "appear to have been transported to Carriacou when it was colonized – possibly hundreds of years after they were made."

Fitzpatrick, an assistant professor of anthropology at NC State, says scholars have long thought that the people who settled the Caribbean islands likely brought heirlooms with them – but says the bowls "are the first physical evidence we've found to support that claim."

The study, "Evidence for inter-island transport of heirlooms: luminescence dating and petrographic analysis of ceramic inhaling bowls from Carriacou, West Indies," will be published in a forthcoming issue of Journal of Archaeological Science.

Source: North Carolina State University

3.8 /5 (14 votes)  

Rank 3.8 /5 (14 votes)
Related Stories
Relevant PhysicsForums posts
  • Looking for website on Molecular Neuroscience
    created50 minutes ago
  • Factors affecting beet root cell membrane
    createdFeb 12, 2012
  • Stem cell question.
    createdFeb 10, 2012
  • Protease cleavage
    createdFeb 10, 2012
  • Pertubance in a model
    createdFeb 10, 2012
  • Cancer drugs and Alzheimer's, Oh my!
    createdFeb 09, 2012
  • More from Physics Forums - Biology

More news stories

Myths and shame keep many from seeking bankruptcy protection

(PhysOrg.com) -- Two interesting facts that may counter modern ideas about bankruptcy: The overwhelming majority of U.S. filings belong to individuals rather than corporations or entities, and most of these ...

Other Sciences / Economics & Business

created 10 hours ago | popularity 3.7 / 5 (3) | comments 7

What we mean when we ask for the milk

New research into the different ways that English and Polish people use language in everyday family situations can help members of each community to understand each other better and avoid cultural misunderstandings.

Other Sciences / Social Sciences

created 8 hours ago | popularity 3.7 / 5 (3) | comments 3

A lost world? How zooarchaeology can inform biodiversity conservation

A new study of tropical forests will provide a 50,000-year perspective on how animal biodiversity has changed, explored through an archaeological investigation of animal bones.

Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils

created 10 hours ago | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 0

Putting the magic into maths

Queen Mary, University of London has developed a new educational resource for teachers to help students use amazing magic tricks to learn about maths.

Other Sciences / Mathematics

created 11 hours ago | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Australian women reject 'I love u' texts

Australian women may have embraced the digital era, but they prefer a face-to-face declaration of affection to an "I love u" text and find men addicted to their mobile phones a major turnoff.

Other Sciences / Social Sciences

created 15 hours ago | popularity 3 / 5 (2) | comments 2


First-of-its-kind stem cell study re-grows healthy heart muscle in heart attack patients

Results from a Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute clinical trial show that treating heart attack patients with an infusion of their own heart-derived cells helps damaged hearts re-grow healthy muscle.

Scientists discover reason for Mt. Hood's non-explosive nature

(PhysOrg.com) -- For a half-million years, Mount Hood has towered over the landscape, but unlike some of its cousins in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains and many other volcanoes around the Pacific “Rim ...

Discovery paves way for salmonella vaccine

(Medical Xpress) -- An international research team led by a University of California, Davis, immunologist has taken an important step toward an effective vaccine against salmonella, a group of increasingly antibiotic-resistant ...

Time of year important in projections of climate change effects on ecosystems

(PhysOrg.com) -- Does it matter whether long periods of hot weather, such as last year's heat wave that gripped the U.S. Midwest, happen in June or July, August or September?

Smoking bans lead to less, not more, smoking at home: study

Smoking bans in public/workplaces don't drive smokers to light up more at home, suggests a study of four European countries with smoke free legislation, published online in Tobacco Control.

Ovarian cancer arises in fallopian tube of knockout mice

(Medical Xpress) -- The most deadly form of "ovarian" cancer arises in the fallopian tubes – not the ovaries – of knockout mice that lack two genes associated with the disease, said researchers led by Baylor College ...