Charting Ancient Hallucinogenic Genetic Landscapes
Suspecting ancient teeth might hold genetic maps leading to answers about drug use in the old world , the researchers met a virtual wall in their research project. Until now, science hadn’t developed a way to test tooth calculus specifically for opiates, cannabis, and magic mushrooms : the substances that they suspected the 19th century Dutch farmers had been consuming. The two researchers contacted renowned forensic dentist, Dr. Dorthe Bindslev, from Aarhus University in Denmark, enquiring if traditional drug testing methods for blood and hair might be adapted to serve a new archaeological purpose.
Their experimentation required mixing hydroxyapatite, the most prevalent mineral in tartar, with 67 drugs and drug metabolites including the legal stimulants caffeine, nicotine, and cannabidiol, and the controlled substances oxycodone, cocaine and heroin. The drug-fused tartar mixtures were scanned by a mass spectromete
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Tartar, or calculus, coats the tongue-side surface of teeth from a skull that was buried for decades. Line S. Larsen
Tooth tartar could uncover the drug habits of ancient people
Jan. 7, 2021 , 3:25 PM
Want to know whether an ancient Sogdian smoked cannabis or a Viking got high on henbane? A new method, which analyzes drug residue in the tartar of teeth, may soon be able to tell. The method, which found drug traces on 19th century skeletons and more substances than standard blood tests in 10 recently deceased individuals could trace humanity’s drug habits back hundreds of thousands of years. It’s a “new frontier,” says archaeologist Shannon Tushingham of Washington State University, Pullman, who investigates ancient tobacco use in North America, but was not involved in the new work.