A team of researchers has identified nicotine traces in a Mayan flask while examining ancient vessels from the Kislak Collection of the US Library of Congress for the presence of alkaloids.

The study, published in the journal Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry, reveals the first physical evidence of tobacco in a codex-style flask marked with Mayan hieroglyphs reading “yo-’OTOT-ti ‘u-MAY” – “the home of its/his/her tobacco”.

The researchers analyzed samples extracted from 150 vessels in the Kislak Collection using gas chromatography mass spectrometry and liquid chromatography mass spectrometry.

They identified nicotine – the signature alkaloid in tobacco – as the major component of the extracts from one of the vessels determined to be made in southern Campeche, Mexico around 700 CE (Late Classic Maya period).

“Investigation of food items consumed by ancient people offers insight into the traditions and customs of a particular civilization,” said Dr. Jennifer Loughmiller-Newman, a study co-author and an anthropologist at the University at Albany. “Textual evidence written on pottery is often an indicator of contents or of an intended purpose, however actual usage of a container could be altered or falsely represented.”

This result is only the second example where the vessel content recorded in a Mayan hieroglyphic text has been confirmed directly by chromatography/mass spectrometry trace analysis.

Prior to this discovery, the only existing evidence showing a Mayan vessel to have the same content as indicated by hieroglyphic text was the identification of theobromine, an alkaloid found in cacao, more than 20 years ago.

“Our study provides rare evidence of the intended use of an ancient container. Mass spectrometry has proven to be an invaluable method of analysis of organic residues in archaeological artifacts. This discovery is not only significant to understanding Mayan hieroglyphics, but an important archaeological application of chemical detection,” concluded Dr. Dmitri Zagorevski, a study co-author and a scientist at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.