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

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.

Note to editors: The study abstract follows.

"Evidence for inter-island transport of heirlooms: luminescence dating and petrographic analysis of ceramic inhaling bowls from Carriacou, West Indies"

Authors: Dr. Scott M. Fitzpatrick, North Carolina State University; Quetta Kaye, University College London; Dr. James Feathers, University of Washington; Jennifer A. Pavia, Dr. Kathleen M. Marsaglia, California State University – Northridge.

Published: Forthcoming, Journal of Archaeological Science

Abstract: Ceramic snuffing tubes and inhaling bowls used for ingesting hallucinogenic substances are known from several islands in the West Indies, but their chronological distribution is often vague. A partial inhaling bowl found at the site of Grand Bay on Carriacou in deposits dating between ca. A.D. 1000-1200, along with two other unprovenienced specimens from the local museum, were dated using luminescence (TL and OSL) to determine their antiquity. Surprisingly, the dates had a weighted average of 400 ± 189 B.C., making them several hundred years older than all 14C assays from the island; however, they do overlap in age with similar artifacts found on Puerto Rico and Vieques Island over 750 km away. Additional luminescence dating of two stylistically distinct Suazan ceramic sherds excavated from stratified deposits at Grand Bay fall within the expected ceramic and radiocarbon chronology. These data, coupled with petrographic analysis of the specimens, suggests that they were not made using local materials. Instead, they appear to have been transported to the island, possibly hundreds of years later, as heirlooms. This may be the first evidence for inter-island transport of drug paraphernalia in the Caribbean.