WASHINGTON—Scientists have unearthed evidence of a milestone in human culture—the earliest-known use of tobacco—in the remnants of a hearth built by early inhabitants of North America’s interior about 12,300 years ago in Utah’s Great Salt Lake Desert.
Researchers discovered four charred seeds of a wild tobacco plant within the hearth contents, along with stone tools and duck bones leftover from meals. Until now, the earliest documented use of tobacco came in the form of nicotine residue found inside a smoking pipe from Alabama dating to 3,300 years ago.
