Detection! Recovering Ancient Indigenous Knowledge Through Science (2022)

What does ancient pottery from the Americas have to teach us about the use of mind-altering substances?

Indigenous pottery from a thousand years ago can still retain traces of its original contents. Through recent analyses of Central and South American vessels housed in Emory’s Michael C. Carlos Museum, an interdisciplinary team of researchers has confirmed an important historical fact: human communities have used natural stimulants for many centuries—and they appear to have deployed these compounds to seek healing and spiritual connection.

Renée Stein, Rebecca Stone, Douglas Mulford, Ruth Ann Armitage, Megan O’Neil, Dana Haugaard, Adam Forrester, Steve Bransford

The team behind these efforts is making its findings available to the public in an interactive exhibit at the 2022 Science Gallery Atlanta. “Detection!” explores the evidence of mind-altering natural compounds in the ancient Americas. “We wanted to provide a different kind of insight into powerful plant substances,” says Renée Stein, chief conservator at the Carlos Museum and a senior lecturer in art history at Emory.

Achieving these insights has required a collaborative approach. With expertise across chemistry, art history, and archaeology, five Emory faculty members and one scholar from Eastern Michigan University have spent several years beginning to reveal the mysteries of these ancient vessels. They’re asking what those ancient pots contained—and what such artifacts have to tell us about the communities that made and used them.

It's like “Forensic Files,” but for ancient jugs and vases. “I do the chemistry of detection,” says Doug Mulford, senior lecturer in chemistry at Emory. Using the latest technologies, Mulford and chemist Ruth Ann Armitage, professor of chemistry at Eastern Michigan University, help identify trace compounds within the pottery. Mass spectrometry, which breaks molecules into pieces that can be sorted and counted to identify what compounds are present, is their primary tool. It’s the same technique used in forensic science, pharmaceutical research, and sports pharmacology. “We’re looking at old data with new technology,” he says.

Doug Mulford provides an overview of "Detection!" to Senior Vice President for Research, Deborah Bruner.

Renée Stein

Some of the Indigenous vessels appear to contain theobromine (found in cacao). Others could contain bufotenine (derived from toads) or dimethyltryptamine (found in a variety of plants). But how were these potent substances used—and for what purposes? These questions belong to the curators and art historians, Rebecca Stone and Megan O’Neil of Emory. Studying these substances and their Indigenous cultures reveals information about how ancient people used them to augment their experiences, assist physical and emotional healing, and connect with the natural and supernatural worlds.

To present their research to date, team members partnered with Emory’s lead cinematographer Adam Forrester and senior video producer Steve Bransford to create a high-definition video, “Plant Teachers.” The team also collaborated with Dana Haugaard, Emory lecturer in visual arts, to develop a manipulable exhibit of wood, steel, and electroluminescent wire that mimics a mass spectrometer. Taken as a whole, the exhibit engages the public in an imaginative walk through science and history—with a touch of detective work thrown in for good measure.

And the end result? With this year’s Science Gallery focused on addiction, “Detection!” serves as a reminder that our modern view of mind-altering substances as numbing or escape agents represents just one part of a much longer and older story.

Rebecca Stone (On Right)

Megan O’Neil

“The substances that we’re studying are not addictive,” says Stein. “In fact, some are now actually being considered as ways to treat addiction or to heal and help, through palliative care, for example.” She hopes that gallery attendees come away from their visit with a new appreciation for Indigenous worldviews. “There is a longstanding practice for these substances, and it can inform us,” she says. “We can learn from the past and see it as part of who we are and where we are going.”

Mulford agrees, adding that the public deserves information about how trace molecules are detected—whether in ancient vessels or in doping investigations within professional sports. The science behind this work shouldn’t remain a mystery.

“I’m a chemistry professor,” he says. “I do a lot of outreach. To bring these conversations about science into the public arena is important. People deserve to know and to understand.”