In the last decade, historical archaeologists in the American West have begun conducting biochemical analyses of contents in bottles recovered from archaeological sites dating to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Archaeological excavations conducted at the Alameda-Stone Cemetery Site provided a large amount of data about the residents of a Tucson, Arizona neighborhood that existed between 1889 and the 1950s. This was a transformative period in the pharmaceutical industry when university-trained pharmacists advanced their field and advocated against the use of mass-produced patent and proprietary medicines. The discovery of two sealed medicine bottles with intact contents provided an opportunity to examine medicinal products from bygone days. This analysis centered on the main question: What can archaeologists discover about the contents of historical bottles that were discarded and have been subjected to environmental conditions for decades? The bottle contents from Tucson were analyzed by gas chromatograph/mass spectrometry (GC/MS) to reveal the ingredients of the medicines and were compared with biochemical medicine analysis conducted at other sites in the American West. These results, in conjunction with historical and archaeological data, demonstrate archaeologically recovered medicines can provide insight into pharmacy and medicine ingredients used in the American West during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

在过去的十年中，美国西部的历史考古学家已开始对从19世纪末至20世纪初从考古现场回收的瓶子中的内容物进行生化分析。在阿拉米达石墓地进行的考古发掘提供了有关1889年至1950年代之间亚利桑那州图森附近居民的大量数据。这是制药行业的转型时期，当时受过大学训练的药剂师不断发展自己的领域，并提倡不使用大规模生产的专利和专有药物。发现了两个完整的密封药瓶，为从过去的日子检查药品提供了机会。该分析集中在以下主要问题上：考古学家可以发现被丢弃并经历数十年环境条件的历史瓶的内容吗？通过气相色谱/质谱法（GC / MS）分析来自图森的瓶中内容物，以揭示药物的成分，并将其与在美国西部其他地点进行的生化药物分析进行比较。这些结果与历史和考古数据相结合，证明了从考古学中回收的药物可以洞察十九世纪末期和二十世纪初在美国西部使用的药学和药物成分。