Smoking pipes discovered in archaeological contexts demonstrate that Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest of North America have practiced smoking for over 4,500 years. Archaeometry and ancient residue metabolomics provide evidence for the association of particular plants with these artifacts. In this article, we synthesize recent research on ancient smoking and present current knowledge on the spatiotemporal distribution of smoking in the past. The presence of stone smoking pipes in the archaeological record is paired with our understanding of past plant use based on chemical residue analyses to create a picture of precontact smoking practices. Archaeological pipe data demonstrate that smoking was a widely distributed practice in the inland Northwest over the past several thousand years, but not on the coast. Distributional data—including positive and negative evidence from chemical residue studies—show that tobacco was an important smoke plant in the region as early as around 1,410 years ago and as far north as the mid-Columbia region. Ancient residue metabolomics contributes to a richer understanding of past use of specific plants through the identification of tobacco species and other indigenous plants, including Rhus glabra, Cornus sericia, and Salvia sp., as contributing to the chemical residues in ancient pipes.

在考古环境中发现的烟斗表明，北美太平洋西北部的土著人民已经有 4,500 多年的吸烟史。考古学和古代残留代谢组学为特定植物与这些文物的关联提供了证据。在本文中，我们综合了对古代吸烟的最新研究，并介绍了过去吸烟时空分布的最新知识。考古记录中石烟斗的存在与我们基于化学残留物分析对过去植物使用的理解相结合，以创建接触前吸烟行为的图片。考古烟斗数据表明，过去几千年来，在西北内陆地区吸烟是一种广泛分布的做法，但在沿海地区则不然。分布数据——包括来自化学残留研究的正面和负面证据——表明早在大约 1,410 年前，烟草是该地区重要的烟熏植物，远至北哥伦比亚中部地区。古老的残留代谢组学有助于通过识别烟草物种和其他本土植物，更深入地了解特定植物的过去使用情况，包括Rus glabra、Cornus sericia和Salvia sp.，因为它们是古代管道中化学残留物的来源。