Geneticists tells us that Tobacco was first cultivated in the Peruvian /Ecuadorean Andes about 5 thousand years ago. That was the variety we call Nicotina rustica. This Olmec stone artifact, c.1500 BCE, represents a Shamen on a vision quest. Mesoamerican Shamens smoked profuse amounts of tobacco to induce religious trances. Therefore this artifact and others like it from southern Mexico may be the earliest known representations of people using tobacco.
Collection No.6054