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Contact: David Santen (santend@pdx.edu)
Julie Schablitsky, an archaeologist and Ph.D. candidate with the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at Portland State University, working with the Nevada State Historic Preservation Office, announced a major breakthrough in the use of DNA and mass spectrometry analysis with historic artifacts at a conference earlier this month.
Schablitsky presented her research results in a paper, "The Magic Wand: Hypodermic Drug Injection of the 19th Century," at the Society for Historical Archaeology Conference in Mobile, Ala. The paper illustrated her DNA findings from a hypodermic glass syringe and its associated needles, found at a Virginia City, Nev., archaeological site. The project, supported by PSU and with a grant from the Nevada State Historic Preservation Office, marked the first time that DNA residue has been extracted from historic artifacts other than human remains. "These artifacts illuminated the wide range of possibilities DNA testing has for the world of archaeology," said Schablitsky.
Schablitsky, working with a team of archaeologists at the Virginia City site, found a glass hypodermic syringe and six associated needles that, along with a urethral irrigator used to treat venereal disease symptoms, had been buried for over 125 years beneath the burned floorboards of what had once been a small house. Historic documents revealed that the house, which burned in 1875 during a great fire that destroyed much of the mining district, was probably built during the mid- to late-1860s in a working class neighborhood adjacent to Chinatown and three blocks from the entertainment and red-light district. A dressmaker, Mrs. M. A. Andrews, operated a shop out of this location in 1873. By 1875, the Coopers, a British immigrant family, had moved into the home. Thomas Cooper worked as a carpenter and lived in the house with his wife and three children.
"Archaeology offers a view of Virginia City's world-famous past that is independent of written accounts and gives voices to the often forgotten lives of the ordinary people who lived there," said Donald Hardesty, a University of Nevada at Reno anthropology professor who researches the archaeology of the American West. "Schablitsky's innovative application of DNA analysis opens up an entirely new way of documenting and understanding their lives from the material things that they left behind."
The study sought answers to a series of questions such as who used the syringe, what was injected and why they were injecting. Schablitsky took the artifacts to Intermountain Forensic Laboratories, Inc., in Portland, Ore., where lab director Raymond Grimsbo, a forensic scientist and graduate of Portland State, tested the items for drug residue and human DNA. Historic-period medical manuals discussed the frequent hypodermic injection of morphine during the 1870s and 1880s; therefore, Grimsbo designed the tests to recover low levels of morphine. The mass spectrometry analysis of the glass syringe was positive for degraded and/or small amounts of the opium-based drug.
Schablitsky's study tested for human DNA on the glass syringe and the needles. The significant aspect of the test was the attempt to extract residual DNA from artifacts rather than testing actual hair, bone, flesh, or other visible signs of body fluids such as blood. Nuclear DNA testing revealed both men and women associated with the artifacts and that at least four people had used the syringe. "Even more fascinating is the presence of rare allele variants that occur primarily in people of African descent," said Schablitsky. "Historically, African Americans and Jamaicans lived in this Virginia City neighborhood. When we compared the alleles from the artifacts with existing forensic allele frequency databases, it became apparent that at least one of the people linked to the syringe was probably of African descent."
The forensic results have removed the dressmaker and the Cooper family as the syringe users. It is difficult to link the multiple sets of alleles with Mrs. Andrews who operated a dressmaker shop out of this location and lived three blocks away. "Since hypodermic syringes were not used on children, it is, again, hard to explain away the extra DNA represented on the syringe for the Cooper family," said Schablitsky.
Schablitsky pointed out that there are at least two ways to explain the DNA evidence. One possible scenario, involving at least four adults, was a social gathering of members of the underworld, where morphine was injected for euphoric effects during the late-1860s/early-1870s. The area was a likely location for prostitutes and their companions. When the needles became dull, damaged or clogged, they may have been discarded onto the floor. The syringe and urethral irrigator were perhaps stored beneath the floor and never retrieved.
More likely, says Schablitsky, a health professional operated out of the house. Venereal diseases such as syphilis and gonorrhea were common on the western frontier and a doctor located between the red light district and Chinatown would have had a steady business treating their symptoms. Injecting several patients with the same needle would explain multiple sets of alleles; the nearby urethral irrigator also supports this theory and its placement, along with the syringe, beneath the floorboards suggests temporary storage or quick clean-up.
"The ability to link race to artifacts is astounding to archaeologists and is at the cutting edge of forensic science," said Schablitsky. "In essence, the ability to link gender, number of people, and race to specific personal items recovered in archaeological sites allows archaeologists to achieve scientific results that can be duplicated in the lab, lending insight into life in the past."
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Sources: |
Julie Schablitsky (503-925-1160) |
Release Number: 02-013
Date:
Jan 31, 2002