Archaeologists with Colorado State University's Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands recovered nearly 2,000 historic artifacts in recent years from a small site in the area of the Sparta-Fort McCoy Airfield at Fort McCoy, Wis.
More than 96 percent of these artifacts came from a single excavation unit within the half-acre site area. A wide variety of materials were recovered from the site, including ceramic; glass; cow bones; shoe leather; harmonica parts; farm machinery parts; barrel hoop fragments; an ignitor/ignition coil from a Chevrolet, Dort, or Empire automobile; and an old aspirin tin.
Aspirin as we know it today was first manufactured by the Bayer Co. in 1897, but its origins extend back 4,000-5,000 years. Clay tablets from Sumeria and the Ebers papyrus from Egypt recommend the use of willow tree bark to treat fever and pain. Willow tree bark contains salicylic acid, and modern aspirin is derived from this compound. Approximately 2,000 years ago, the Greek physician Hippocrates gave willow leaf tea to women to reduce the pain of childbirth. Dioscorides, another Greek physician, prescribed willow bark as an anti-inflammatory. Chinese medicines also used poplar bark and willow shoots to treat rheumatic fever, colds, hemorrhages, and goiter.
The transition from using plant materials to actual tablets began 250 years ago when one of the first clinical studies involving powdered willow bark was conducted, treating the fever known as ague. About 100 years later, willow powder was proven effective in relieving fever and joint inflammation in patients suffering from acute rheumatism.
By this time, Johann Buchner had already isolated a compound from willow powder he called salicin, which is Latin for willow, but the compound was unstable. The stable compound salicylic acid was later extracted from the meadowsweet plant of the spirea family and was widely used for rheumatism despite causing gastrointestinal irritation. Felix Hoffmann of the Farbenfabriken vorm Friedrich Bayer and Co. found a way to modify this compound by adding an acetyl group to the salicylic acid, which reduced the irritation.
The name "aspirin" is derived from the "A" from the acetyl group, combined with the "spir" from the spirea plant and the 'in' suffix commonly used for drugs at the time. Aspirin was originally patented by Bayer. In 1915, aspirin became available in tablet form without a prescription, making it a household name.
The aspirin tin found by archaeologists at Fort McCoy in 2014 is rusted and hard to read but likely dates from the 1920s to 1940s. No brand name is visible on the tin, but some of the words on the back side suggest the tablets would have been effective for neuralgia, head colds, muscular pains, and more.
All archaeological work conducted at Fort McCoy was coordinated by the Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division Natural Resources Branch.
(Article prepared by the Colorado State University Center for Environmental Management of Military Lands.)
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