Archaeologists have found the first evidence of cannabis use for psychoactive purposes in a tomb dating back almost 3,000 years, according to a new study.
Researchers found cannabis seeds and human hair preserved in the monumental tomb of southern Siberia’s elite, the study’s lead author, Gino Caspari, a researcher at the University of Bern, Switzerland, told CNN.
“There is a lot of speculation about the prehistoric use of herbal medicines, but with this discovery we are able to show that there is a basis for this,” he said.
The tomb is located in the Uyuk Valley and contains the remains of various high status individuals. Caspari and his colleagues have been working there since 2017 and discovered evidence that the tomb dates back to 2,800 years ago, during the early Scythian period.
“They were nomadic horsemen known for their horse shooting skills and for their exquisite gold items,” he said.
While there, Caspari and his colleagues spotted small black dots in the grave and were able to identify them as cannabis seeds. They ultimately recovered more than 1,400 of them and used radiocarbon dating to verify that they were deposited around 2,800 years ago.
Ancient remains tested for anti-doping
They also found preserved human hair, which they tested using a mass spectrometer.
“Surviving plant remains almost 3,000 years old are extremely rare,” Caspari told CNN, because they are generally poorly preserved.
“It’s even rarer to find them in combination with human soft tissue like hair, which essentially allows us to test someone who has been dead for three millennia.”
The analysis revealed that the hair tested positive for THC (delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol), the main psychoactive compound in cannabis, as well as cannabinol, a chemical compound produced when THC is exposed to air.
“It was just an incredible moment,” said Caspari, who said the discovery adds to our understanding of the history of cannabis use.
Until now, scientists had discovered that cannabis was cultivated in East Asia at least 6,000 years ago, probably for its oil-rich seeds, according to a statement from the researchers.
Evidence of the plant’s use for its psychotropic effects was discovered 2,500 years ago, notably in ritual practices in Central Asia, the press release added.
“Cannabis use should be considered in a ritual context in the grave and may be linked to shamanistic beliefs,” Caspari told CNN.
“As we have dozens of sacrificed horses and potential human sacrifices, this could also have been used to sedate the victims before something bad happened to them – but we can’t prove that,” he said.
“Surprisingly little is known about the deep cultural history of this important crop. For example, we don’t even know what truly wild cannabis actually looks like,” he added.
“We now have at least 3,000 years of psychoactive cannabis use on the Eurasian continent and it appears that at this point it has already spread from China to Europe,” he said.
“We believe this provides a cultural anchor for current debates about the legalization and medical use of the plant. »
Caspari added that the team is currently sequencing ancient DNA from seeds found at the site.
“Having well-preserved plant DNA is even rarer than having plant remains and it is the oldest preserved cannabis DNA,” he said.
“In the coming years, our team will likely rewrite part of the history of cannabis domestication. »
Roger Forshaw, an honorary lecturer in biomedical Egyptology at the University of Manchester, England, who was not involved in the study, told CNN that the research “provides fascinating insights into the use of cannabis among early Iron Age communities in Central Asia, a practice for which direct archaeological evidence was previously scarce.”
The fact that chemical traces of cannabis were found in the hair “provides direct molecular evidence of cannabis use and supports the interpretation that it was part of burial rituals”, he said.
“Although we cannot know for sure how the plant was administered or what precise role it played in burial rituals, this discovery adds significantly to our understanding of the use of psychoactive plants in ancient societies,” Forshaw added.
The study was published Thursday in the journal Science.
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