The recovery of seeds and the analysis of hair samples found in a 2,800-year-old tomb in Siberia provide the earliest direct evidence of cannabis use for psychoactive purposes, shedding light on the role this plant played in ancient societies.
The research involved scientists from the University of Bern in Switzerland, the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Germany, and the Russian Academy of Sciences, among others. The findings were published in the journal Science.
Determining how cannabis was used in prehistoric times through archaeological evidence is difficult. This is because parts of the plant, such as its flowers, leaves, and resins, are perishable and rarely survive over time.
Gino Caspari and his team now present new evidence of cannabis use at the Tunnug 1 archaeological site, one of the oldest and most significant monumental burial mounds in the Uyuk Valley of southern Siberia.
The princely tomb belonged to high-ranking members of Scythian society, a culture from the Eurasian steppe. Researchers recovered approximately 1,400 whole and partial cannabis seeds associated with the burials.
Radiocarbon dating showed that the seeds were deposited in the early eighth century BC, approximately 2,800 years ago, around the time the burial site was built.
Their small size and physical characteristics suggest that they came from wild plants or feral varieties.
The presence of cannabis seeds in a tomb does not, by itself, prove that the plant was used for its psychoactive effects. However, this was supported by the analysis of hair found in the central burial chamber. Researchers detected clear traces consistent with cannabinol (CBN) in several of the samples examined, according to a statement from the University of Bern.
CBN is produced, among other ways, through the oxidation of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive compound in cannabis. Researchers used several techniques to analyze the hair samples, including high-resolution mass spectrometry.
According to the researchers, the hair analyses indicate cannabis consumption. However, they cannot reliably determine how much was consumed or how the active compounds entered the body, whether through inhalation or ingestion, for example.
“The molecular traces in the hair and the cannabis seeds come from the same tomb and suggest that cannabis was used for its psychoactive properties,” Caspari explained.
The findings represent the oldest directly dated archaeological evidence to date of cannabis use for its psychoactive properties in cultural and ceremonial practices.
“In this study, we present the oldest direct evidence of cannabis consumption: offerings of plant parts and chemical compounds in ancient human hair,” the authors write in their paper.
The results suggest that the plant was used for its psychoactive effects across Eurasia. “We demonstrate that the practice of cannabis consumption dates back at least 2,800 years,” the researchers emphasize.
Early cannabis use was not simply a “pharmacological curiosity,” they add. Instead, it offers insight into how ancient societies experimented with the psychoactive properties of the plant world and incorporated them into their rituals.
Caspari recalls that the tomb examined in the study contained numerous horse sacrifices and, most likely, human sacrifices as well.
In an earlier study, researchers discovered the remains of 18 horses that had once been arranged on top of the burial mound. Since then, several dozen more horse sacrifices and scattered human bones have come to light.
Source: EFE.