Reported by ScienceDaily
A remarkable discovery in a nearly 2,800-year-old Siberian tomb has provided the oldest directly dated archaeological evidence that people used cannabis for its intoxicating effects. By examining ancient cannabis seeds and chemical traces preserved in human hair, researchers have uncovered new clues about the role of the plant in prehistoric burial rituals.
Cannabis is among the most widely used psychoactive plants in the modern world, but tracing its use thousands of years into the past presents a major archaeological challenge. Flowers, leaves, and resins tend to decompose over time, leaving little physical evidence behind. Ancient communities also relied on cannabis for practical purposes, including producing fiber and oil, making it difficult to distinguish these uses from medicinal or recreational consumption.
An international team led by Dr. Gino Caspari, affiliated with the Institute of Archaeological Sciences at the University of Bern and the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, investigated an elaborate tomb in the Republic of Tyva in southern Siberia. The burial site belonged to prominent members of the Scythians, a culture known for its skilled horseback riders who inhabited the vast Eurasian steppe.
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During the investigation, researchers recovered approximately 1,000 cannabis seeds from the tomb. They used radiocarbon dating to determine the age of six individual seeds. Combined with other dating evidence, the results indicate that the seeds were deposited in the burial site during the early eighth century B.C.
"The seeds show that cannabis played an important role in the rituals surrounding the burial," says Caspari, an archaeologist and the study's lead author.
The researchers also analyzed human hair preserved in the tomb's central burial chamber. Chemical evidence in several samples pointed to cannabis consumption, providing a crucial connection between the plant remains and the people buried at the site.
"This study is particularly insightful because it combines the analysis of plant remains with molecular traces in the human body," says Caspari.
Although the cannabis seeds were remarkably well preserved, their presence alone could not establish whether the plant was used for its mind-altering effects. The seeds probably came from wild cannabis plants, and researchers could not determine whether…