About 2,800 years ago, Scythian nomads in what is now southern Siberia used cannabis to alter their state of consciousness. Researchers believe they have obtained the first direct evidence of this. Exactly how the Scythians consumed the substance is not yet clear, but scientists suggest they inhaled it. The find pushes the history of psychoactive cannabis use back at least 300 years.
In the tomb of a high-ranking Scythian, scientists from the University of Bern and the Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology discovered more than a thousand cannabis seeds. However, the main subject of the study was preserved human hair from the central burial chamber. Chemical analysis of the hair showed that the person had consumed cannabis. Radiocarbon dating of six seeds showed that the burial is about 2,800 years old.
“The seeds show that cannabis played an important role in the burial ritual,” Gino Caspari, the study's lead author and an archaeologist, said in a statement. According to him, the value of the work is that it combines the analysis of plant remains with traces of substances in the human body.
Previously, evidence of prehistoric cannabis use was rare, as plant remains are poorly preserved. Most finds indicated that the plant was used for oil and fiber, not for intoxication. The previous record was held by a site in western China dating back about 2,500 years. The Siberian burial apparently contained seeds from wild plants. In the hair samples, researchers found cannabinol, a substance formed by the oxidation of tetrahydrocannabinol, the main intoxicating compound in cannabis.
It’s not very often that an archaeologist can perform a drug test on a person who died almost 3,000 years ago.
— Gino Caspari, lead author of the study
For a long time, the most famous source of information about Scythian cannabis use was the writings of the ancient Greek historian Herodotus. Around 440 BC, he described how the Scythians would throw cannabis seeds onto hot stones in felt tents and “howl with pleasure” as they inhaled the smoke. Archaeologists have found burnt seeds and braziers with traces of cannabis that confirmed his account, but direct evidence that ancient people actually consumed the substance has been difficult to find.
Not all scientists agree with the group's conclusions. Volker Auwärter, head of forensic toxicology at the University Medical Center Freiburg in Germany, told journalists that he found the hair analysis “scientifically weak.” He argues that since cannabis was widely cultivated for oil and fiber, the mere presence of the plant does not prove it was used as a drug. He also suggested that the hair could have absorbed traces of cannabis from the seeds that were buried nearby.
Gino Caspari said his team is now sequencing some of the plant samples to learn more about the history of cannabis domestication and distribution. “We show that the practice of cannabis use is at least 2,800 years old,” the authors write, noting that this knowledge enriches contemporary public discussions about the plant.
Letters