This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Cannabis is one of the most commonly used psychoactive plants today. However, it is difficult to determine archaeologically how cannabis was used in prehistoric times.
Plant parts such as flowers, leaves and resins are perishable and therefore rarely survive. It is known that cannabis served various purposes, such as the production of oil or fiber, and was not used solely as medicine or a drug. An international research team led by Dr.
Gino Caspari of the Institute of Archaeological Sciences of the University of Bern and the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology has now combined various analytical methods in its investigation of a princely tomb in the South Siberian Republic of Tyva. The tomb belongs to high-ranking members of Scythian society, a horse-riding culture of the Eurasian steppe. A total of about 1,000 cannabis seeds were recovered from it.
Six seeds were directly dated using the radiocarbon method. Together with other dating results, this indicates that the seeds were placed in the grave in 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 research team also examined preserved human hair from the central burial chamber. The analyses point to cannabis use. "This study is particularly insightful because it combines the analysis of plant remains with molecular traces in the human body," says Caspari.
The study has been published in the journal Science. The seeds recovered from the grave likely stem from wild plants. It is not possible to determine from this whether they were specifically cultivated for their psychoactive properties.
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