Cannabis is one of the oldest psychoactive plants used by humans. However, clear evidence of intoxication is rare. Now ancient hair from a grave has been examined.
Researchers found traces of typical active ingredients such as cannabinol in the hair of those buried in a monumental princely tomb in southern Siberia. Photo: Gino Caspari/Frozen Corpses Golden Treasures, T.Wallace & G. Caspari/AP/dpa
Jena/Bern. According to a new analysis, people probably consumed cannabis around 2,800 years ago. Researchers found traces of typical active ingredients such as cannabinol in the hair of those buried in a monumental princely tomb in southern Siberia. In addition, over 1,000 hemp plant seeds were found, as the team led by Gino Caspari from the Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology in Jena and the University of Bern reported in the journal “Science”.
Cannabis refers to the hemp plant Cannabis sativa, particularly its dried flowers, leaves, stems and seeds. The plant contains many chemical compounds, including more than 100 cannabinoids, especially the main active ingredient tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).
“The molecular traces in the hair and the cannabis seeds come from the same grave and suggest that cannabis was used for its intoxicating effects,” Caspari said. His team determined the age of several seeds to be around 2,800 years.
THC content and method of use remain unclear
Although only weak evidence of the psychoactive substance tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) was found in the hair samples, there were clear signals for cannabinol (CBN). This breakdown product is formed when THC reacts with oxygen. It remains unclear whether cannabis was actively consumed for its intoxicating effects. It was also said that it was not possible to draw conclusions about the THC content of the plants from this time.
The monumental barrow “Tunnug 1” in southern Siberia is considered one of the largest and oldest rulers' graves in the region and is assigned to the Scythian equestrian people. In the center of the burial mound, the researchers uncovered four wooden structures with three individual burials and one multiple burial. Those buried lay within the wood-reinforced clay architecture of the burial mound, “on which a large number of horses were sacrificed in the form of a ghostly cavalry procession,” the study authors write in Science.
Animal and human sacrifices for the ruler's grave
They assume that human sacrifices were also made for the cavalcade - scattered human bones were also found. Cannabis may have been used to calm the people intended for the rituals. Another effect is also conceivable: the smell of the inflorescences of the hemp plants could have been used to mask the smell of the rotting flesh during burial rituals, the researchers suspect.
They point to another Scythian grave where cannabis seeds were found: Pasyryk in the Altai Mountains. In 2019, scientists also reported in the journal “Science Advances” on cannabis residues in vessels from graves in the Jirzankal cemetery in the Pamir Mountains in the far west of China. The team interpreted this as evidence of ritual use of cannabis by heating it on stones in incense burners. These traces were around 2,500 years old.
Herodotus already reported this
The ancient Greek historian Herodotus of Halicarnassus reported that the Scythians threw hemp onto glowing stones so that it would vaporize. Then they would inhale the steam and scream with pleasure. Accordingly, they inhaled the drug.
Caspari's team has begun to decipher the genome of some plant samples. "DNA preservation is excellent in this case; this will help us to soon learn more about the history of cultivation and distribution of this crop," he hopes.
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