Posted on 06/12/2019 7:28:00 PM PDT by KC_Lion
WASHINGTON (AP) - Archaeologists have unearthed the earliest direct evidence of people smoking marijuana from a 2,500-year-old graveyard in western China.
In a complex of lofty tombs in the Pamir Mountains - a region near the borders of modern China, Pakistan and Tajikistan - excavators found 10 wooden bowls and several stones containing burnt residue of the cannabis plant. Scientists believe heated stones were used to burn the marijuana and people then inhaled the smoke as part of a burial ritual.
"It's the earliest strong evidence of people getting high" on marijuana, said Mark Merlin, a botanist at the University of Hawaii. He was not involved in the research published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances.
The history of ancient drug use has long intrigued scholars. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote of people in Central Asia smoking cannabis around 440 B.C. In the past century, archaeologists have found cannabis seeds and plants buried in tombs across Central Asia's highlands, including in southern Siberia, and elsewhere in western China's Xinjiang region.
Today, scholars don't consider ancient accounts trustworthy without corroborating evidence. And since the cannabis plant has other uses - seeds are pressed for oil and fibers used for cloth - the presence of seeds alone doesn't confirm drug use.
Using new techniques for chemical analysis, the study's scientists examined the residue and found evidence of THC, the compound that gives pot its high. Most wild cannabis plants have low levels of THC, so the researchers believe the people who built the graves deliberately selected or cultivated plants with higher amounts.
"During funeral rites, the smokers may have hoped to communicate with the spirit world - or with the people they were burying," said study co-author Yimin Yang of the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.
(Excerpt) Read more at ktva.com ...
For your interest.
Yeah, right.
Maybe they were using it medicinally.
The History of Medicinal CannabisAs early as 2737 B.C., the mystical Emperor Shen Neng of China was prescribing marijuana tea for the treatment of gout, rheumatism, malaria and, oddly enough, poor memory.
Bags of Doritos laying around?
It wasn’t part of the Chinese empire back then. I’d venture to say that the population was about as Chinese as the Aztecs were Spanish.
It’s be Chong’s relatives! Far out man!
Did they leave their roach clips?
And where are they now? Dead.
ROTFL! Empty Dorito bags and DNC voter registration forms.
420BCE
*puff*
unless they found a bong or a chillum they can’t surmise that it was smoked to get high.
Or a beer can pipe. We used to.
I cannot confirm that that particular plot of earth was part of the Chinese Empire at that time, but there most certainly was a thriving Chinese Empire by that time (2,500 years ago).
Regards,
...along with some spare ribs, pot stickers and a side of pork fried rice.
Oh, and oolong tea.
Funny but when you smoka the joint the tea takes oolong to finish, or even to find.
The cannabis plant was here long long before a man
Thanks fieldmarshaldj. "Now, start handing out the finger puzzles."
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