BERN, Switzerland — Researchers studying a nearly 2,800-year-old tomb in southern Siberia found roughly 1,000 cannabis seeds and chemical traces preserved in human hair, which they call the oldest directly dated archaeological evidence of people using cannabis for its intoxicating effects, the University of Bern said in a release carried by ScienceDaily.
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The find
The international team, led by Dr. Gino Caspari of the University of Bern and the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, examined an elaborate tomb in the Republic of Tyva belonging to prominent members of the Scythian culture, the release said. The burial also showed evidence of elaborate rituals and animal sacrifices.
Why it is hard to prove
Flowers, leaves and resins tend to decompose, and ancient people also used cannabis for fiber and oil, so separating those uses from intoxication is difficult, the release said. The team used preserved seeds and chemical traces in hair to address that.
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