Scythian burial in Siberia yields earliest direct evidence of cannabis use

A burial mound with seeds and hair

Researchers led by Gino Caspari of the University of Bern studied Tunnug 1, a burial mound about 2,800 years old in the Uyuk Valley of Tuva in southern Siberia. Excavators found cannabis seeds in wooden burial chambers and near the buried people. Reported counts differ by outlet: watson gives more than 1,400 whole seeds, eldiario about 1,481 seeds and fragments, and the Washington Post 1,000 seeds.

The decisive evidence came from human hair taken from the grave. Mass spectrometry found cannabinol, which forms when THC, the compound that produces the high, is exposed to air, heat or light. In the study published in the journal Science on Thursday, 5 November, the researchers wrote that plant remains and chemical traces together strongly suggest the people consumed cannabis. Accidental intake cannot be fully ruled out, but the findings point to deliberate use for its psychoactive effect.

Caspari, the study's lead author, said in an email how rare such work is:

“One does not very often get to drug test a person who has been dead for nearly 3,000 years.”

Burial rituals and sacrifice

Earlier digs at the site uncovered the remains of as many as 18 horses and at least one human, suggesting that a sacrifice took place there. The researchers believe cannabis played a part in the funerary rites. The plant may have been smoked or consumed in another way, and it may have been used to calm people taking part in the rituals. Caspari said it might have been beneficial to sedate some of the victims before harm came to them, though he added that this cannot be proven. The team also cannot exclude use as incense, but in its view the chemical traces in the hair show that the psychoactive substances entered the body.

Dating and earlier evidence

Radiocarbon dating of the seeds places their deposition in the first decade of the 8th century BC, which makes the find about 2,800 years old. Earlier graves in the Altai and Pamir mountains had already yielded cannabis seeds and vessels containing burnt plant residue, pointing to ritual use. Cannabis was cultivated in East Asia at least 6,000 years ago, but the origins of its consumption remain poorly understood because plant remains decay easily.

The Scythians, a nomadic people who roamed the Eurasian steppes on horseback, lived from the ninth to the third century BC according to the New York Times. Herodotus, a Greek historian writing in the 4th century BC, described them throwing cannabis seeds onto red-hot stones.

“It smoulders and sends forth so much steam that no Greek vapour-bath could surpass it.”

Expert views and open questions

Mans Schepers, a lecturer in archaeobotany at the University of Groningen, called the find a spectacular discovery. He noted that archaeologists have often found cannabis, but seldom shown that people used it for its psychoactive effect. Quentin Bourgeois, professor of archaeology at Leiden University, said cannabis was probably part of rites in which other people were sacrificed alongside the dead, and that old written sources suggest it may have worked as a calming agent.

Herodotus also described the Scythians burning cannabis inside closed tents to get high, but archaeologists have found no hard evidence for this yet. A grave in Mongolia, not far from the Siberian site, contained tent-setting equipment, a bag of cannabis seeds and a fire basket, which Schepers called a possible clue. He added that the cannabis from the mound was the cultivated variety. Because the plant had been domesticated thousands of years earlier in other regions, he said the Scythians must have obtained it rather than gathered it in the wild.