New Archeological Evidence of Cannabis Use in Ancient Civilizations

Posted June 28, 2018

CANNABIS CULTURE Ã¢â‚¬â€œÃ‚Â Two major archeological announcements were made in April 2018 regarding the fascinating and widespread history of Cannabis in the ancient world.

Archeological evidence forÃ‚Â fibre cannabis goes back tens of thousands of years, and evidence of its use as a ritual fumigant dates back more than 5,000 years ago. Two new archeological studies have been released further testifying to its use as a ritual intoxicant in both the Mid East and France.

The April 20th issue of Science, Vol 360, Issue 6386, contains the story,Ã‚Â Cannabis, opium use part of ancient Near Eastern cultures:

For as long as there has been civilization, there have been mind-altering drugs. Alcohol has been around for at least 10,000 years, but recent advances in chemical analysis of old pots reveal that other psychoactive drugs were present at the dawn of the first complex societies some 5000 years ago in the ancient Middle East. Ancient people from Turkey to Egypt experimented with local substances such as blue water lily, while imports like cannabis and opium made from poppies spread through early international trade networks. Armed with the new data, archaeologists are probing just how these drugs impacted early societies and beliefs. Some argue that the impact of these psychoactive substances has been underestimated, and that a drug culture was central to ritual in Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Egypt, and the Levant.

Unfortunately the full article is not available online, but an interview with the author can be found here:

Armed with new data, archaeologists are revealing that mind-altering drugs were present at the dawn of the first complex societies some 5000 years ago in the ancient Middle East. Contributing writer Andrew Lawler joins Sarah Crespi to discuss the evidence for these drugs and how they might have impacted early societies and beliefs.