New Study Suggests Our 2500-Year-Old Ancestors Were Smoking Super Strong Weed

It’s pretty well known that cannabis has a long history of human use. What we didn’t know was just how far back the connection between man and maal goes.

Researchers recently identified strains of cannabis burned in mortuary rituals as early as 500 BC in the Pamir mountains in China. We don’t know what these dudes were up to, but it was definitely some tripped out fuckery.

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According to the study published in Science Advances, the residue had chemical signatures that indicated high levels of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive compound in marijuana.

While cannabis stems and seeds had previously been found at a few burial sites around Eurasia, these new findings expand the geographical range of cannabis use within the broader Central Asian region.

Yeah, the whole world was going green in a big way.

Hiplatina

Mark Merlin, a professor of botany at the University of Hawaii, said,

The fact that psychoactive ancient residue has been documented in laboratory testing is the key new finding.

He proposed that it was used to facilitate the body’s communication with the afterlife (and probably have a pretty nice time while doing it).

Mourners appear to have created smoke by placing hot stones in wooden braziers and laying cannabis plants into it. The residue was found on the insides of 10 braziers and on stones exhumed from eight tombs in the 2500-year-old Jirzankal Cemetery.

Nytimes

The higher THC levels suggest that people might have been actively cultivating stronger cannabis specimens. And then they were sitting in mountains, getting high, and talking to spirits. It was basically Kasol.