Scientists Discover The Earliest Known Evidence of Cannabis Use In China

Scientists Discover The Earliest Known Evidence Of Ancient Cannabis Use In China

The silk road might be the most famous trade route in history. The silk road was actually a series of trade routes that allowed the empires of the time like the Romans, Han Dynasty, and Parthians to trade goods and ideas through ancient Asia around the beginning of the common era (around 2,500 years ago). Apparently, travelers were trading more than spices, they may have been trading different strains of cannabis. Scientists uncovered a Jirzankal burial site containing trace amounts of cannabis with unordinary amounts of THC. This is the earliest known evidence of ancient cannabis use involving the psychoactive chemical that gets you stoned.

Other sites were discovered containing cannabis with no THC, otherwise known as hemp. Hemp has always been used to make a litany of different products like oils, rope, and clothes. Finding evidence of thousand-year-old hot boxes gives us important clues of our ancestors every day lives. And guess what? They liked getting high too.

Common era stoners on the Silk Road didn’t have joint papers or glass to blaze up with, so what did they use? They used wooden boxes called braziers to burn the cannabis and the smoke would completely fill the shelter for all to enjoy. This evidence also tells us something important about the cannabis itself.

Cannabis with high THC points to strain hybridization. Breeding the original landrace over and over is what gave us the plethora of cannabis genetics we see today. It’s possible that the Jurzankal knew how to breed and grow strains with high THC, but that’s completely speculative. What’s more likely is they learned how to select strains growing in the wild that yielded psychedelic effects.

Other Forms of Ancient Cannabis Use

Rogue scholars like Carl Ruck have been suggesting for years that many ancient societies like the Greeks and the first Christians used cannabis-infused drinks and oils in religious rituals. Discoveries like the THC filled braziers on the Pamir Plateau of Central-Asia give credence to Ruck and his colleges’ theories.