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Ancient Pot
Stash of 2,700 years old marijuana found in tomb in Gobi Desert
No, we are not talking about a ceramic object but an ancient stash of marijuana. It was found in a Yanghai tomb in the Gobi Desert near Turpan in northwestern China. The cache consisted of 789g (28oz) of dried cannabis contained in a leather basket and in a wooden bowl. It was around 2,700 years old but had been preserved due to extremely dry conditions and alkaline soil. It looked green, although it had lost its distinctive odour. Remnants of cannabis have been found elsewhere in the ancient world (such as Egypt), but the helpful con ditions in which this cache was found has allowed it to be the oldest so far that could be subjected to carbon dating and genetic analysis. It was also found to have a relatively high content of THC, the main active ingredient in cannabis. An attempt to germinate 100 of the seeds was unsuccessful.
In the past, those sceptical of the mind-altering use of cannabis in prehistory have claimed (somewhat disingenuously) that it was only used for making rope, fabric and so forth, but they can’t get away with that this time. This Chinese sample was clearly “cultivated for psychoactive purposes”, a paper in the peer-reviewed Journal of Experimental Botany states. “To our knowledge, these investigations provide the oldest documentation of cannabis as a pharmacologically active agent,” wrote the paper’s lead author, American neurologist Dr Ethan B Russo. It could not be determined whether the cannabis was smoked or ingested, because there were no pipes or other clues.
Perhaps the strangest aspect of this find is that the cannabis was uncovered in the tomb of a light-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian man, not an Asiatic person. He would have been a member of the somewhat curious Cheshi clan, a group of nomadic people of Indo-European origin who inhabited the region. The tomb also contained bridles, archery equipment and a harp, confirming the 45-year-old man’s high status. The researchers assume he had been a shaman.
Another intriguing side issue regarding this case is that a British laboratory that monitors crop quality for producing Sativex (a cannabis-based medicine approved in Canada) was used to conduct the tests on the cannabis find, but it took months to cut through the red tape hindering the entry of the sample into Britain from China – a perfect cameo showing how eccentric our modern Western attitudes to mind-altering drugs are compared with our ancestors. It is now confirmed that our politic ians who endlessly claim that more tests on cannabis are required, and insist on categor ising it as a dangerous drug, are not only going against the recommendations of their own panels of experts but also the long testimony of history.
Toronto Star/Canadian Press, 27 Nov; Salem-News.com, 28 Nov; MX News (Brisbane), 2 Dec; Austin News/KXAN.com, 3 Dec 2008.
Source: http://www.forteantimes.com/strangedays/archaeology/1618/ancient_pot.html
Stash of 2,700 years old marijuana found in tomb in Gobi Desert
No, we are not talking about a ceramic object but an ancient stash of marijuana. It was found in a Yanghai tomb in the Gobi Desert near Turpan in northwestern China. The cache consisted of 789g (28oz) of dried cannabis contained in a leather basket and in a wooden bowl. It was around 2,700 years old but had been preserved due to extremely dry conditions and alkaline soil. It looked green, although it had lost its distinctive odour. Remnants of cannabis have been found elsewhere in the ancient world (such as Egypt), but the helpful con ditions in which this cache was found has allowed it to be the oldest so far that could be subjected to carbon dating and genetic analysis. It was also found to have a relatively high content of THC, the main active ingredient in cannabis. An attempt to germinate 100 of the seeds was unsuccessful.
In the past, those sceptical of the mind-altering use of cannabis in prehistory have claimed (somewhat disingenuously) that it was only used for making rope, fabric and so forth, but they can’t get away with that this time. This Chinese sample was clearly “cultivated for psychoactive purposes”, a paper in the peer-reviewed Journal of Experimental Botany states. “To our knowledge, these investigations provide the oldest documentation of cannabis as a pharmacologically active agent,” wrote the paper’s lead author, American neurologist Dr Ethan B Russo. It could not be determined whether the cannabis was smoked or ingested, because there were no pipes or other clues.
Perhaps the strangest aspect of this find is that the cannabis was uncovered in the tomb of a light-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian man, not an Asiatic person. He would have been a member of the somewhat curious Cheshi clan, a group of nomadic people of Indo-European origin who inhabited the region. The tomb also contained bridles, archery equipment and a harp, confirming the 45-year-old man’s high status. The researchers assume he had been a shaman.
Another intriguing side issue regarding this case is that a British laboratory that monitors crop quality for producing Sativex (a cannabis-based medicine approved in Canada) was used to conduct the tests on the cannabis find, but it took months to cut through the red tape hindering the entry of the sample into Britain from China – a perfect cameo showing how eccentric our modern Western attitudes to mind-altering drugs are compared with our ancestors. It is now confirmed that our politic ians who endlessly claim that more tests on cannabis are required, and insist on categor ising it as a dangerous drug, are not only going against the recommendations of their own panels of experts but also the long testimony of history.
Toronto Star/Canadian Press, 27 Nov; Salem-News.com, 28 Nov; MX News (Brisbane), 2 Dec; Austin News/KXAN.com, 3 Dec 2008.
Source: http://www.forteantimes.com/strangedays/archaeology/1618/ancient_pot.html
