Scientists say cannabis was probably used during burial ceremonies, perhaps as a way to communicate with the divine or the dead.
Cannabis has been cultivated as a crop for millennia, but there's been little historical or archeological evidence showing when humans began to use the plant for what it's best known for today: getting high.
However, an excavation of a 2,500-year-old tomb in western China has revealed the earliest clear evidence of humans using cannabis for its psychoactive properties.Scientists from China and Germany analyzed wooden fragments and burnt stones from pots in the tombs, and the results showed an exact match to the chemical signature of cannabis -- particularly that with a high amount of tetrahydrocannabinol , the most potent psychoactive agent in the plant.
The authors said that cannabis plants produce greater quantities of active compounds when they grow at higher elevations, and this may be why more potent plants had been discovered -- and a new use initiated -- by people living in high mountainous regions like the Pamirs. Although the region is remote today, it may once have sat on the Silk Road, a key trade route.
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