Siberian Burial Mound Holds Earliest Known Sign of Humans Getting High

Researchers working in Siberia say they have found the oldest known evidence of people using cannabis for its psychoactive effects. The discovery comes from a monumental burial structure in the Uyuk Valley, part of Russia's Republic of Tyva, a region that borders Mongolia.

Instead of leaning only on scraps of plant material, the archaeologists examined braids of hair found on the bodies inside the mound. Hair can hold chemical traces of substances a person took in, which makes it a handy time capsule for habits that would otherwise vanish from the historical record. In this case, the analysis pointed toward cannabis consumption aimed at getting high, rather than the plant's more everyday uses as a source of fiber or food.

That distinction matters. Cannabis has been tied to human societies for a very long time, and hemp shows up often in the story of early textiles and farming. Pinning down when people first sought out the plant for its intoxicating qualities is a harder puzzle, since smoke, seeds and residue don't always reveal why someone was using it. Biological evidence taken directly from the people involved gives researchers firmer footing.

The setting adds another layer. A large, carefully built burial monument suggests the people interred there held some importance in their community, which hints that cannabis may have played a role in ritual or ceremony rather than casual use. That is an interpretation, not a settled conclusion, and further study will likely refine the picture.

Still, for anyone who enjoys cannabis today, it's a neat reminder that the urge to alter consciousness with this plant stretches far back in human history, and that the landscapes of Central Asia may have been an early stage for that long relationship.