A Siberian princely tomb pushes psychoactive cannabis evidence back 2,800 years

A University of Bern-led team found more than a thousand cannabis seeds in the Tunnug 1 princely tomb in Tuva, southern Siberia, and molecular traces associated with psychoactive cannabis in human hair preserved by permafrost. The burial dates to roughly the eighth century BCE and included extensive horse and possible human sacrifice. Published in Science, the authors argue that plant remains and human soft tissue in the same tomb provide the earliest directly dated evidence of psychoactive cannabis use, about 300 years earlier than a previous find in western China. Seeds alone could also have supplied oil or fiber, and an independent forensic expert disputes whether the hair analysis excludes contamination from the burial environment. The finding is therefore strong evidence, not a complete reconstruction of consumption route or dose.