One of Humanity’s Oldest Drug Habits
24 Articles
24 Articles
Two skeletons found in Sulawesi, Indonesia, show dental wear pattern compatible with the habit of roer areca nuts. They are the oldest traces of the world of drug use.
Berliner Morgenpost
Two skeletal findings on Sulawesi show that people used psychoactive substances 25,000 years ago – much earlier than long thought.
Scientists have found evidence that humans were using mind-altering herbal substances long before the advent of agriculture, and traces of it are literally etched into the teeth of our ancestors.
Until now, the first evidence of psychoactive substances was from the Neolithic or Bronze Age. But an analysis of bones found in Indonesia reveals, as detailed in Sinc, that it was earlier than estimated since groups of collectors took, 25,000 years ago, areca nut, one of the most important
Scientists made the discovery after examining strange grooves in the teeth of two prehistoric hunter-gatherers. The deep grooves were caused by regular sucking on betel nuts (Areca catechu), likely to relieve toothache, according to the study, published in the journal Science Advances.
People on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi may have been regularly consuming psychoactive nuts as early as 25,000 years ago, according to analysis of the teeth of two hunter-gatherers, which showed unusual wear and traces of a psychoactive substance. The researchers say this could be the oldest known evidence of human drug use, The Guardian reported.
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