Drugs before farming: Humans were getting high 25,000 years ago
Archaeological findings in Indonesia suggest that humans were using betel nuts for psychoactive effects as early as 25,000 years ago. Chemical analysis of ancient teeth revealed traces of arecoline, indicating that habitual drug use predates the invention of farming.
Why it matters
This discovery challenges previous timelines regarding human cultural evolution and the history of substance use.
Humans may have been using mind-altering substances much earlier than previously thought.New evidence from Indonesia suggests hunter-gatherers were getting a mild “high” from betel nuts as far back as 25,000 years ago, thousands of years before farming even began.Researchers from Griffith University, working with Indonesian archaeologists, found evidence of habitual betel nut use in the teeth of ancient people from Sulawesi.The findings, published in Science Advances, could represent the earliest known evidence of habitual drug use.
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