The earliest known instance of cannabis use by humans was 2,500 years ago
Great to have you with us once more for another exciting episode of Plain English, the best podcast for learning English through current events. I’m Jeff; JR is the producer; and this is episode 166, which, I’m sure you know by now, means you can find the episode transcript at PlainEnglish.com/166. A full, word-for-word transcript with interactive translations on the web site. PlainEnglish.com/166.
Coming up on today’s episode: archaeologists have discovered the earliest confirmed instance of humans using marijuana for its mind-altering properties. It was 2,500 years ago and is thought to be involved in a burial ritual. Later on in the program, I’ll show you the two ways to use the English phrasal verb “pin down,” and we’ll close with a quote of the week.
Before we get started, if you like listening to podcasts, then you’ll love listening to audiobooks. You can listen to books in English or your own language—a great companion for those long commutes in your car or on a bus, or however you get from place to place. For a free audiobook from Audible, visit PlainEnglish.com/book.
First use of marijuana discovered in western China
It’s quite the hot topic in public policy circles: should marijuana use be legal? In fact, it’s such a hot topic that we talked about it here twice, back in Episode 18 and then again in Episode 98. Canada, Uruguay, and certain states here in the US, have legalized it; other countries like New Zealand and Mexico have been talking about it in recent years. But did you know that humans have been using cannabis for thousands of years? In fact, according to archaeologists, cannabis use has been around for over 2,500 years. That’s the upshot from a new discovery high up in the Pamir mountains in western China.
A team of archeologists, led by Meng Reng of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has discovered the earliest evidence of cannabis use by humans. The team discovered ten burnt offering bowls at the Jirzankal Cemetery in western China. The bowls were wooden pots with stones on the inside and are thought to have been part of a burial ceremony—a funeral, basically—more than 2,500 years ago. The scientists believe that ancient people placed the cannabis leaves together with hot stones and inhaled the smoke that resulted.
When the archaeologists analyzed the bowls for residue, they were surprised to discover evidence of burned cannabis. I couldn’t help but wonder how exactly they found cannabis on something that’s thousands of years old. It turns out that there’s a process—a scientific process—called gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. I was curious what exactly this means, so I went to the Wikipedia entry and didn’t understand a single thing in the description! I did a little more digging and I think I know what this is, at a high level. They basically turn a sample—in this case, the residue found on the offering bowls—into a vapor, a gas. And then they can mix it with other gasses to isolate the exact chemical components of a substance. This is entirely over my head, but let’s just say they can take a small sample of residue and figure out the exact chemical contents of that residue.
This is not the first time cannabis has been identified in the ancient world. Archaeologists have seen evidence of the cannabis plant in even earlier societies, but this is the earliest and most solid evidence of the use of cannabis for its mind-altering effects.
How do they know that these early humans used it for mind-altering effects, like we use it today? Tetrahydrocannibol, or THC for short, is the main hallucinogenic compound in cannabis. That’s the chemical in the plant that causes the mind-altering effects in humans when we consume it. And the residue that the archaeologists found had higher levels of THC than what is typically found in wild-growing marijuana plants. There are two possible explanations. One is simply that the THC content of naturally-growing cannabis plants was higher due to the altitude in the Pamir mountains. The other, more interesting, possibility is that the people cultivated marijuana plants that had higher levels of THC, and therefore greater psychoactive effects. Either way, there is a strong indication that early humans understood the psychoactive effects of cannabis and used it for that purpose.
Marijuana consumption in the Fifth Century BC was quite a bit different from what it is now. Early humans, at least those in the mountainous regions of Central Asia, did not use pipes or joints to smoke dried marijuana leaves. Instead, scientists believe that smoking marijuana was done in a communal setting, where the plants were burned in a central location and everyone would gather around to inhale the smoke together. They would do this on important occasions, like burials or other religious ceremonies. The researchers also found musical instruments at the cemetery, alongside the offering bowls.
Scientists generally agree that cannabis originated in Central Asia and they think that the plant was cultivated there, but it’s hard to establish too much more from the existing evidence. How cannabis was consumed, and whether early humans used the plant for its psychoactive effects, is up for debate. For example, it could have been used as food or as medicine. It’s very difficult to pin down exactly how it was used, unless you have the kind of direct evidence that the researchers recently uncovered. The recent discovery tells us, then, that at least in this region, and at least at this time, people were burning cannabis leaves with high levels of THC as part of a ceremony.
The interesting thing about this time and place is that trade routes around Europe and Asia were starting to open up. The so-called Silk Road connected Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. Plants, animals, and valuable minerals were being traded between cultures and continents, so this could have been one of the ways that cannabis spread from its early home in Central Asia to the rest of the world.
The amazing thing about this audience is that I know there are people who know what gas chromatography-mass spectrometry is. Can we just agree to call it GS-MS from now on? There are people who listen from all walks of life, including a lot of scientists, so I know there are people out there who are familiar with GS-MS, which is just great. The best audience in the world, someone once said, and that’s exactly right.
A couple of quick hellos to listeners. I got a note from what is probably the most exotic location of all the Plain English listeners. Nissawou is from Togo originally but now listening in the Ivory Coast; two countries in western Africa. We get some listeners in Africa, but not nearly as many as from the other parts of the world, so I wanted to recognize Nissawou for representing the great continent of Africa in our audience. And speaking of exotic, Alexander from the Maldives said hi last month—that’s pretty exotic, too. Also, hello to Christian, who is from Brazil but living in Japan; Nádia from Rio de Janiero; Pedro from Salvador, Brazil; and Moshe from Israel. I love hearing from listeners, especially your voice messages. It’s a lot of fun to get to know you all that way. I’ll give the WhatsApp number later in the show.
Audiobooks are a great way to listen to English, and Audible has thousands and thousands of audiobooks in English and in other languages, too. The Harry Potter books are a lot of fun—they’re all on there. Business books, self-help books, and of course fiction. If you’ve never tried an audiobook before, give it a shot. It’s free with a 30-day free trial to Audible. Just go to PlainEnglish.com/book to get started. Audible is a subscription service, so you pay each month for access to one new audiobook a month. However, if you just want to try them out, the first month is free. And in that first month, you can download a book and keep it forever. Best of all, you can slow down the speed on the Audible app if you need to. PlainEnglish.com/book .
Great stories make learning English fun
