Archaeologists have uncovered evidence that cannabis use among ancient peoples was far more widespread and sophisticated than previously believed, with new discoveries pushing the origins of intentional use back thousands of years before the first cities were built. Recent findings suggest that the plant was not merely a source of fiber or food, but a central element in rituals, medicine, and spiritual practices across multiple ancient civilizations. The cannabis plant itself evolved approximately 28 million years ago on the high-altitude Tibetan Plateau, according to research by Dr. John McPartland published in the journal Vegetation History and Archaeobotany.
Using fossil pollen analysis, McPartland determined that cannabis diverged from its closest relative, the common hop, in a harsh environment with intense ultraviolet radiation. The plant developed THC not to affect humans, who did not exist yet, but as a form of biological sunscreen and chemical defense against high-altitude insects. A significant discovery came in 2008 when a team led by Dr. Yang Yimin of the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences examined the Yanghai Tombs in the Turpan Basin of Western China.
The researchers found a 2,700-year-old grave containing a high-ranking shaman buried with 789 grams of dried cannabis flowers. The flowers came exclusively from female plants carefully selected for high THC content, with seeds and leaves, the parts used for food or fiber, deliberately removed. This suggests the stash was intended for mind alteration rather than practical use. Evidence of even earlier cannabis use has been found on the Oki Islands of Japan, where archaeological excavations uncovered cannabis seeds dating to 8,000 BC during the early Jomon period.
These people were complex hunter-gatherers rather than traditional farmers, indicating that cannabis may have been among the very first plants humans brought under their control. Some researchers, including the astronomer Carl Sagan, have proposed the hemp-first hypothesis, which suggests humans settled into permanent communities not to cultivate wheat or barley but to grow hemp because of its immense utility. The Scythians, a nomadic group of horse warriors who dominated the Eurasian steppe, developed sophisticated methods of cannabis consumption. The ancient Greek historian Herodotus described how they constructed small tent-like structures, crawled inside, and threw cannabis seeds and flowers onto red-hot stones, shouting for joy as the vapor filled the enclosure.
For centuries, historians dismissed his account as exaggeration, but Soviet archaeologist Sergei Rudenko proved him right in the late 1940s. Rudenko excavated frozen tombs at Pazyryk in the Altai Mountains that had been flooded and flash frozen shortly after construction, preserving organic material for over 2,000 years. Inside the tombs, he found leather tents, bronze cauldrons, and hot stones still covered with the charred residue of cannabis. The Scythians had discovered that stones could radiate heat evenly, allowing them to vaporize the active compounds without fully burning the plant material, essentially creating the world’s first vaporizer.
In 2020, researchers analyzing an 8th century BC altar at a shrine in Tel Arad, Israel, found a mixture of cannabis and animal dung in the residue. The dung was used as fuel to maintain a low, consistent temperature, while the cannabis produced smoke. The site was a holy sanctuary dedicated to the God of the Bible, suggesting that for the ancient Israelites, cannabis was not a drug in the modern sense but a sacred incense used to facilitate connection with the divine. Ancient Chinese texts also document extensive medicinal use of the plant.
The Shennong Bencao Jing, often cited as the world’s oldest pharmacopoeia, credits the legendary emperor Shennong with discovering the healing properties of cannabis around 2700 BC. The text prescribed it for absent-mindedness, constipation, and other ailments. By the 2nd century AD, the surgeon Hua Tuo reportedly used a mixture of cannabis and wine called ma fei san as a general anesthetic, allowing him to perform complex abdominal surgeries. His formula was lost after his execution, and effective anesthesia would not emerge for another 1,600 years.
The biological reason cannabis affects humans was discovered in the late 1980s and early 1990s, when researchers including Dr. Alan Howlett and Dr. William Devane identified the endocannabinoid system in the human brain. This network of receptors, called CB1 and CB2, is more numerous than any other receptor system in the brain.
Humans also produce their own internal version of THC, the first of which was named anandamide after the Sanskrit word for supreme bliss. The plant produces molecules that fit into these existing receptors, meaning cannabis use supplements a system already present in human biology rather than hacking it. The modern prohibition of cannabis represents a tiny fraction of its history with humans. For nearly 12,000 years, the plant served as a tool of survival and spirituality across cultures.
In the early 20th century, the versatility of hemp posed a threat to emerging paper, plastic, and synthetic fiber industries. Political figures in the United States, including Harry Anslinger, used fear of the plant to marginalize immigrant and minority communities, rebranding it with the single term marijuana and portraying it as a dangerous substance. The reason prohibition failed, according to researchers, is that it attempted to fight millions of years of coevolution between humans and the plant. The biological connection is embedded in human receptor systems developed long before the first mammoth was hunted.
As global re-legalization spreads, many researchers note that society is returning to what was historically the normal state of human interaction with cannabis, reclaiming a relationship that ancient peoples considered natural. The archaeological record indicates there was likely no single moment when humans first smoked cannabis, no one person who discovered its effects and changed the course of history. Instead, it was a gradual process unfolding across generations as different cultures independently recognized the plant’s value.
The plant spread across continents alongside humans, who nurtured it as it evolved to become more potent, receiving in return the fibers to build and sail ocean-going vessels and the altered states that shaped religious and spiritual traditions.
