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25,000-Year-Old Teeth Reveal Psychedelic Nut Habit
9 Sep
Summary
- Ancient Indonesian foragers may have used psychoactive nuts 25,000 years ago.
- Skeletal teeth show extreme wear and traces of a mind-altering substance.
- This discovery represents the earliest known evidence of human drug use.
What may be the earliest known evidence for human drug taking has been traced to ancient Indonesian foragers who sucked on mind-altering nuts as long as 25,000 years ago. Analysis of two exceptionally rare skeletons from the Indonesian island of Sulawesi revealed dramatic tooth wear and traces of a psychoactive substance in the individuals' remaining teeth, suggesting they routinely sucked on hard, abrasive betel nuts.
These foragers, who lived between 16,000 and 25,000 years ago, exhibited deep grooves in their teeth. Researchers suspect this wear resulted from habitually holding betel nuts in their mouths before the practice of mixing them with slaked lime was common. Analysis confirmed the presence of the psychoactive compound arecoline in the teeth tissues.
This discovery pushes back the timeline for the known use of psychoactive substances significantly. While other traditions of drug use are thought to have arisen around 13,000 years ago, these findings point to a much earlier origin, potentially linked to traditional remedies for toothache that inadvertently caused severe dental damage.
