Chapter 3, 2000 BCE – 500 CE, 12 min read
Smoke and Spirit: Cannabis in the Ancient World
The strongest early evidence of cannabis used for its effects dates to about 800–500 BCE, from the Pamirs to Judah. See each find rated by confidence.
By Professor High · Updated
- 1 Before People 28 million years ago – 10,000 BCE
- 2 First Farmers 10,000 – 2000 BCE
- 3 Smoke and Spirit 2000 BCE – 500 CE
- 4 Hashish and Hemp 500 – 1800
- 5 The Medicine Cabinet 1800 – 1900
- 6 Prohibition 1900 – 1961
- 7 Underground 1961 – 1995
- 8 The Great Reversal 1996 – November 2026
The strongest early evidence that people used cannabis for its effects, not only for rope and food, dates from about 800 to 500 BCE. It comes from graves and shrines in western China, the Pamir Mountains, and Judah. The Siberian finds are weaker. The famous older stories do not survive a check. No emperor wrote a cannabis medicine book in 2737 BCE. No verse in Exodus names the plant for sure. The mummy tests that claimed cannabis in Egypt are in doubt.
This chapter covers 2000 BCE to 500 CE. Earlier chapters followed the plant as a crop: seeds, fiber, and cord (Chapter 2 tells that story). Around the 800s BCE, the record changes. Seeds sit beside burned stones. Chemists find THC breakdown products in charred wood. A Greek writer describes a steam bath that sounds like a party.
Three kinds of evidence carry the chapter. Plant remains show that cannabis was present. Chemical residues show that someone burned or ate it. Texts show what people said about it. No single kind proves a high, and a text can be wrong. So every placard below carries a confidence meter, and the myth cards say plainly what fails.
Who buried cannabis with the dead in western China?
Start with a tomb near Turpan, in Xinjiang. Excavators at the Yanghai Tombs found a man they call a shaman, judging by the ritual objects in his grave. Near his head and feet lay a leather basket and a wooden bowl filled with cannabis shoots, leaves, and seeds (Ren et al. 2019). Climate and burial conditions kept the plants in superb shape (Russo et al. 2008).
A team led by Hong-En Jiang dated the cache by radiocarbon and confirmed that the plant was cannabis. They assumed the plant served ritual or medical needs (Jiang et al. 2006). Two years later, Ethan Russo and colleagues ran chemical and DNA tests. They found THC, its breakdown product CBN, and the gene for the enzyme that makes THC. They called it the oldest documentation of cannabis as a pharmacologically active agent (Russo et al. 2008).
The two papers disagree on the tomb’s age. Jiang’s team says 2,500 years. Russo’s team says 2,700 years. Both numbers land between the 7th and 5th centuries BCE, so this chapter says “roughly 700 to 500 BCE.”
c. 700–500 BCE (papers say 2,500 and 2,700 years old), Yanghai Tombs, Turpan Basin, Xinjiang, China
A shaman's grave holds a cannabis cache
A man buried at Yanghai lay beside a basket and bowl of cannabis shoots, leaves, and seeds. Tests found THC and its breakdown product CBN. The authors judge the plant ritual or medical; the grave does not show how it was used.
Sources (3)
- Jiang et al. 2006, Journal of Ethnopharmacology: A new insight into Cannabis sativa (Cannabaceae) utilization from 2500-year-old Yanghai Tombs, Xinjiang, China
- Russo et al. 2008, Journal of Experimental Botany: Phytochemical and genetic analyses of ancient cannabis from Central Asia
- Ren et al. 2019, Science Advances: The origins of cannabis smoking: Chemical residue evidence from the first millennium BCE in the Pamirs
The bowl matters. It shows wear from long use as a mortar, which suggests someone ground the cannabis before use. Nothing in the tomb shows that anyone burned or smoked it, so the plant may have been eaten or drunk (Ren et al. 2019). The grave proves that cannabis mattered to this man. It does not say how. In the same Turpan area, a grave at the Jiayi Cemetery held a burial shroud made of 13 dried cannabis plants. Ren’s team says new finds of ritual cannabis use in western China are well documented. The Jiayi shroud is one of them.
Now climb into the Pamir Mountains. At the Jirzankal Cemetery, mourners raised round mounds ringed with stones and laid long strips of black and white pebbles across the ground. In eight tombs, archaeologists found ten wooden braziers, each holding stones with clear burn marks. Three braziers were carved from juniper, a wood that gives off a sharp, turpentine-like perfume when it burns. The site was in use 2,400 to 2,600 years ago.
Meng Ren and colleagues scraped the charred crust from the braziers and ran gas chromatography–mass spectrometry. All but one of the inner surfaces carried the chemical signature of cannabinol (CBN). Heat, light, and air turn THC into CBN. The outer walls, used as a control, held no cannabinoids. The braziers also showed no sign of CBD, the non-intoxicating cannabinoid that wild plants usually carry beside THC. The team argues that the burned plants held more THC than typical wild cannabis. They suggest mourners laid cannabis on hot stones in the braziers, and that the smoke belonged to the burial rite itself (Ren et al. 2019).
c. 500 BCE (cemetery used 2,400–2,600 years ago), Jirzankal Cemetery, Pamir Mountains, Xinjiang, China
Cannabis burned in wooden braziers at funerals
Ten wooden braziers from eight tombs held burned stones. Chemists found cannabinol, a THC breakdown product, on all but one inner surface and none outside. The team reads this as ritual cannabis smoking with high-THC plants.
Select a numbered point on the artifact.
One limit stays in place. No seeds, leaves, or flowers remained in any brazier. The plant is gone; only its chemistry survives. The step from “CBN” to “high-THC plants” is the authors’ inference, and one study is all we have so far.
What did Herodotus see on the steppe?
In the 5th century BCE, the Greek writer Herodotus wrote about the Scythians, horse nomads of the Eurasian steppe. He describes what they did after a burial. They cleansed themselves under a tent of mats stretched over three poles. Here is his account of the hemp, in A. D. Godley’s 1920 translation (Histories 4.75, Perseus Digital Library):
The Scythians then take the seed of this hemp and, crawling in under the mats, throw it on the red-hot stones, where it smoulders and sends forth such fumes that no Greek vapor-bath could surpass it. The Scythians howl in their joy at the vapor-bath.
Herodotus adds that hemp grows in Scythian country, “very like flax, except that the hemp is much thicker and taller,” and that the Thracians weave it into cloth that looks like linen (Histories 4.74). Classicist James Butrica notes that cannabis seems to have been largely unknown to Greeks in the 5th century BCE. Herodotus gives the earliest mention of it in Greek literature (Butrica 2002).
5th century BCE (Histories 4.73–75), Scythian lands north of the Black Sea, as Herodotus describes them
Herodotus describes the Scythian hemp vapor bath
Herodotus writes that Scythians threw hemp seed on red-hot stones under mats and howled with joy at the fumes. It is the earliest Greek mention of cannabis. The text names seed, which carries the least THC of any plant part.
Sources (4)
- Herodotus, Histories 4.75 (A. D. Godley translation), Perseus
- Herodotus, Histories 4.74 (Godley), Perseus
- Butrica 2002, Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics: The Medical Use of Cannabis Among the Greeks and Romans
- Ren et al. 2019, Science Advances: The origins of cannabis smoking: Chemical residue evidence from the first millennium BCE in the Pamirs
Did the archaeology agree? In part, yes. In the late 1940s, Sergei Rudenko opened frozen burial mounds at Pazyryk, in the Altai Mountains. In barrow 2, his team found a small wooden tent frame, copper vessels holding burned stones and charred hemp seeds, and a leather pouch of cannabis seeds, coriander, and yellow sweet clover (Ren et al. 2019). Newer dating puts barrow 2 at 300 to 290 BCE, younger than Rudenko’s original dates (University of Washington Silk Road Seattle, on the Hermitage collection).
c. 300 BCE (barrow 2 dated 300–290 BCE; Ren 2019 gives ca. 500 BCE), Pazyryk valley, Altai Mountains, Russia
A frozen tomb holds a tent frame and burned hemp seeds
In Pazyryk barrow 2, archaeologists found a small tent frame, copper vessels with burned stones and charred hemp seeds, and a pouch of cannabis seed, coriander, and sweet clover. The set echoes Herodotus. It does not prove anyone got high.
The match is close, but a puzzle remains. Seeds carry the least THC of any part of the plant, according to Ren and colleagues. The Jirzankal braziers held no seed at all. So what did the Scythians burn, and what did Herodotus hear about? Maybe they burned more than seed. Maybe a Greek writer got a detail wrong. The sources cannot settle it. Ren’s team also points out one difference: Herodotus puts the tent after the burial as a cleansing, while the Pamir smoke belonged to the burial itself.
On November 5, 2026, a new paper added a bold claim. Gino Caspari and colleagues report more than 1,000 cannabis seeds from the Tunnug 1 burial mound in the Uyuk Valley of Tuva, Siberia, dated to about 2,800 years ago. They also found compounds from the plant in human hair from the tomb. They call it the earliest direct evidence of cannabis use (Science, 2026).
Outside experts split. Volker Auwaerter, a forensic toxicologist at the University Medical Center Freiburg, calls the hair analysis “scientifically weak.” He says buried hair could pick up traces from cannabis lying beside it. Elisa Guerra Doce of the University of Valladolid says hair testing is not new in archaeology and has been used to identify drug use, and credits the authors for showing that cannabis was consumed, not only left as an offering (Associated Press). Treat Tunnug 1 as a promising lead, not a settled fact.
c. 2,800 years ago (c. 800 BCE); published 5 November 2026, Tunnug 1 burial mound, Uyuk Valley, Tuva, Russia
Seeds and hair in a Siberian tomb: disputed proof of use
Researchers report over 1,000 cannabis seeds and plant compounds in human hair from a monumental tomb. They call it the earliest direct evidence of cannabis use. One toxicologist calls the hair analysis weak; another expert defends the method.
You may have seen a viral claim about Scythian solid-gold bongs. The gold vessels from a Caucasus kurgan held opium and cannabis residue, but no one reports that they were water pipes. Our history of the bong goes through that find step by step.
Did a shrine in Judah burn cannabis at Arad?
Move to the southern border of the kingdom of Judah, in today’s Israel. A fortress at Tel Arad held a small shrine. Yohanan Aharoni’s team uncovered it in the 1960s. At the door of its inner room lay two limestone altars, with a black crust on top. Tests in the late 1960s could not identify the crust (Science News, 2020).
In 2020, Eran Arie, Baruch Rosen, and Dvory Namdar tested the crust again with modern methods. The smaller altar, about 40 centimeters high, carried THC, CBD, and CBN. They found animal dung mixed in, which would let the cannabis burn at low heat. The larger altar, about 50 centimeters high, carried markers of frankincense and animal fat (Arie, Rosen, and Namdar 2020). The shrine dates to about 750 to 715 BCE (Taylor & Francis press release, reposted by ScienceDaily).
c. 750–715 BCE, Tel Arad, kingdom of Judah (southern Israel)
Two altars, two burnt offerings
Residue on the smaller altar of a Judahite shrine held THC, CBD, and CBN mixed with animal dung. The larger altar held frankincense and fat. The authors suggest the cannabis was burned for its effect, which chemistry alone cannot show.
Smaller altar
about 40 cm high
Cannabis mixed with animal dung
THC, CBD, and CBN were found, plus terpenes. The dung would let the mixture burn at low heat.
Larger altar
about 50 cm high
Frankincense mixed with animal fat
Boswellic acid and norursatriene mark frankincense. Animal fat helps the resin evaporate.
The authors suggest the cannabis was a deliberate psychoactive offering. Arie said it was the first time anyone had identified cannabis in the Ancient Near East. That is a suggestion about intent, not a measurement. Archaeobotanist Robert Spengler said it is unclear how people in the Middle East got potent plants, and that the discoveries “further complicate the early story of cannabis” (Science News, 2020). And the Arad find does not show that cannabis burned in Jerusalem’s Temple. It comes from one fortress shrine.
Texts from the same centuries are harder to read. Assyrian medical tablets list a plant called azallû. According to Scurlock and Andersen, azallû was cannabis, probably used as a medicine, apparently for depression (Crocq 2020, summarizing Scurlock and Andersen). In 1949, the Assyriologist R. Campbell Thompson had also judged that azallû meant hemp. He listed a second word, qunubu, under the same plant. It appears in a letter to the king’s mother from the late 8th or early 7th century BCE, beside myrrh, in connection with rites (Thompson 1949, full text). The mentions are short and hard to read.
8th–6th centuries BCE, Assyria and Babylonia (Nineveh region)
Assyrian tablets name a plant that scholars read as cannabis
Scurlock and Andersen read the Akkadian azallû as cannabis, probably a medicine. R. Campbell Thompson (1949) also judged it hemp and listed qunubu, from a late 8th- or early 7th-century BCE letter to the king's mother, beside myrrh.
A famous Bible puzzle sits near this find. Exodus 30:23 lists spices, including qěnēh bośem. The King James Version renders it “sweet calamus.” In 1936, the Polish anthropologist Sula Benet argued that the Hebrew words sound like “cannabis” and so name hemp (Russo 2007). The standard Hebrew lexicon of Brown, Driver, and Briggs reads the phrase as “calamus, aromatic reed” (BDB entry).
Myth check Disputed
The claim: “The Bible names cannabis in the holy anointing oil (kaneh bosm, Exodus 30:23).”
Sula Benet argued in 1936 that the Hebrew words sound like cannabis. The standard Hebrew lexicon reads the phrase as calamus, an aromatic reed, and the King James Version says sweet calamus. The cannabis reading is a minority view.
What do India and China record?
In India, the earliest clue is a prayer. The Atharvaveda is a Sanskrit collection of hymns and spells, among the later Vedic books. Britannica dates the Vedic texts to roughly the 15th to the 5th century BCE and calls the Atharvaveda a later compilation, so the hymn sits somewhere inside that span (Britannica). In hymn 11.6, verse 15, in William Dwight Whitney’s translation, the speaker names five kinds of plants:
The five kingdoms of plants, having Soma as their chief, we address; the darbha, hemp, barley, sáha—let them free us from distress.
(Atharva-Veda Samhita, Book 11, Hymn 6, Wikisource transcription of Whitney’s translation.) The Sanskrit word is bhaṅga. Later Sanskrit uses bhaṅgā for hemp and for the drink commonly called bhang (Monier-Williams dictionary entry). The verse does not describe a high. It lists hemp among plants that protect.
Between c. 1500 and 500 BCE (exact date unknown), Northern India (Vedic heartland, approximate)
A Vedic hymn lists bhang among five sacred plants
Atharvaveda 11.6.15 names five plant kingdoms led by Soma: darbha, hemp (bhaṅga), barley, and saha. The verse asks them to free the speaker from distress. It does not describe intoxication, and its date is uncertain.
China brings the most famous legend. Shennong, the “Divine Farmer,” is said to have taught people farming and herbal medicine. Legends place him among the Three Sovereigns, around 2852 to 2070 BCE. The earliest text that links him to herbs is the Huainanzi, a book of the Han dynasty (Public Domain Review). A herb book carries his name, the Shennong Bencao Jing. The original is said to have listed 365 medicinals, and the surviving versions list fewer. Entries for hemp (ma fen) and hemp seed are among them. The ma fen entry warns that taking much of it “may make one behold ghosts and frenetically run about,” in Yang Shouzhong’s English translation (full text).
But the book is not ancient in the way the legend says. The physician Tao Hongjing (452 to 536 CE) wrote that the old lore was first written down in the later Han, about 200 CE. The historian Paul Unschuld adds that no one can prove an original book with that title ever existed. The original is lost. Later editors tried to recreate it, and they included material from earlier books (both points from the translator’s foreword, same link).
c. 200 CE (later Han dynasty), Han China
The herb book named for the Divine Farmer is Han, not 2737 BCE
Tradition says the Shennong Bencao Jing was first written down in the later Han, about 200 CE. The original is lost. Later editors tried to recreate it. Its hemp entry warns that much of it may make one see ghosts.
Myth check False
The claim: “Emperor Shennong recorded cannabis as medicine in 2737 BCE.”
Shennong is a legend, not a dated person; one source places the Three Sovereigns at about 2852 to 2070 BCE. The herb book with his name was first written down in the later Han, about 200 CE. Its original is lost, and later editors tried to recreate it.
A second Chinese story credits the surgeon Hua Tuo (140 to 208 CE) with mafeisan, a wine-based anesthetic. The character ma means hemp, and it also appears in words about numbness, so some writers guess that cannabis was an ingredient (Crocq 2020). But the histories that tell the tale do not list the ingredients, and no recipe survives (Zhao et al. 2018).
In 2026, a study in Antiquity tested iron scissors and tweezers from the tomb of Xia Quan, a Ming-era physician born in 1348. The residue held aconitine, a toxin from monkshood plants. The study did not report cannabis (Smithsonian Magazine). Some coverage set that find beside the Hua Tuo story. The two men lived more than 1,100 years apart.
Story set c. 140–208 CE; recorded in later histories, Eastern Han China
Hua Tuo's anesthetic: a cannabis guess, not a recipe
Later histories say the surgeon Hua Tuo gave patients mafeisan, an herbal anesthetic. No ingredient list survives. The character ma means hemp, so some writers guess cannabis. A 2026 study of Ming-era tools found aconitine instead.
What did the Greeks and Romans make of the plant?
Here the surprise is how little they say about getting high. James Butrica surveyed every surviving Greek and Latin mention of medical cannabis. Medical use is not attested before the first century CE. He found no secure evidence that Romans used cannabis as medicine. Butrica counts the comic poet Ephippus (4th century BCE) among the early mentions of eating the seed. His fragment lists hemp seeds among after-dinner delicacies. It names food and gives no effect (fr. 13 Kock, as quoted by Gainsford 2020; see also Butrica 2002).
The Greek physician Dioscorides, working in the first century CE, lists two plants called kannabis. The cultivated one has bad-smelling leaves, long hollow stalks, and a round seed, and it twists into very strong rope. Of the seeds he writes, “Eaten in quantities these quench conception.” The juice of the green plant, he says, helps earache (quoted from the Osbaldeston and Wood translation). Editors suggest several plants for his second, “wild” kind, and not all of them are cannabis (Dioscorides, De Materia Medica).
1st century CE (c. 40–90 CE), Greek East of the Roman Empire
Dioscorides lists hemp for rope, seed, and earache
The Greek physician Dioscorides lists a cultivated kannabis used for strong rope, with a seed and a juice for earache, and a second, wild kind. He mentions no intoxicating effect.
Pliny the Elder (23 to 79 CE) knew hemp mostly as a rope plant. He calls it “remarkably useful for making ropes” and praises the hemp of Alabanda for hunting nets (Natural History 19.56). In Book 20 he says the juice of the seed removes worms from the ear, “though at the cost of producing head-ache.” The translators note that this chapter mostly describes a different plant, the hemp marsh-mallow, with facts about true hemp mixed in (Natural History 20.97).
1st century CE (Pliny lived 23–79 CE), Rome
Pliny praises hemp rope and records an ear remedy with a catch
Pliny the Elder calls hemp remarkably useful for making ropes. He says its seed juice removes worms from the ear, at the cost of a headache. A translators' note says part of his hemp chapter describes a different plant.
Only Galen, in the second century CE, hints at an effect on the mind. In On the Effects of Foods 1.34 (Kühn 6.550), he writes that some people toast the seed with sweets eaten after dinner. A large amount taken in a short space, he says, “overcomes the head, filling it with a warm and drug-like vapour” (English translation quoted by Gainsford 2020). Among the three famous writers, that is the closest anyone comes to describing a party snack with a catch.
2nd century CE (Galen lived c. 129–199/217 CE), Rome
Galen: some people eat cannabis seed after dinner
In On the Effects of Foods 1.34, Galen writes that some people toast cannabis seed with after-dinner sweets, and that a large amount overcomes the head with a warm, drug-like vapour. Of the three famous medical writers, only he hints at an effect.
Egypt gets a short entry here because so many websites claim it. Some modern writers read the Egyptian plant name shemshemet as cannabis. We found no Egyptological source that settles the reading, so this chapter leaves it off the timeline. The mummy claim is easier to test.
Myth check Disputed
The claim: “Egyptian mummies were found with cannabis.”
A German team reported nicotine, cocaine, and hashish in mummy tissue in 1992 and 1993. Cocaine comes only from American coca. A 2008 review argues the Munich results may reflect contamination and urges caution with analytic methods.
Sources (2)
- Balabanova, Parsche, and Pirsig 1992, Naturwissenschaften: First identification of drugs in Egyptian mummies
- Counsell, D. J. (2008), 'Intoxicants in ancient Egypt? Opium, nymphaea, coca and tobacco,' ch. 13 in A. Rosalie David (ed.), Egyptian Mummies and Modern Science (Cambridge University Press), from p. 195 (Internet Archive full text)
What does the ancient evidence add up to?
Put the best finds side by side and the pattern is clear. The strongest evidence sits in graves and shrines from about 800 to 500 BCE. It is physical. Most written sources say less about getting high than the internet claims.
| Evidence | When | What survives | How sure |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yanghai tomb, Xinjiang | About 700–500 BCE | Cannabis cache, THC and CBN, DNA | Cannabis: high. How used: unknown |
| Jirzankal braziers, Pamirs | About 500 BCE | CBN on charred inner surfaces | Medium. CBN is clear; potency is inference |
| Herodotus and Pazyryk | 5th century BCE; about 300 BCE | A text, a tent frame, burned seeds | Medium. Which plant part: unclear |
| Tel Arad altars, Judah | About 750–715 BCE | THC, CBD, CBN with dung | Medium. Intent: a suggestion |
| Tunnug 1, Tuva | About 800 BCE | Over 1,000 seeds, compounds in hair | Low. Experts disagree |
| Atharvaveda, India | About 1500–500 BCE | One hymn naming bhaṅgā | Low. Date and meaning uncertain |
| Greek and Roman medical texts | 1st–2nd century CE | Rope, ear drops, a hint from Galen | High that the texts exist |
Remember what this evidence cannot do. A burned stone does not show who enjoyed it. A medical text does not show that the remedy worked. This chapter reports what people did, not what helped them. For every claim that fails the test, see the full myths page.
Check your understanding
3 questions. Pick an answer in your head, then open the question to check it.
1 What did chemists find on the burned inner surfaces of the Jirzankal braziers?
- ACannabis seeds and leaves
- BCannabinol (CBN), a breakdown product of THC
- CA written recipe in an old script
- DTraces of opium only
Answer: B. Cannabinol (CBN), a breakdown product of THC
Heat, light, and air turn THC into CBN. The braziers held no seeds or leaves, so chemistry is the only trace of the plant.
2 When does tradition say the Shennong Bencao Jing was first written down?
- AAbout 2737 BCE, by Shennong himself
- BIn the later Han dynasty, about 200 CE
- CIn the 1800s CE
Answer: B. In the later Han dynasty, about 200 CE
Tao Hongjing placed the first writing in the later Han. The original is lost, and later editors tried to recreate it.
3 According to Herodotus, what did the Scythians throw on red-hot stones inside a mat-covered tent?
- AHemp seed
- BFrankincense
- COpium poppy
- DTea leaves
Answer: A. Hemp seed
Histories 4.75 names hemp seed. Seeds carry the least THC of any plant part, so what really burned is still a puzzle.
0 of 3 answered
By 500 CE, Greek and Roman books describe cannabis mostly as rope and a minor remedy. The burial-mound rites of Central Asia sit far from their pages. Chapter 4 follows the plant after that. Hashish enters Islamic-world writing, hemp fills the sails of empires, and a famous “assassins” myth gets told.
Go deeper
- The History of the Bong: From Ancient Pipes to Borosilicate Art Glass Golden Scythian bongs, medieval Ethiopian water pipes, a Thai loanword, and a Deadhead with a torch. The real object history, myths removed.
- A Global History of Hash: From Hand-Rubbed Charas to Modern Rosin Hash is one 800-year-old idea: separate the resin. Trace it from Himalayan charas through Moroccan sift and Afghan press to ice water and live rosin.
Sources
Every placard and myth check in this chapter cites at least one of these. We rate how sure each claim is on its placard.
- Jiang et al. 2006, Journal of Ethnopharmacology: A new insight into Cannabis sativa (Cannabaceae) utilization from 2500-year-old Yanghai Tombs, Xinjiang, China Cited for: A shaman's grave holds a cannabis cache
- Russo et al. 2008, Journal of Experimental Botany: Phytochemical and genetic analyses of ancient cannabis from Central Asia Cited for: A shaman's grave holds a cannabis cache
- Ren et al. 2019, Science Advances: The origins of cannabis smoking: Chemical residue evidence from the first millennium BCE in the Pamirs Cited for: A shaman's grave holds a cannabis cache; Cannabis burned in wooden braziers at funerals; Herodotus describes the Scythian hemp vapor bath; A frozen tomb holds a tent frame and burned hemp seeds; A burial shroud made of 13 dried cannabis plants
- Herodotus, Histories 4.75 (A. D. Godley translation), Perseus Cited for: Herodotus describes the Scythian hemp vapor bath
- Herodotus, Histories 4.74 (Godley), Perseus Cited for: Herodotus describes the Scythian hemp vapor bath
- Butrica 2002, Journal of Cannabis Therapeutics: The Medical Use of Cannabis Among the Greeks and Romans Cited for: Herodotus describes the Scythian hemp vapor bath; Dioscorides lists hemp for rope, seed, and earache; Galen: some people eat cannabis seed after dinner; A Greek comic poet lists hemp seeds among after-dinner treats
- University of Washington Silk Road Seattle: State Hermitage Museum, Pazyryk (dating of barrow 2) Cited for: A frozen tomb holds a tent frame and burned hemp seeds
- Caspari et al. 2026, Science: Direct evidence for psychoactive cannabis use 2800 years ago Cited for: Seeds and hair in a Siberian tomb: disputed proof of use
- Associated Press, 5 November 2026 (expert reactions) Cited for: Seeds and hair in a Siberian tomb: disputed proof of use
- Arie, Rosen, and Namdar 2020, Tel Aviv: Cannabis and Frankincense at the Judahite Shrine of Arad Cited for: Two altars, two burnt offerings
- Science News, 28 May 2020: A biblical-era Israeli shrine shows signs of the earliest ritual use of marijuana Cited for: Two altars, two burnt offerings
- Taylor & Francis press release, reposted by ScienceDaily, 29 May 2020 Cited for: Two altars, two burnt offerings
- Crocq 2020, Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience: History of cannabis and the endocannabinoid system (summarizing Scurlock and Andersen) Cited for: Assyrian tablets name a plant that scholars read as cannabis; The herb book named for the Divine Farmer is Han, not 2737 BCE; Hua Tuo's anesthetic: a cannabis guess, not a recipe; Dioscorides lists hemp for rope, seed, and earache; Pliny praises hemp rope and records an ear remedy with a catch; Myth: Emperor Shennong recorded cannabis as medicine in 2737 BCE.
- R. Campbell Thompson 1949, A Dictionary of Assyrian Botany (Internet Archive full text) Cited for: Assyrian tablets name a plant that scholars read as cannabis
- Atharva-Veda Samhita, Book 11, Hymn 6 (Whitney translation), Wikisource transcription Cited for: A Vedic hymn lists bhang among five sacred plants
- Britannica: Vedic religion (dating of the Vedic texts) Cited for: A Vedic hymn lists bhang among five sacred plants
- Monier-Williams entry for bhaṅgā Cited for: A Vedic hymn lists bhang among five sacred plants
- The Divine Farmer's Materia Medica Classic, trans. Yang Shouzhong, with publisher's foreword (Internet Archive full text) Cited for: The herb book named for the Divine Farmer is Han, not 2737 BCE; Myth: Emperor Shennong recorded cannabis as medicine in 2737 BCE.
- Public Domain Review: The Legend of the Divine Farmer Cited for: The herb book named for the Divine Farmer is Han, not 2737 BCE; The Huainanzi is the earliest text to link Shennong to herbal medicine; Myth: Emperor Shennong recorded cannabis as medicine in 2737 BCE.
- Zhao, Yu, and Kagemoto 2018, Journal of Anesthesia History: Was Mafeisan an Anesthetic in Ancient China? Cited for: Hua Tuo's anesthetic: a cannabis guess, not a recipe
- Smithsonian Magazine on the 2026 Antiquity study of Xia Quan's instruments Cited for: Hua Tuo's anesthetic: a cannabis guess, not a recipe
- Dioscorides, De Materia Medica (Osbaldeston and Wood translation, Internet Archive) Cited for: Dioscorides lists hemp for rope, seed, and earache
- Pliny, Natural History 19.56 (Bostock and Riley translation), Perseus Cited for: Pliny praises hemp rope and records an ear remedy with a catch
- Pliny, Natural History 20.97 (Bostock and Riley translation), Perseus Cited for: Pliny praises hemp rope and records an ear remedy with a catch
- Galen, On the Effects of Foods 1.34 (Kühn 6.550), English translation quoted by Gainsford 2020 (classicist's blog; Greek text not opened) Cited for: Galen: some people eat cannabis seed after dinner; A Greek comic poet lists hemp seeds among after-dinner treats
- Russo 2007, Chemistry & Biodiversity: History of Cannabis and Its Preparations in Saga, Science, and Sobriquet (discusses Benet, 1936) Cited for: Myth: The Bible names cannabis in the holy anointing oil (kaneh bosm, Exodus 30:23).
- Brown-Driver-Briggs entry for qaneh (calamus, aromatic reed) Cited for: Myth: The Bible names cannabis in the holy anointing oil (kaneh bosm, Exodus 30:23).
- Exodus 30, King James Version Cited for: Myth: The Bible names cannabis in the holy anointing oil (kaneh bosm, Exodus 30:23).
- Balabanova, Parsche, and Pirsig 1992, Naturwissenschaften: First identification of drugs in Egyptian mummies Cited for: Myth: Egyptian mummies were found with cannabis.
- Counsell, D. J. (2008), 'Intoxicants in ancient Egypt? Opium, nymphaea, coca and tobacco,' ch. 13 in A. Rosalie David (ed.), Egyptian Mummies and Modern Science (Cambridge University Press), from p. 195 (Internet Archive full text) Cited for: Myth: Egyptian mummies were found with cannabis.
