Tuesday, March 25, 2014

World's Oldest Marijuana Found with Aryan Mummy

In a grave in the Gobi Desert, nearly two pounds of still-green Marijuana was found buried with the dead has proved to be at least 2,700 years old.  A barrage of testing has proven that the marijuana possessed highly potent psychoactive properties and casts doubt on the theory that the ancients only grew the plant for hemp in order to make clothing and rope. They apparently were getting very high, too.

Lead author Ethan Russo told Discovery News that the marijuana "is quite similar" to what's grown today. "We know from both the chemical analysis and genetics that it could produce THC (tetrahydrocannabinolic acid synthase, the main psychoactive chemical in the plant)," he explained.

Russo served as a visiting professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Botany while conducting the study. He and his international team analyzed the cannabis, which was excavated at the Yanghai Tombs near Turpan, China.

It was found lightly pounded in a wooden bowl in a leather basket near the head of a blue-eyed Caucasian man who died when he was about 45.
"Buried with an unusual number of high value, rare items," Russo said, mentioning that the objects included a make-up bag, bridles, pots, archery equipment and a kongou harp.

The researchers believe the individual was a shaman from the Gushi people, who spoke a now-extinct Aryan language called Tocharian that was similar to Celtic.

Scientists originally thought the plant material in the grave was coriander, but microscopic botanical analysis of the bowl contents, along with genetic testing, revealed that it was indeed cannabis.  Soma of the Indo-Aryans and Haoma of the Indo-Iranians was an intoxicant used for spiritual and religious purposes.  Read More Here: NBC Science News


8 comments:

  1. Goodness nose - high time we learn the damn plant was free & available way back then - so who's playing the self-imposed leader of the planet as of late keeping Mother Nature's FREE gift from the human population for the past 100 years again? Get with the program, people..

    Get this plant in every garden & farmer's field around the planet now already! we have a species & planet to save without costing a penny! GO!

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    1. Herb can likely be found with many buried bodies. I wonder if Iceman had it with him?

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  2. I would smoke a hit of it in the name of science...

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  3. I wonder if any of those seeds are viable; Some seeds remain viable for thousands of years: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oldest_viable_seed. That could be of great benefit to the human race. If the genetics are different enough, this could have far reaching implications to introduce much needed genetic diversity into our commonly cultivated strains.

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  4. No!
    They tried but were not successful.

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  5. And it is being kept from us , that is not right. Marijuana is harmless and only cures. O deaths. Time to decriminalize !!!!!

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    1. I believed everyone should be able to grow for their own cosuption. As long as it is just a plant at a time, I can't see the problem.

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