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| Figure 1: Taino sculpture depicting a shaman in a trance from consuming cohoba powder. |
Today’s blog post will cover the topic of the archaeology of
drug use. This topic was chosen because
of the upcoming new year, which elicits celebrations of all kinds, particularly
those involving controlled substances such as drugs. While many people believe that drug use is a
recent cultural phenomenon this blog post will discuss how it is actually one
that has a very long history among humans, starting with our hominid ancestors,
and how psychoactive plants were initially used prior to becoming the forbidden
substances of today.
Paleontological evidence has demonstrated potential drug use
among our hominid ancestors, although the exact timeline is unclear. Some sources claim that psychoactive drugs
were used as early as 200 million years ago, while others claim more
conservative estimates at 60,000 years ago.
This evidence takes the form of paleobotanical/ecofact evidence found in
Neanderthal burials. It is unclear if
these psychoactive plants were placed there intentionally or were brought in by
rodents, though. Some scholars believe
that the consumption of psychoactive plants may have unintentionally assisted
with the evolution of our hominid ancestors.
Consuming psychoactive drugs would have created states of euphoria that
would have assisted consumers from feeling fatigue, hunger, pain, etc. With resources being scarce hunger and
fatigue would have been commonplace, and as a result drug use could have been
used as an extreme means of survival. This
idea, however, is difficult to test, though, and it is merely a largely
untested hypothesis at this time.
Archaeological evidence, however, provides more clear cut
evidence of the use of psychoactive drugs.
The earliest evidence is traced back to as early as 10,000 years ago in
China, and there are later evidence of drug use throughout the Old and New
Worlds. This evidence is from multiple
sources, including botanical/ecofact evidence, isotopic analyses of human soft
and hard tissues, and material cultural remains (e.g. pottery, wall paintings,
texts, etc.) (Figure 1). The use of psychoactive
plants was not meant to be used for pleasure originally, but instead these
substances were used for medicinal and ritual purposes. The ancient Chinese understood the pain
killing properties of cannabis and used it regularly as a medicine. This contrasted its use among early Hindus of
modern day India who identified cannabis as a gift from the gods. In the New World coca leaves were chewed for
ritual as well as medicinal purposes, which remains common today. There are other incidences of psychoactive
drugs being used for ritual purposes, such as the case of oracles who were
force fed drugs to induce altered states of consciousness to “commune with the
gods” or soldiers who were encouraged to ingest psychoactive plants assisted to
remove their fears and encourage bravery.
The use of drugs changed as societies changed, though, with
motivations moving from medical and ritual to social and pleasurable. This change occurred along with the rise of
the state level societies and continues into today. Today, these social and pleasurable associations
with drug use are connected to acts of deviance among several different
societies. This deviant association has
not altered the popularity of use, though.
Recent trends, particularly among Western cultures, resemble the
original motivations for drug use as laws are being passed to allow for the medical
use of marijuana and the controlled use of opioids. This just demonstrates that while culture
changes much always remains the same.
References
Guerra-Doce, Elisa.
2015. Psychoactive Substances in
Prehistoric Times: Examining in Archaeological Evidence. Time and Mind 8: 91-112.
Miller, Mark.
2015. Archaeological Study
Explores Drug-Taking and Altered States in Prehistory. Ancient-Origins. http://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/archaeological-study-explores-drug-taking-prehistory-020210
No Author. No
Date. Classical Antiquity: General Drug
Use. The Brain: McGill University. http://thebrain.mcgill.ca/flash/capsules/pdf_articles/general_drug_use.pdf
No Author. No
Date. Marijuana-The First Twelve
Thousand Years. Schaffer Library of Drug
Use. http://druglibrary.org/Schaffer/hemp/history/first12000/1.htm
Saah, Tammy.
2005. The Evolutionary Origins
and Significance of Drug Addiction. Harm
Reduction Journal 2: 8
