Archaeologists have found that at the end of the last Ice Age, the inhabitants of Europe and Asia simultaneously began to use hemp. Also, the use of cannabis in East Asia is associated with the flourishing of transcontinental trade, which occurred about five thousand years ago. This is reported in the journal Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, and briefly talks about the discoveries by New Scientist.
Archaeologists working in Eurasia have come across the pollen, fibers and fruits of hemp for many decades. Scientists from the Free University of Berlin have compiled an extensive database of all such cases and tried to identify patterns of cannabis use in prehistoric societies.
Contrary to popular belief, this plant was domesticated not only in China (11-10 thousand years ago). Around the same time, hemp began to be grown in Europe. Moreover, it was in the west of Eurasia that it was regularly used for several millennia. It is not known what exactly people appreciated in cannabis - psychoactive properties, medicinal functions, or simply made tissues from it.
The situation changed dramatically about five thousand years ago, at the beginning of the Bronze Age. In the Far East, hemp began to grow and use more intensively. According to scientists, this is due to the emergence of nomads and the beginning of transcontinental trade (which later grew to the Great Silk Road). The researchers admit that cannabis may have been one of the first commodities.
The use of cannabis as a psychoactive substance can be considered proven for the nomads of the Yamnaya culture - one of three groups that created (genetically) modern Europe. They smoked cannabis during special holidays and rituals, and then this habit was adopted by other nomadic peoples. The Eurasian nomads of the next wave (Scythians), according to Herodotus, regularly used hemp.
