Prehistoryc. 800–760 BC · Tunnug 1, Uyuk valley, Tyva, Russia
2,800-year-old Siberian tomb holds the oldest dated evidence of cannabis use as a drug
About 1,000 cannabis seeds and traces of THC breakdown products in human hair from a Scythian princely tomb in Tuva date to the early 8th century BC.
In brief 3 key points
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- Cannabis seeds and drug traces in hair found in one grave
- About three centuries older than the earlier evidence from China
- Use is clear, but the amount and the method are unknown
People in southern Siberia used cannabis as a drug about 2,800 years ago. A team led by the University of Bern found about 1,000 cannabis seeds and chemical traces of the drug in human hair in a princely tomb in the Republic of Tyva, Russia. The study was published in Science on 5 November 2026.
The tomb is a large burial mound at Tunnug 1 in the Uyuk valley. It belonged to high-ranking members of Scythian society, a horse-riding culture of the Eurasian steppe. The researchers call it the oldest directly dated evidence for the intoxicating use of cannabis.
Seeds dated to the early 8th century BC
In the middle of the mound, archaeologists found four wooden structures holding several log coffins. Inside them lay piles of tiny seeds of Cannabis ruderalis, a wild form of the plant. Live Science reports more than 1,000 whole seeds and around 500 partial ones.
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The team dated six seeds directly by radiocarbon. Radiocarbon dating measures the slow decay of carbon in once-living material. Together with other dates, the results place the seeds in the grave in the early eighth century BC, between about 800 and 760 BC.
The seeds probably came from wild plants. They do not show whether anyone grew cannabis for its effects. Seeds in a grave also do not prove on their own that people took the drug.
Traces of the drug in the hair
The proof came from preserved human hair in the central burial chamber. Several samples gave clear signals of cannabinol (CBN). CBN forms when THC, the main intoxicating compound in cannabis, breaks down. The team also found weak signals that match THC by mass. They used high-resolution mass spectrometry, among other methods.
“The molecular traces in the hair and the cannabis seeds come from the same grave and suggest that cannabis was used for its intoxicating properties.”
Gino Caspari, archaeologist at the University of Bern and the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, lead author
The hair cannot show how much people took. It also cannot show how the drug entered the body, by smoke or by mouth. Later sites in Central Asia have cannabinoid residues in vessels and on heated stones, which point clearly to inhaling.
Herodotus wrote in the fifth century BC that Scythian nomads breathed in the fumes of burning hemp seeds. The oldest earlier evidence of cannabis use came from a cemetery in China dated to about 500 BC. The Tunnug find is about three centuries older.
Many horses were sacrificed at the mound. An earlier paper by the team described 18 horses once arranged on it. Since then, several dozen more horse sacrifices and scattered human bones have come to light.
“In this princely tomb, the burials were accompanied by extensive horse sacrifices and, most likely, human sacrifices as well.”
Gino Caspari
In the paper, the researchers suggest that cannabis could have been used to calm people who were to be sacrificed. This is their interpretation of the burial context, not something the hair shows.
The team has begun sequencing DNA from some of the seeds. Caspari says DNA preservation at the site is excellent, and the results should show more about how cannabis was domesticated and spread.
Sources (2)
Peer-reviewed paperfrom University of Bern and Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology
- 2,800-year-old tomb in Siberia has evidence of the earliest use of cannabis — possibly as a way to calm human sacrifice victims (Live Science: archaeology)
- Cannabis was used as an intoxicant as early as 2,800 years ago (University of Bern)
Paper: Caspari, G., Sadykov, T., Formicheva, D., Blochin, J., Armbruster, D., Happel, O., Ryabogina, N., Boxleitner, K., Spengler, R. (2026). Direct evidence for psychoactive cannabis use 2800 years ago. Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.aeg3800
Edited by Guiseppe Weijermars
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