The Stoner Age

By Alex in Science & Tech on Oct 20, 2008 at 2:58 pm

Archaeologists Quetta Kaye and Scott Fitzpatrick have confirmed the long-suspected habit of prehistoric man: they used drugs!

They found ceramic bowls, as well as tubes for inhaling drug fumes or powders, which appear to have originated in South America between 100BC and 400BC and were then carried 400 miles to the islands.

While the use of such paraphernalia for inhaling drugs is well-known, the age of the bowls has thrown new light on how long humans have been taking drugs.

Scientists believe that the drug being used was cohoba, a hallucinogen made from the beans of a mimosa species.

Link – via Fortean Times (from where I stole the title)

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mkultra
Oct 20th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
I don’t suppose there is any info about how the hallucinogen was made from those beans? I ask merely out of curiosity.
Pudifoot
Oct 20th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
400bc = prehistoric? :-/
Johnny Cat
Oct 20th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
Og bogart tubes, camp out with bowl. No fumes for rest of us today.
Ali S.
Oct 20th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
Well, if they are really “prehistoric” I guess it would make sense to get high every now and then because I sure wouldn’t like living in the ye olde times.
Lemons
Oct 20th, 2008 at 8:34 pm
4th century BC is hardly “prehistoric,” it was near the height of ancient Greece (although I’m not sure if anyone’s documented *their* drug usage).
Arch Student
Oct 21st, 2008 at 9:44 am
In Archaeology terms, prehistoric is normally defined as being before the written word or written record (not to be confused with petroglyphs or “cave art”) was kept. Technically, if a culture did not develop a written record keeping system until very late in history, then they could still be considered “prehistoric” even if the rest of the world had moved beyond that phase. There are still tribes of people that are technically prehistoric today, although their numbers are diminishing.
Alex
Oct 21st, 2008 at 11:19 am
Rescued by Arch Student! Thank you!
Thomas
Oct 21st, 2008 at 11:13 pm
Mimosa, you say…?

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