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Ten years ago, for example, scientists discovered "a large supply of processed female Cannabis flowers" in a nearby Yanghai cemetery. As the study describes, the Subeixi people "led a pastoral life with only a small amount of cereal cultivation, but eventually developed a more balanced semi-pastoral and semi-agricultural society."Īnd the researchers say there's growing evidence that the Subeixi, along with other groups living in the area, used cannabis for ritualistic or medicinal purposes. It was found among 240 other tombs in the cemetery believed to belong to the Subeixi culture. The tomb lies in northwest China's Turpan Basin, which was "an important stop on the Silk Road," according to the magazine. However, the researchers say that the way the plants were placed on this corpse means they were fresh at the time - suggesting that the marijuana was likely locally grown.
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The origins of those previous plants were not clear - they might have been transported from other areas. This isn't the first time cannabis has been found at sites in Siberia and northwestern China, according to the researchers. "This is the first time ever that archaeologists have recovered complete cannabis plants, as well as the first incidence of their use as a 'shroud' or covering in a human burial," National Geographic quotes the study's lead author, Hongen Jiang, as saying. The plants measured between 19 and 35 inches, and carbon dating indicated that the cemetery is 2,800 to 2,400 years old. In the tomb, the body was placed on a wooden bed with a "pillow made of common reeds," surrounded by earthenware pots. The man was about 35 years old, appeared to be Caucasian and might have been a shaman, they say. In a recent paper published in Economic Botany, the scientists say that the "extraordinary cache" of 13 "nearly whole" female cannabis plants were arranged diagonally like a shroud over the body of a dead man. Researchers have unearthed 13 cannabis plants in an ancient tomb in northern China, suggesting that prehistoric central Eurasians had ritualistic or medicinal uses for the mind-altering plant.