Marijuana stash from 2700-year-ago

Seen here is a 2700-year-old stash of marijuana, found in a Gobi Desert grave near Turpan, China. Ethan Russo, a visiting professor at the Chinese Acadmy of Scineces, and his colleagues report the discovery in the current issue of the Journal of Experimental Botany (abstract). From Discovery News:

The size of seeds mixed in with the leaves, along with their color and other characteristics, indicate the marijuana came from a cultivated strain. Before the burial, someone had carefully picked out all of the male plant parts, which are less psychoactive, so Russo and his team believe there is little doubt as to why the cannabis was grown.

What is in question, however, is how the marijuana was administered, since no pipes or other objects associated with smoking were found in the grave.

"Perhaps it was ingested orally," Russo said. "It might also have been fumigated, as the Scythian tribes to the north did subsequently."

Oldest Marijuana Stash Found (Thanks, Tara McGinley!)

David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

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toolbag

hope it’s not cursed, although the mummy that carries weed into the afterlife probably isn’t too scary
Axx

ooooooh!

BUSTED!
ahannon

have you ever done Archaeology…

on WEED?!

(in honor of John Stewart’s best film role)
DefMech

From what I’ve read, it has/had a comparatively high THC level, but isn’t really “functional” at this point. Also they tried to germinate some of the seeds, but it didn’t work.
elisd

@toolbag

That’s a great image. All trying to put a curse on you but then getting distracted and making nachos instead.
vamidus

Oh maan! Look they found my stash!

@ #5 Peaceflag2007:

Good point, very nicely put.
erissian

Isn’t anybody impressed that they had Ziploc baggies almost three millennia before we did?
Rick.

“Chang’s not here, man.”
gabu

They left out the best part of the article:

“Before the burial, someone had carefully picked out all of the male plant parts, which are less psychoactive, so Russo and his team believe there is little doubt as to why the cannabis was grown. Also buried in separate containers adjacent to the marijuana were some sour cream and onion chips, with some dip, some beef jerky, some peanut butter, some Haagen Dazs, some ice cream bars — a whole lot — and chocolate (gotta have chocolate), some popcorn, bread, graham crackers with the marshmallows, the little ones, and little chocolate bars (weâ€™ll make some S’mores, man!), also celery, grape jelly, Captain Crunch with the little crunchberries, and pizzas — two big pizzas, man, everything on ‘em. With water. A whole lotta water. And… Funyuns.”
Nword

Erratic, mj in general in either male or female, but hermaphroditic marijuana is fairly common, especially in places where the breeding isn’t strictly controlled. So they could have picked out the male flowers if it was hermie (there were seeds, so something at least half male was there)..
minTphresh

wow! the cops say the street value of the ‘mary-jane’ is $5.5-$6 million U.S. some rare shit.
braininavat

He also had a HARP burried with him, but in all the excitement over the stash of weed no one has bothered to post a pic of this ancient instrument. What does a 2700 year old harp look like? How many strings? If the pot is no longer psycho-active then I geuss the harp was out of tune… Where I’m from pot is as common as doritos so this just isn’t all that exciting to me.
Lucifer

This came from the Bong dinasty.
Peaceflag2007

Gabu: that was hilarious
gabu

Thank you, “Half Baked.”
Takuan

heh! Probably true!
semiotix

“Evening, officer. Um, what seems to be the, uh… problem?”
“Depends. What’s in the baggie?”
“Um, well, you see, we were doing… ah…”
“…research… um… into… uh…”
“Archaeology!”
“Oh, haha, sweet, yeah, we were like doing archaeology, and we found… this, like, PREHISTORIC pot stash!”
“Haha! Totally! Like, from ancient China or something!”
“Duh, we’re IN China, you fucking moron! Hee hee! You’re like the worst fucking archaeco…lo…gologist ever!”
“We were, umm, just about to call the proper authorities when you… shut up, dude, you’re making me laugh!”
Modusoperandi

Dude, we should make a wall that goes on forever. Forever, man. That would be a great wall, like, of China.
jaemsdotorg

I’m really curious how much if any THC content remains. The real test will be for some Cali-kid to come by and smoke the Mummy-Stash.
Michael Leung

But is it better than the ones in Amsterdam?
Frank_in_Virginia

Amazing they had Zip-Lock plastic bags back then as shown in the picture.
Lauren O

Dang man, now the American government’s going to go crazy, all busting into the mummy’s tomb and arresting him in front of his kids, all putting his corpse in a prison, all confiscating his houseplants.
OM

…2700 years ago? Hey, that might just be one of Tommy Chong’s hidden stashes :-P
Anonymous

maybe he was heading to a GreatfulDead concert
TourPro

After we moved into our house, I was cleaning the basement when I found a stash from a previous owner hidden in the rafter. I’m no archeologist, but the bag was not current standard issue. The weed was also what is known in the industry as “Crap”.

Oh well.
Davevonnatick

Sure the archeologists start with 2700 year old marijuana, but it’s really just a stepping stone to digging up harder drugs.
kuanes

Dude, where’s my stash?

/crickets
/tumbleweed rolling by
erratic

I’m no expert, but aren’t mariijuana plants either male or female unlike most plants that have male and female parts? And if so, wouldn’t there be no need to pick out the male parts since you’d only gather buds from female plants in order to get high?
buddy66

Made coffee, checked the mail, opened this thread…

Back on the bed, weak from laughing. God, vipers are some funny motherfuckers! And bb vipers are the funniest of all.

“Good morning, Lord!”
kaosmonkey

Are we absolutely sure they’re not prize-winning tomatoes?
Crawford Tillinghast

It was accompanied, of course, by two fossilized proto-hominids, one of whom is frozen in the process of backhanding the other for “bogarting”….
gATO

yeah, but did they find the bag of Cheetos?
desiredusername

/rolls by
Anonymous

History requires someone smoke that in tribute!
Red Leatherman

Cool, like fire it up man
Peaceflag2007

Amazing! Reminds you that smoking pot is in fact a sacred tradition that goes back thousands of years…

imagine that man laughing at a bird or something all those years ago, just stoned and enjoying life

simply amazing
Anonymous

I wonder if the seeds are still Viable.. 2,000 year old seeds have been grown before.
se7a7n7

So even Kings had to deal with getting seeds and stems.
sheshe

@Peaceflag2007
i like that thought!
minTphresh

hemp can save the planet!
Anonymous

I love it. He also had a harp!! A pre-historic rock star!!

Who is gonna tell old “blue-eyes” his stash has decomposed and is worthless? I think he could be a good candidate for medical marijuana use, that is if he moved to cali!!!!

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
w000t

According to the mythology of the drug warriors, this shouldn’t have been psychoactive at all. Perhaps this will finally put that lie to rest? Oh, who am I kidding? I’m just impressed that even 2700 years ago weed came in plastic baggies.
Anonymous

The THC will have degraded beyond usability, but it’d still be awesome to smoke some 2,700 year old weed.
jahknow

From TFA: “…No one could feel its effects today, due to decomposition over the millennia.”

Oh well, there goes my idea.
Rossifumi

Proves it!! Plants were here before laws!
InsertFingerHere

Well, there ya go. Wonder why the ancients imagined men with bird heads, worshiped natural beings and so on? The good Earth has given them the most amazing plant, how can you NOT respect Mother Nature ?

Damn.. wish I was a hippy in the late 60′s, rolling around naked in the mud at Woodstock. Probably last great example of connecting with each other on another plane of existence with help from our bud Bud.
James David

Don’t they know putting it in plastic bags can get you busted for intent to distribute? ha!
Halloween Jack

Many questions remain unanswered, such as: did the ancient Chinese pass the dutchie on the left-hand side?
Belac

#20, Lucifer, would win the thread if he’d spelled ‘dynasty’ right.
smidely

Notice it was found in a burial plot. At last: definitive proof that smoking pot is bad for you.
Lord Xenu

This photo was taken exactly 1 second before special-ops forces broke down the door and arrested all the archeologists.
entheo

Chinese Acadmy of Scineces?

Isn’t that the people who study scin? So hemp is good for your skin then?
FoetusNail

Erratic, you’ve shown your hand, please step out into your front yard, now look up, that’s good. Thank you, someone will be with you shortly.