Earliest recognized drug use could have trapped prehistoric foragers in a ‘vicious cycle’

Source link : https://big-apple.news/2026/09/12/new-york-news/earliest-recognized-drug-use-could-have-trapped-prehistoric-foragers-in-a-vicious-cycle/

The prehistoric stays of two foragers discovered on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi comprise telltale indicators that people started utilizing a mind-altering drug hundreds of years sooner than recognized.

The betel nut, a fruit seed from the areca palm, is taken into account the fourth most generally used psychoactive substance on this planet after caffeine, alcohol and nicotine.

About 1 in 10 folks at the moment, largely throughout Asia and the Pacific, follow the custom of chewing a quid, or processed betel nut blended with slaked lime.

The slaked lime, often known as calcium hydroxide, is crucial for triggering a chemical response that expedites the absorption of the psychoactive compound arecoline into the bloodstream. Customers expertise delicate euphoria and heightened alertness when chewing the quid.

Betel nuts are generally used throughout Asia and the Pacific. – Adam Brumm/Griffith College

A jawbone fragment from 25,000 to 16,000 years ago was found in Leang Bulu Bettue cave. - MAPANG Project

A jawbone fragment from 25,000 to 16,000 years in the past was present in Leang Bulu Bettue cave. – MAPANG Mission

However when did people first start experimenting with psychoactive substances?

“Archaeologists have lengthy believed that the earliest traditions of drug use arose round 13,000 years in the past when nomadic hunter-gatherers started to cultivate crops and dwell completely in a single place as farmers,” wrote Adam Brumm, professor of archaeology at Griffith College’s Australian Analysis Centre for Human Evolution, in an electronic mail.

Throughout…

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Author : big-apple

Publish date : 2026-09-12 12:59:00

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