For centuries, the story of ancient Scythians getting high on cannabis came from a Greek historian's account of nomads throwing seeds onto hot stones inside felt tents. Archaeological discoveries eventually gave that story credibility. But one question remained: could researchers find evidence that the people themselves consumed cannabis? A newly published study from southern Siberia offers the strongest direct evidence yet, although the interpretation remains contested. Scientists found molecular traces consistent with cannabis consumption in the preserved hair of people buried approximately 2,800 years ago. And alongside that discovery, a royal tomb filled with cannabis seeds has opened another investigation: the ancient genetics of cannabis itself.
A Royal Tomb Hidden in Siberia's Valley of Kings
The Tuva Republic (red), where Tunnug 1 sits, on Russia's Siberian border with Mongolia — Cortador, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
The discovery comes from Tunnug 1, a monumental Scythian burial mound in the Uyuk Valley of the Republic of Tyva in southern Siberia.
Measuring approximately 140 meters in diameter, the mound is part of a landscape dense with ancient royal Scythian burial sites, sometimes called the Siberian Valley of the Kings.
The Scythians were horse-riding nomads who occupied the Eurasian steppe. Tunnug 1 contained high-ranking members of Scythian society, and archaeologists led by Dr. Gino Caspari have been excavating the site since 2017.
Caspari, an archaeologist at the University of Bern and the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology, led the research alongside Timur Sadykov of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The team's findings, published November 5, 2026, in Science, would turn the burial into one of the most significant archaeological discoveries in the history of cannabis research.
More Than 1,400 Seeds. Almost Nothing Else.
Cannabis seeds ripening on a dried hemp plant (modern plant, shown for scale and form) — D-Kuru, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
The first remarkable finding was the sheer quantity of cannabis recovered from the tomb.
Researchers identified 1,481 seeds and seed fragments in total. The recovered material included 243 whole seeds collected by hand, along with 722 complete seeds and 516 fragments recovered through soil flotation.
Cannabis almost completely dominated the plant remains recovered from the tomb.
Six seeds were directly radiocarbon-dated, including seeds recovered from the log coffins of two buried individuals. The results placed them in the early eighth century BC, approximately 2,800 years ago, matching the construction period of the burial.
The quantity and placement suggest cannabis held an important role in the burial rituals.
Caspari explained the significance: "The seeds show that cannabis played an important role in the rituals surrounding the burial."
But seeds alone cannot establish whether the people buried there actually consumed cannabis. They demonstrate its presence in the burial, not necessarily its use as an intoxicant.
For that, researchers needed something much harder to find.
The Evidence Was in Their Hair
Preserved braided hair from several individuals buried in the central chamber provided the breakthrough.
Researchers analyzed the hair using high-resolution mass spectrometry, searching for molecular traces associated with cannabis.
Several samples produced clear signals consistent with cannabinol, or CBN, at an average concentration of approximately 560 parts per billion — a figure Gizmodo reported from the study's full text. Researchers also detected weaker signals consistent with THC itself.
CBN is produced, among other pathways, through the oxidation and degradation of THC.
The distinction between finding cannabis in a burial and finding its chemical traces in human tissue is fundamental.
Previous archaeological discoveries had identified cannabis seeds, plant material and residues on objects associated with ancient rituals. Those findings demonstrated that cannabis was present and, in some cases, that psychoactive cannabis had been used in particular settings.
Tunnug 1 provided something different.
The molecular traces were detected in preserved hair recovered from the burial itself. That is what makes Tunnug 1 different: the chemical evidence is tied to the people, not only to the objects placed alongside them — and the researchers interpret it as evidence that people associated with the tomb consumed cannabis for its intoxicating properties.
Caspari explained: "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."
The researchers present the discovery as the earliest direct archaeological evidence of cannabis consumption for its intoxicating properties.
It is an important distinction: this is not a claim that these were the first people ever to use cannabis. It is the earliest directly dated evidence currently identified in the archaeological record that ties cannabis consumption to traces preserved in human tissue.
Herodotus Told the Story. Archaeology Kept Finding Evidence.
The Pazyryk carpet (c. 5th century BCE), the world's oldest known pile carpet, from a Scythian-era tomb in the Altai — photograph by Ninara, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
The Scythians' relationship with cannabis was already part of ancient historical writing.
In the fifth century BC, the Greek historian Herodotus described Scythians using hemp seeds during post-burial cleansing rituals.
According to his account, after burying their dead, Scythians performed a cleansing rite inside felt-covered structures, throwing hemp seeds onto red-hot stones and howling with pleasure as the seeds produced vapor.
For centuries, the account was treated as a traveler's description of unfamiliar customs.
Later archaeological discoveries began providing physical evidence consistent with his writing.
The frozen Pazyryk burials in the Altai Mountains, dating to approximately the fifth century BC, produced copper containers with signs of burning, heated stones and a leather pouch of cannabis seeds — finds consistent with important elements of Herodotus's account.
Tunnug 1 places direct, hair-based evidence of Scythian cannabis use roughly 300 years before the approximately 500 BC Jirzankal smoking evidence — in what archaeologists regard as the culture's formative period.
The difference is that the evidence no longer rests only on matching objects to a historical description. At Tunnug 1, the chemical traces come from the people themselves.
Before Siberia, Other Ancient Graves Had Their Own Cannabis Stories
Tunnug 1 is part of a growing archaeological record documenting cannabis in ancient burial practices.
In Yanghai, China, a burial approximately 2,700 years old contained a shaman buried with 789 grams of cannabis plant material.
Research published by Russo and colleagues in 2008 found that the material still contained THC and CBN, demonstrating the presence of psychoactive cannabis.
However, the discovery was based on plant material recovered from the grave. The burial evidence does not establish that the shaman personally consumed the cannabis.
Another important discovery came from Jirzankal Cemetery in the Pamir Mountains.
Dating to approximately 500 BC, the cemetery contained wooden braziers carrying CBN residue. Research published by Ren and colleagues in Science Advances in 2019 provided strong evidence that high-THC cannabis was burned during funeral rituals approximately 2,500 years ago.
Robert Spengler, a co-author of that research, is also part of the new Tunnug 1 paper.
These discoveries established an increasingly detailed picture of ancient cannabis use. But the evidence remained associated with plant remains and objects rather than chemical traces in the people themselves.
Tunnug 1 adds that missing piece.
There is an important chemical detail from the wider region, and it is easy to misread. Ren and colleagues used ancient cannabis from the Jiayi Cemetery near Turpan, dated between 790 and 520 BC, as a chemical reference sample: it showed that CBN, CBD and related compounds are preserved in ancient cannabis. Against that reference, the CBN residues inside the Jirzankal braziers indicated cannabis expressing higher THC levels than typically found in wild plants.
The Jiayi material itself was the yardstick, not proof of elevated THC. But the comparison shows potent cannabis was being burned in the region's funeral rituals by about 500 BC — even though the seeds recovered from Tunnug 1 itself appear to have come from wild plants.
The Seeds Could Hold a Much Bigger Genetic Story
The hair findings provide evidence that the researchers interpret as ancient consumption. The seeds may help researchers investigate something much larger: how cannabis spread and changed across Eurasia.
The Tunnug 1 team has already begun sequencing DNA recovered from the ancient seeds.
Caspari has described their preservation as excellent.
That creates an opportunity to investigate the genetic history of cannabis plants from a period when Scythian societies were developing across the Eurasian steppe.
The seeds likely came from wild plants. This is an important limitation because their presence does not demonstrate that the Scythians cultivated cannabis or deliberately selected plants for higher THC content.
Researchers also cannot determine the ancient plants' THC concentrations from the burial's seed evidence.
But sequencing the DNA could help trace the plants' relationships to other cannabis populations and investigate how cannabis spread across the steppe.
The genetic analysis could help investigate where these plants fit within the broader history of cannabis domestication and spread. Whether it can identify when or where humans began selecting plants for psychoactive strength remains an open question.
The Jirzankal braziers show that potent plants were being burned in the region's funerals a few centuries later. Tunnug's own seeds, however, appear to represent wild plants.
Whether future genetic analysis can connect these different archaeological populations is one of the most interesting questions emerging from the discovery.
What We Know, and What the Evidence Cannot Tell Us
The significance of Tunnug 1 should not obscure the limits of the research.
The molecular evidence supports cannabis consumption by individuals buried at the site, but it cannot reconstruct exactly what they experienced.
Researchers cannot establish the THC content of the plants represented by the seeds, how much cannabis was consumed or how it entered the body.
Whether the cannabis was smoked, vaporized or ingested remains unconfirmed.
The hair analysis identifies molecular traces consistent with CBN and weaker signals consistent with THC. Those findings support the interpretation of psychoactive cannabis use, but they cannot measure intoxication or establish anyone's state of mind.
The wild-seed evidence also does not prove deliberate cultivation for potency.
The hair interpretation also has a named scientific critic. Volker Auwärter, head of forensic toxicology at the University Medical Center Freiburg, told the Associated Press the hair analysis is "scientifically weak" because the data cannot distinguish consumption from external exposure — hair buried alongside cannabis for 2,800 years could have picked up compounds from the burial itself. Elisa Guerra Doce of the University of Valladolid, who studies psychoactive substances in European prehistory, gave the opposite assessment: toxicological hair analysis is an established archaeological tool, and she credited the team with showing the cannabis "was not merely deposited as a funerary offering but was actually consumed by individuals associated with the burial rite." The disagreement does not dismiss the find. It defines exactly what is settled about it, and what is not.
This is why the researchers' distinction matters. Tunnug 1 represents the earliest direct archaeological evidence currently identified for cannabis consumption through human tissue, not proof that the Scythians invented cannabis cultivation or were the first people to experience its intoxicating effects.
For cannabis history, Tunnug 1 changes two important parts of the conversation.
First, it moves the archaeological evidence beyond seeds, pipes, braziers and historical accounts. Researchers have identified molecular traces consistent with cannabis consumption in the preserved hair of people who lived approximately 2,800 years ago.
Second, the discovery opens a new genetic investigation. More than 1,400 cannabis seeds recovered from a royal Scythian tomb are now becoming material for DNA research that could help explain how cannabis spread across the Eurasian steppe and how humans eventually began selecting plants for psychoactive characteristics.
The ancient Scythians left behind more than a burial ritual. They left behind biological evidence of their relationship with cannabis and a collection of seeds that may help scientists reconstruct a much older chapter of cannabis genetics.
The hair provides molecular evidence that researchers interpret as consumption. The seeds may help explain the plant's journey.
Read next
Sources
- Caspari, Gino, et al. "Direct Evidence for Psychoactive Cannabis Use 2800 Years Ago." Science, vol. 394, no. 6824, 2026, pp. 649–653. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aeg3800 — Primary research supporting the Tunnug 1 discovery, including the archaeological context, seed recovery and dating, hair analysis, molecular findings, interpretation of psychoactive consumption and limitations of the evidence.
- University of Bern and Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology. "Cannabis Was Used as an Intoxicant as Early as 2,800 Years Ago." Official institutional announcement, 5 Nov. 2026. https://phys.org/news/2026-11-cannabis-intoxicant-early-years.html — The research announcement containing Caspari's statements, the interpretation of the wild seeds, and qualifications concerning what the archaeological and chemical evidence can establish.
- Dunham, Will. "Siberian Burial Site Reveals Ancient Use of Cannabis as an Intoxicant." Reuters, 5 Nov. 2026. https://www.reuters.com/science/siberian-burial-site-reveals-ancient-use-cannabis-an-intoxicant-2026-11-05/ — Reports the burial mound's dimensions, the significance of the hair findings, the earliest-direct-evidence framing and the research team's progress with DNA sequencing.
- Keaten, Jamey, and Philipp Jenne. "Seeds, Preserved Hair in Tomb Point to Oldest Signs of Cannabis High 2,800 Years Ago, Study Suggests." Associated Press, 5 Nov. 2026. — Independent expert responses: forensic toxicologist Volker Auwärter's contamination criticism and archaeologist Elisa Guerra Doce's defense of the hair analysis; also confirms the Tunnug 1 excavation began in 2017.
- Ren, Meng, et al. "The Origins of Cannabis Smoking: Chemical Residue Evidence from the First Millennium BCE in the Pamirs." Science Advances, vol. 5, no. 6, 2019. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6561734/ — Documents CBN residues in wooden braziers at Jirzankal Cemetery and evidence of cannabis burning in ancient funerary rituals; also the source of the Jiayi Cemetery chemical-reference comparison.
- Russo, Ethan B., et al. "Phytochemical and Genetic Analyses of Ancient Cannabis from Central Asia." Journal of Experimental Botany, vol. 59, no. 15, 2008, pp. 4171–4182. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/ern260 — Supports the Yanghai burial discussion, including the 789-gram cannabis cache and the identification of THC and CBN in the recovered plant material.
- Phelan, Matthew. "Archaeologists Excavated a 2,800-Year-Old Siberian Burial Mound. It Was Packed With Cannabis." Gizmodo, 5 Nov. 2026. https://gizmodo.com/horseback-riding-siberian-nomads-got-high-on-cannabis-2800-years-ago-the-oldest-evidence-yet-2000835823 — Additional reporting on the recovered seed-count breakdown and the approximately 560-parts-per-billion average CBN concentration identified in the hair samples.
- Jiang, Hongen, et al. "Ancient Cannabis Burial Shroud in a Central Eurasian Cemetery." Economic Botany, vol. 70, no. 3, 2016, pp. 213–221. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12231-016-9351-1 — Primary archaeological study of the Jiayi Cemetery cannabis burials near Turpan, the material later used as the chemical reference in the Jirzankal research.
- Herodotus. The Histories, Book IV, sections 73–75. Translated by A. D. Godley, Harvard University Press, 1920–1925. — The original account of the Scythian post-burial cleansing rite: hemp seeds thrown on red-hot stones inside felt-covered structures.
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