Archaeologists found the world's oldest evidence of habitual drug use in the teeth of a hunter-gatherer who lived up to 25,000 years ago, who may have regularly sucked on mind-altering betel nuts.
Sources
- Smart News: Science News - Smithsonian Magazine (smithsonianmag.com)
- https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2026-09-10/earliest-evidence-of-human-drug-use-discovered-in-indonesia/107130656 (abc.net.au)
- https://edition.cnn.com/2026/09/12/science/betel-nut-prehistoric-use (edition.cnn.com)
- https://news.griffith.edu.au/2026/09/10/ice-age-origins-of-one-of-humanitys-oldest-drug-habits/ (news.griffith.edu.au)
More in History
- All but one person aboard the Dornier Do 24T-3 died in the 1945 Resko Przymorskie crash.
- The Soviet submarine K-21 fired four torpedoes at the Tirpitz from a considerable distance on 5 July 1942.
- John Marshall Harlan and his family owned slaves.
- Juan Cabrero fought as a professional combatant during the Granada War in Spain.
- Clovis spear points have been found at sites where mammoths were killed and butchered, as well as with fossils of extinct bison, horses, and camels.
- James Skinner's treatise on India's caste system was based on Sanskrit sources that were later translated into Persian.