31/10/2023
How could we celebrate the spooky season without posting a skeleton?
Especially when the one pictured was buried with nearly 800g of cannabis!
At the end of the 20th century, Uyghur farmers cultivating the land at the base of the Huoyan Shan (‘Flaming Mountains’) in the Gobi Desert near Turpan, Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region, China uncovered a vast ancient cemetery that was later attributed to the Gushı culture. The first known reports of this clan were 2000 years ago in the Chinese historical record, Hou Hanshu, and described 'nomadic light-haired blue-eyed Caucasians speaking an Indo-European language'.
One tomb contained the skeletal remains of a male of high social status of an estimated age of 45 years, whose accoutrements included bridles, archery equipment, a kongou harp, and other materials which supported the theory of his identity as a shamanic practitioner.
By the head and feet of the person's remains lay a leather basket and wooden bowl, both of which were filled with total of 789 g of vegetative matter. This was initially thought to be Coriandrum sativum L. (coriander), however, after meticulous botanical examination, it was found to be Cannabis sativa L.!
The cannabis sample was analyzed. Due to the seed size, colour, and morphology, it was concluded that it was cultivated rather than merely gathered from wild plants. The considerable amount of cannabis present without any large stalks or branches also implied that it was gathered from multiple plants. Furthermore, no obvious male cannabis plant parts were evident, implying their exclusion or possible removal by human intervention, as these are pharmacologically less psychotropic.
