Reacción a "What may be the oldest evidence of drug use by pre-agricultural hunter-gatherers has been discovered"

The use of psychoactive and/or medicinal substances has been part of human life for millennia. It is a subject that generates a great deal of interest and attention in today’s society because it allows us to connect deeply with the past. To give an example, in Western societies, the consumption of alcohol, tobacco and other psychoactive substances continues to be frequently associated with certain rites, ceremonies or activities of social significance.

The main innovation lies in the integration of two lines of evidence: the visible marks left on the teeth and their biochemical analysis, to put forward the hypothesis that the chewing of betel nuts – a practice still widespread in South-East Asia – was for medicinal or recreational purposes.

If the findings of this study are confirmed, the evidence presented would push back the consumption of betel nuts in South-East Asia by several thousand years, as the oldest individual has been dated to between 25,000 and 16,000 years before the present. This finding extends beyond its significance for the region and the specific species consumed, as it enhances our understanding of the complex and varied relationship between hunter-gatherer societies and the plants and environment in which they lived.

Finally, this close contact over millennia would have led to the domestication of betel nuts and thus enabled this custom to survive to the present day.