25,000-Year-Old Teeth Yield Earliest Evidence of Drug Use
Researchers found arecoline traces and deep tooth grooves in two skeletons, suggesting betel nut was used as a pain reliever and psychoactive drug.
- On Wednesday, September 9, 2026, Griffith University researchers announced the discovery of 25,000-year-old skeletal remains in Sulawesi, Indonesia, showing evidence of habitual betel nut sucking by ancient hunter-gatherers, pushing back the timeline of human drug use by over 10,000 years.
- Archaeologists previously believed psychoactive drug use emerged around 13,000 years ago with the Neolithic advent of farming and fermented drinks in Israel, but this Sulawesi discovery predates those agricultural traditions by over 10,000 years, fundamentally reshaping the history of human substance use.
- Professor Adam Brumm and colleagues at Griffith University identified deep, rounded tooth grooves in the remains; laboratory experiments using artificial saliva and cloned human receptors confirmed that sucking intact betel nuts releases arecoline, the psychoactive compound.
- Sucking the abrasive seeds caused severe dental damage, exposing sensitive pulp chambers and leading to chronic infections in a 'vicious cycle' where users likely persisted with the practice to soothe the very toothaches it created, Brumm suggested.
- Modern betel quid chewing remains popular among roughly 600 million people today, though this ancient tradition carries significant public health burdens, including links to oral cancer and other serious conditions documented in contemporary users.
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156 Articles
Ancient humans used psychoactive drugs dating back to the Ice Age, study finds
A new study on ancient human remains finds evidence for the habitual use of betel nuts, dating back to the Ice Age. The finding offers some of the oldest archaeological evidence of psychoactive drug use, and potential insights into how use of betel nuts, now popular for their stimulant effects, evolved.
An Indonesian hunter-gatherer 25,000 years ago drugged himself with mind-altering nuts.
Archaeologists have discovered the oldest evidence of drug use on Sulawesi. Two bites tell of betel nuts in the ice age. And of a fatal cycle.
25,000-Year-Old Teeth Reveal Ancient Humans Were Addicted to Nut Sucking
Humans are no strangers to drug use. We’ve been blowing our minds out of our skulls for thousands of years. It’s just that we previously thought we waited a bit longer as a species before we dabbled in mind-expansion. New research published in Science Advances suggests we can push the timeline of human drug use […]
Scientists find evidence humans were getting high 25,000 years ago: Here's what they used
Humans may have been using mind-altering drugs as far back as 25,000 years ago, long before farming, cities or written language even existed.Scientists have found what they believe is the oldest known evidence of habitual drug use in the...
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