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Cannabis Usage

We have evidence of cannabis used by both the Pontic and Altai Scythians.

Herodotus describes the Pontic Scythians' usage practices (Histories 4.73-75), initially in relation to a post-funeral context:

After the burial the Scythians cleanse themselves as follows: they anoint and wash their heads and, for their bodies, set up three poles leaning together to a point and cover these over with wool mats; then, in the space so enclosed to the best of their ability, they make a pit in the center beneath the poles and the mats and throw red-hot stones into it.

They have hemp growing in their country, very like flax, except that the hemp is much thicker and taller. This grows both of itself and also by their cultivation, and the Thracians even make garments of it which are very like linen; no one, unless he were an expert in hemp, could determine whether they were hempen or linen; whoever has never seen hemp before will think the garment linen.

The Scythians then take the seed of this hemp and, crawling in under the mats, throw it on the red-hot stones, where it smoulders and sends forth such fumes that no Greek vapor-bath could surpass it. The Scythians howl in their joy at the vapor-bath. This serves them instead of bathing, for they never wash their bodies with water. But their women pound cypress and cedar and frankincense wood on a rough stone, adding water also, and with the thick stuff thus pounded they anoint their bodies and faces, as a result of which not only does a fragrant scent come from them, but when on the second day they take off the ointment, their skin becomes clear and shining.

In addition to this account, evidence of cannabis/hemp seeds has been discovered in relation to several burials> McPartland & Hegman (2018) note at least a dozen such burials/sites have been identified in Eurasia; Polosmak & Trunova (2004) discuss hemp seeds in copper dishes in a Pazyryk context; Long et al. (2017) provide a review of findings, including additional burials with seeds from the Taklamakan Desert region.

References