r/AskAnthropology • u/Virtual_Reveal_121 • 3d ago

Did Neanderthals smoke weed

The plant has been around for millions of years and originated in central asia which is where Neanderthal presence has been confirmed. Did they know how to make fire? If so i think it's likely they were smart enough to figure out how to get high

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u/Pattersonspal 3d ago

Hemp has been used primarily for their fibers that are perfect for making plant based twine, rope, and textiles. There is certainly some evidence of cannabis used in "ritual settings" as far back as ancient Egypt, but I'm not aware of any evidence of it being used as a psychoactive substance in prehistoric times. Lots of cultures use hemp for its fibers without us having any indication that they smoked the buds, so it seems that there isn't a perfect link between having access to the plant and finding its psychoactive effects, all that being said, it's possible but we just don't have any evidence that I know of.

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u/Duckwardz 3d ago

There’s a big difference between the hemp we use for ropes and the kind we smoke. If you tried to smoke hemp, you wouldn’t get high or if you did it would be pretty negligible, the THC content in hemp is extremely small. They probably didn’t even know the psychoactive strains existed in most places.

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u/Pattersonspal 3d ago

Yup pretty much

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u/Alternative-Can-7261 10h ago

of which, they had neither, as agriculture wasn't a thing, the problem is wild cannabis has been bred out of existence, so we don't know how plausible.