People didn't wait for glassblowers to start burning cannabis. Ancient writers and modern lab tests both point to a long history of smoke.
Herodotus and the Scythian steam tents
Around 440 BCE, the Greek historian Herodotus described the Scythians, nomadic horse people of the Eurasian steppe. He wrote that they built small felt tents, threw hemp seeds onto red-hot stones, and howled with delight in the smoke. Archaeologists later found hemp seeds and small braziers in frozen burial mounds at Pazyryk in Siberia's Altai Mountains, which fits his account closely.
The Jirzankal braziers, Pamir Mountains
In 2019, researchers published results from a cemetery in the Pamir Mountains of western China, about 2,500 years old. Wooden braziers held burned stones with cannabis residue, and it was higher in THC than typical wild plants. That suggests people were picking or growing stronger plants on purpose, likely for ritual burning at funerals.
The altar at Tel Arad
In 2020, scientists analyzed residue on a limestone altar at a shrine in Tel Arad, Israel, dated to roughly the 8th century BCE. It contained cannabis compounds mixed with animal dung, which would have helped it burn slowly with heat. It's one of the earliest known signs of cannabis in the ancient Near East.
Medicine in ancient China
Chinese tradition credits the legendary emperor Shennong with cataloging medicinal plants, including cannabis. The text bearing his name was actually compiled centuries later, but it shows that cannabis held a place in early Chinese medicine.
The takeaway
Ritual, medicine and celebration: humans have been finding reasons to gather around the smoke for thousands of years. The tools just got better.
See how far the tools have come in From Gourds to Glass: A Short History of the Bong.
