Timeline
Oldest Known Crop
8000 BCE
Use of hemp cord in pottery identified at ancient village site dating back over 10,000 years, located in the area of modern day Taiwan. Finding hemp use and cultivation in this date range puts it as one of the first and oldest known human agriculture crops. As explained by Richard Hamilton in the 2009 Scientific American article on sustainable agriculture “Modern humans emerged some 250,000 years ago, yet agriculture is a fairly recent invention, only about 10,000 years old … Agriculture is not natural; it is a human invention. It is also the basis of modern civilization.” This point was also touched on by Carl Sagan in 1977 when he proposed the possibility that marijuana may have actually been world’s first agricultural crop, leading to the development of civilization itself (see 1977, below).
Cannabis Used For Medicine
2,737 BCE
First recorded use of cannabis as medicine by Emperor Shen Neng of China.
Sacred Plant of India
2,000-800 BCE
Bhang (dried cannabis leaves, seeds and stems) is mentioned in the Hindu sacred text Atharvaveda (Science of Charms) as “Sacred Grass”, one of the five sacred plants of India. It is used by medicinally and ritually as an offering to Shiva.
Scythians Cultivate Cannabis
1,500 BCE
Cannabis cultivated in China for food and fiber. Scythians cultivate cannabis and use it to weave fine hemp cloth.
Good Narcotic
700-600 BCE
The Zoroastrian Zend-Avesta, an ancient Persian religious text of several hundred volumes refers to bhang as the “good narcotic.”
Cannabis Seeds For Offerings
700-300 BCE
Scythian tribes leave Cannabis seeds as offerings in royal tombs.
Cannabis Seeds In Pouch
500 BCE
Scythian couple die and are buried with two small tents covering containers for burning incense. Attached to one tent stick was a decorated leather pouch containing wild Cannabis seeds. This closely matches the stories told by Herodotus. The gravesite, discovered in the late 1940s, was in Pazryk, northwest of the Tien Shan Mountains in modern-day Khazakstan. Hemp is introduced into Northern Europe by the Scythians. An urn containing leaves and seeds of the Cannabis plant, unearthed near Berlin, is found and dated to about this time. Use of hemp products spread throughout northern Europe.
Cannabis Use by Scythians
430 BCE
Herodotus reports on both ritual and recreation use of Cannabis by the Scythians (Herodotus The Histories 430 B.C. trans. G. Rawlinson).
Hemp In Greece and China
200 BCE
Hemp rope appears in Greece. Chinese Book of Rites mentions hemp fabric.
Ching Mentions Cannabis
100-0 BCE
The psychotropic properties of Cannabis are mentioned in the newly compiled herbal Pen Ts’ao Ching.
Hashish Buried in Siberia
0-100 CE
Construction of Samaritan gold and glass paste stash box for storing hashish, coriander, or salt, buried in Siberian tomb.
Hemp Rope and Cannabis Analgesic Effects Mentioned
23-79
Pliny the Elder’s The Natural History mentions hemp rope and marijuana’s analgesic effects.
Nero’s Army Dr lists Medical Cannabis
70
Dioscorides, a physician in Nero’s army, lists medical marijuana in his Pharmacopoeia.
Lun claims Hemp Paper Invention
105
Legend suggests that Ts’ai Lun invents hemp paper in China, 200 years after its actual appearance (see 100 BCE above).
Listed on Pharmacopeia
200
The first pharmacopeia of the East lists medical marijuana. Chinese surgeon Hua T’o uses marijuana as an anesthetic.
Cannabis Helps With Pregnancy
300
A young woman in Jerusalem receives medical marijuana during childbirth
Hashish Spreads
900-1000
Scholars debate the pros and cons of eating hashish. Use spreads throughout Arabia.
Hemp In Italy
1000
Hemp ropes appear on Italian ships. Arabic physician Ibn Wahshiyah’s On Poisons warns of marijuana’s potential dangers.
Legends of Hashish and Cannabis
1090-1124
In Khorasan, Persia, Hasan ibn al-Sabbah, recruits followers to commit assassinations…legends develop around their supposed use of hashish. These legends are some of the earliest written tales of the discovery of the inebriating powers of Cannabis and the use of Hashish by a paramilitary organization as a hypnotic (see U.S. military use, 1942 below). Early 12th Century Hashish smoking becomes very popular throughout the Middle East.
Persians Talk about Cannabis
1155-1221
Persian legend of the Sufi master Sheik Haydar’s personal discovery of Cannabis and his own alleged invention of hashish with it’s subsequent spread to Iraq, Bahrain, Egypt, and Syria. Another of the earliest written narratives of the use of Cannabis as an inebriant.
Cannabis in Egypt
1171-1341
During the Ayyubid dynasty of Egypt, Cannabis is introduced by mystic devotees from Syria.
Tales of Hashish
1200 1,001
Nights, an Arabian collection of tales, describes hashish’s intoxicating and aphrodisiac properties.
Cannabis in Africa
13th Centuray
The oldest monograph on hashish, Zahr al-‘arish fi tahrim al-hashish, was written. It has since been lost. Ibn al-Baytar of Spain provides a description of the psychoactive nature of Cannabis. Arab traders bring Cannabis to the Mozambique coast of Africa.
Cannabis In Europe
1271-1295
Journeys of Marco Polo in which he gives second-hand reports of the story of Hasan ibn al-Sabbah and his “assassins” using hashish. First-time reports of Cannabis have been brought to the attention of Europe.
Cannabis Use Spreads
1300
Ethiopian pipes containing marijuana suggest the herb has spread from Egypt to the rest of Africa.
