The Earliest Use of Drugs Introduced Prehistoric Humans into a "Spiral of Pain"

- The skeletal remains of two prehistoric foragers found on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi show clear signs that humans began using mind-altering substances thousands of years ago. The areca nut, a seed from the areca palm fruit, is the fourth most widely used psychoactive substance in the world, after caffeine, alcohol, and nicotine.

About one in ten people today, mostly in Asia and the Pacific, practice the tradition of chewing a betel quid, which is a processed areca nut mixed with slaked lime. Slaked lime, also known as calcium hydroxide, is essential for triggering a chemical reaction that accelerates the absorption of the psychoactive compound arecoline into the bloodstream.

Those who chew betel quid experience a mild euphoria and increased alertness. But when did humans first start experimenting with narcotic substances?

Adam Brumm, a professor of archaeology at the Australian Centre for Human Evolution at Griffith University, told Afaq News: "Archaeologists have long believed that the earliest traditions of drug use emerged around 13,000 years ago, when nomadic hunter-gatherers began to domesticate plants and settle down to live as farmers." During what is known as the "agricultural revolution," farmers in the area now known as Israel brewed beer from barley for the first time.

Previous evidence suggests that chewing areca nut was common in Southeast Asia at least 4,000 years ago. However, Brumm's team discovered evidence indicating that prehistoric foragers were sucking on whole areca nuts between 25,000 and 16,000 years ago.

This practice later evolved into chewing the areca nut, which remains popular to this day. Brom, the lead author of a new study published in the journal Science Advances on Wednesday, and his colleagues believe that the whole areca nut, although less potent than areca rolls, was used to relieve pain, but it triggered a series of consequences that ultimately led to more pain.

He explained that "the new findings from Sulawesi indicate that groups of fruit and plant gatherers in some parts of the world were not only using psychoactive plant materials much earlier, but were also relying on their neurological effects and suffering from the negative consequences of using them for extended periods." Fossils carrying stories were discovered by Brom's team in 2017 in the Liang Bulu Betuwe cave in South Sulawesi, including a piece of the upper jawbone of an adult fruit and plant gatherer who lived between 25,000 and 16,000 years ago.

Three of his teeth are still preserved, two of which bear deep, rounded grooves. Prehistoric remains are rare in tropical environments like Sulawesi due to poor preservation.

About 33 kilometers away, remains of another adult fruit and plant gatherer were found in the Liang Kaboulombo cave, whose teeth bear the same grooves, dating back to between 7600 and 6300 years ago. The skeleton was also discovered in 2017, but Brom's team only studied its teeth three years ago.

According to the researchers, both individuals were at least 35 years old at the time of their deaths. The pattern of tooth wear did not match previous evidence of chewing areca nuts, suggesting that the grooves were likely caused by the habit of sucking on hard, round objects, such as whole areca nuts.

The analysis of tooth tissues revealed traces of arecoline, the main compound responsible for pain relief in betel nut. Brom stated, "The dental health of fruit and plant gatherers was poor, so it is likely that chewing betel nut was a traditional remedy for tooth pain.

However, these hard, round seeds are abrasive, and regularly chewing them for long periods gradually led to severe tooth erosion, exposing the sensitive inner pulp chamber, which is the "living part" of the tooth." He added that exposure of the pulp chamber caused severe pain, made eating difficult, and could allow infections to spread to the roots of the teeth and jawbone.

He continued, "At this stage, we suspect that these individuals were pathologically addicted to chewing betel nut to alleviate oral pain caused by this cultural practice. Thus, they found themselves trapped in a vicious cycle."

Without the strong slaked lime that enhances the psychoactive effects of betel nut, Brom and his team wondered about the effects this substance might have had on the consciousness of fruit and plant gatherers. The team soaked betel nut in artificial saliva, then tested the resulting solutions on cloned human receptors and proteins that regulate neural activity, which were grown inside frog egg cells.

Brom said, "This showed that merely chewing the whole betel nut releases enough arecoline to produce a physiological effect and alter brain functions." The study's authors noted that chewing betel nut was a well-established cultural practice that dates back to the traditions of fruit and plant gatherers and has continued for thousands of years.

Mario Zimmerman, the assistant clinical professor at Boise State University and an archaeobotanist specializing in ancient plants, pointed out that "the new data places the betel nut in a completely different social context." Paleoethnobotany studies the remains of ancient plants to understand how humans utilized different plant species.

Zimmerman continued: "Our team's results last year proved the early use of betel nut among a hierarchical community from the Bronze Age." He added that the new study provides evidence of the regular use of betel nut among socially equal individuals.

The authors of the study hypothesize that this practice may have developed into chewing betel nut around 4,000 years ago, with the arrival of Austronesians in Sulawesi, who were settlers from the Neolithic era whose agricultural communities expanded from Taiwan. Brom said: "We believe that the Austronesian farmers saw the indigenous people of Sulawesi chewing betel nut, adopted this practice, and added their own innovation: chewing the nut with slaked lime.

Interestingly, they also used this substance for pottery making." Brom tried chewing betel nut himself, describing the experience as "clearly unpalatable" due to the astringent liquid that comes out of it, but he felt a numbness in his mouth, which could have provided fruit and plant gatherers with temporary relief from tooth pain, despite its later harmful effects on dental health.

Zimmerman stated that the research highlights that the consumption of substances outside the dietary system has been part of the human experience for a long time. Now, Brom wants to explore how ancient other common habits related to substance use are.

He said: "Even intoxication resulting from consuming fermented fruit is not exclusive to humans; birds do it too. I suspect that fruit and plant gatherers in various parts of the world were making and consuming fermented beverages long before the advent of agriculture in the Neolithic era, about 13,000 years ago, a long time ago."