CAVEMEN who got a buzz from sucking on wild nuts are thought to have been the first human drug users — 25,000 years ago in the Ice Age.
Archaeologists found ancient communities used betel nut, a natural stimulant still popular in Asia.
Archaeologists have found ancient communities used betel nut, a natural stimulant, 25,000 years ago Credit: SWNS
Experts analysed the teeth of two rare human skeletons from Indonesia Credit: Getty
Until now scientists had believed that beer brewed in Israel 11,000BC was the beginning of our prehistoric benders.
Experts analysed the teeth of two rare human skeletons from Indonesia dating to between 4,300BC and 23,000BC.
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This was a crossover between the Stone Age and Ice Age when people would have lived as hunter-gatherers and slept in caves.
Scientists found unusual patterns of wear on the teeth that suggested the cavemen regularly sucked on “hard round objects”.
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Tests of chemical residue on the teeth narrowed this down to betel nuts, or areca nuts.
Study author Prof Adam Brumm, of Australia’s Griffith University, said: “Emerging by up to 25,000 years ago, betel nut sucking may be the earliest evidence for drug use in the world.”
“They are now the fourth most-widely used psychoactive substance, after alcohol, caffeine and nicotine.
“Over time, however, sucking these hard, abrasive seeds wore down the foragers’ teeth so badly that in some cases the inner pulp chamber became completely exposed. This would have been extremely painful, caused difficulty eating and greatly increased the rate of chronic tooth infection.
“So while this habit may have been a remedy for toothache, years of prolonged nut-sucking eventually caused much worse dental problems.”
