The 25,000-Year-Old Teeth That Just Rewrote The History Of Human Drug Use

The diversity of these plants, and the independent discovery of their psychoactive properties in multiple different cultures across multiple different continents, is evidence of the depth and universality of human interest in plant-based psychoactive effects.

The Sulawesi evidence adds a specific data point to this broader story: the betel nut habit that began at least 25,000 years ago in the karst caves of South Sulawesi is now the oldest known example of intentional, habitual use of any psychoactive plant.

It extends the human-plant relationship in this specific domain back into the Ice Age.

The relationship continues.

The 600 to 700 million people who use betel nut today are, in a pharmacological and behavioral sense, engaged in a practice that is 25,000 years old.