And the story is not over.

It is, if anything, just beginning to be fully told.

What Makes A Record: The Philosophy Of “Earliest Known”

The Sulawesi study establishes what its authors call the “earliest recorded evidence” for habitual drug use.

The word “recorded” is doing important philosophical work here, and its implications are worth unpacking.

Science works with evidence.

The oldest evidence we have for a behavior establishes a minimum age for that behavior — a lower bound.

It does not establish the actual origin.