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

The wild areca species most closely related to the cultivated Areca catechu are found in this region.

The fact that the oldest evidence for areca nut use comes from Sulawesi — a central island in this native range — is consistent with the hypothesis that the use began where the palm was naturally available and then spread, with the palm or alongside it, into the broader regions where the practice now exists.

The cultural spread of betel nut use through the Pacific Islands — where it is known in various forms across Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia — is one of the most interesting cases of cultural diffusion in this domain.

The practice apparently spread with the Austronesian-speaking peoples who colonized the Pacific from Taiwan approximately 3,000 to 4,000 years ago, carrying their plants (including the areca palm) and their cultural practices (including betel nut use) with them.