The foragers on Sulawesi were engaging in a form of betel nut use that may represent an earlier, simpler version of the practice, before the technology of the quid was developed.

Fourth, it raises the question of when and how the quid tradition developed.

The leap from “suck the whole nut” to “slice the nut, mix with lime and betel leaf” is not trivial.

It requires knowledge of multiple plants and their interactions, knowledge of how lime alters the chemistry of the preparation, and probably generations of experimentation.

The Sulawesi evidence suggests that the simpler practice of nut-sucking came first, and the elaborated quid tradition developed later — a hypothesis that the archaeological record in Southeast Asia will need to be re-examined to evaluate.

Sulawesi’s Unique Archaeological Importance