Where the Israel evidence was about fermentation — a specific chemical transformation of plant materials — the Sulawesi evidence is about direct use of a plant’s natural psychoactive compounds.

No processing.

No brewing.

Just the plant, sucked directly, releasing its compounds.

This is a simpler form of use, and it is consistent with the idea that the most basic human relationship with psychoactive plants — chewing, sucking, or otherwise ingesting them directly to get their effects — is very old.

Older, apparently, than fermentation.

Older than the agricultural revolution that was once thought to be the precondition for regular intoxicant use.

The study authors note that human drug use is probably older than the Sulawesi evidence.