Fourth, the research focus was elsewhere.

The archaeology of prehistoric drug use has been a growing field but one that has focused primarily on better-documented substances in better-preserved contexts — cannabis in Central Asian tombs, mescaline in American Southwest cave contexts, beer residues in Near Eastern sites.

The betel nut did not seem like a candidate for Pleistocene investigation.

The Sulawesi study changes all of this.

The diagnostic wear pattern is now formally documented, the chemical detection method has been validated, and the expectation that drug use was limited to the agricultural period has been refuted.

The Island Biology Of Sulawesi And Its Consequences