Bones with Marijuana “shroud”
Credit: Hongen Jiang / University of Chinese Academy of Sciences

Archeologists in China have uncovered a 2,500-year-old gravesite that contains the bones of a man draped in freshly harvested marijuana plants—with the budding tops lopped off. As first reported in National Geographic, researchers say the “extraordinary cache” helps deepen our understanding of the plant’s ritual and medicinal use in ancient Eurasian cultures.

According to research findings reported in the journal Economic Botany, a team led by archeologist Hongen Jiang unearthed the burial site of a man, approximately 35 years old with Caucasian features, from a cemetery in China’s Turpan Basin. At the time of the man’s death, the area was known as the Gushi Kingdom and the desert oasis there was an important stop on the Silk Road.

The remains of the man rested on a wooden pallet with a reed pillow beneath his head. Thirteen marijuana plants up to three feet long were […]