http://www.nbcnews.com/i...a-stash-totally-busted/
(Full article in link above) Nearly two pounds of still-green plant material found in a 2,700-year-old grave in the Gobi Desert has just been identified as the world's oldest marijuana stash, according to a paper in the latest issue of the Journal of Experimental Botany. A barrage of tests proves the marijuana possessed potent psychoactive properties and casts doubt on the theory that the ancients only grew the plant for hemp in order to make clothing, rope and other objects. They apparently were getting high too. Lead author Ethan Russo told Discovery News that the marijuana "is quite similar" to what's grown today. "We know from both the chemical analysis and genetics that it could produce THC (tetrahydrocannabinolic acid synthase, the main psychoactive chemical in the plant)," he explained, adding that no one could feel its effects today, due to decomposition over the millennia. Russo served as a visiting professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Botany while conducting the study. He and his international team analyzed the cannabis, which was excavated at the Yanghai Tombs near Turpan, China. It was found lightly pounded in a wooden bowl in a leather basket near the head of a blue-eyed Caucasian man who died when he was about 45. The researchers believe the individual was a shaman from the Gushi people, who spoke a now-extinct language called Tocharian that was similar to Celtic.
So there were blue eyed Caucasian shamans who used marijuana 2,700 years ago?
Fascinating stuff... I'm going to try to dig up some better information on this find, I was specially interested in these Caucasian marijuana shamans...
Here's some nonsense speculation: The rasta say that marijuana was the first plant to grow from king Solomon's grave...is it possible that they were putting hemp and hemp seeds into the graves of powerful people? In which case hemp growing from their graves would be expected...
-eg
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(A few other points of interest from the article)
The size of seeds mixed in with the leaves, along with their color and other characteristics, indicate the marijuana came from a cultivated strain. Before the burial, someone had carefully picked out all of the male plant parts, which are less psychoactive, so Russo and his team believe there is little doubt as to why the cannabis was grown
Although other cultures in the area used hemp to make various goods as early as 7,000 years ago, additional tomb finds indicate the Gushi fabricated their clothing from wool and made their rope out of reed fibers. The scientists are unsure if the marijuana was grown for more spiritual or medical purposes, but it's evident that the blue-eyed man was buried with a lot of it.
This is great, it's obvious this cannabis was being used as an (intoxicant) entheogen or a medicine...
-eg
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I would be so tempted to try a few hits. Images of broken light,
Which dance before me like a million eyes,
They call me on and on...
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spinCycle wrote:I would be so tempted to try a few hits. Sadly, all the THC has likely degraded over the last 2700 years  I've a full joint of some perhaps 20 year old cannabis, had completely lost its flavor and psychoactivity, though it did look perfectly beautiful.. entheogenic-gnosis wrote:So there were blue eyed Caucasian shamans who used marijuana 2,700 years ago? And Celtic-language groups in western China? Fascinating indeed.
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spinCycle wrote:I would be so tempted to try a few hits. Kerelsk is correct, all the active compounds had long since degraded.... When i was 13 I once found a 15 year old (or so) pipe of my father's, it was stashed in an old box forgotten in his basement, I was in a small town in a rural state and ganja was rare, so I scraped the old resin and tried to smoke it...total failure. As I've grown older and understand the chemistry, it's no wonder why... The article mentions this: Quote: A barrage of tests proves the marijuana possessed potent psychoactive properties and casts doubt on the theory that the ancients only grew the plant for hemp in order to make clothing, rope and other objects.
They apparently were getting high too.
Lead author Ethan Russo told Discovery News that the marijuana "is quite similar" to what's grown today.
"We know from both the chemical analysis and genetics that it could produce THC (tetrahydrocannabinolic acid synthase, the main psychoactive chemical in the plant)," he explained, adding that no one could feel its effects today, due to decomposition over the millennia. -eg
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kerelsk wrote:entheogenic-gnosis wrote:So there were blue eyed Caucasian shamans who used marijuana 2,700 years ago? And Celtic-language groups in western China? Fascinating indeed. This was my main interest here, this Caucasian "blue eyed" "shaman" that was found burried with the marijuana… Celtic (Caucasian) marijuana shamans 2,700 years ago??? And in the Gobi Desert? This article left me with far more questions than anything... Quote: The researchers believe the individual was a shaman from the Gushi people, who spoke a now-extinct language called Tocharian that was similar to Celtic. -from the article Does anybody know about these "gushi" people? ...Or know of a good information source regarding these people and their Caucasian marijuana shamans? -eg
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Gushi (Chinese: 姑師文化; pinyin: Gūshī wénhuà  or Jushi (Chinese: 車師文化; pinyin: Jūshī wénhuà , was an ancient culture around the Turpan basin,[1] in what is today the Xinjiang region of China. The area around Ayding Lake in the Turpan region was said to be the territory of the Gushi people. According to historical accounts, these people "lived in tents, followed the grasses and waters, and had considerable knowledge of agriculture. They owned cattle, horses, camels, sheep and goats. They were proficient with bows and arrows".[2] The Gushi and the kingdom of Kroran were linked in the account of Zhang Qian, presumably because they were under the control of the Xiongnu. In the years around 60 BC, Gushi fell to the Chinese after the Battle of Jushi and was subsequently known as Jushi. Jushi then further differentiated into two kingdoms, the "Nearer Jushi" (whose capital was Turfan) and the "Further Jushi" (in the Jimsar area) The Yanghai Tombs, a vast ancient cemetery (54 000 m2) attributed to this culture, have revealed the 2,700-year-old grave of a shaman. Near the head and foot of the shaman lay a large leather basket and wooden bowl filled with 789g of cannabis, superbly preserved by climatic and burial conditions. An international team demonstrated that this material contained tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive component of cannabis. The cannabis was presumably employed by this culture as a medicinal or psychoactive agent, or an aid to divination. This is the oldest documentation of cannabis as a pharmacologically active agent.[4] The cache of cannabis is about 2,700 years old and was clearly "cultivated for psychoactive purposes," rather than as fibre for clothing or as food, says a research paper in the Journal of Experimental Botany.[4] The 789 grams of dried cannabis was buried alongside a light-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian man,[citation needed] likely a shaman of the Gushi culture, near Turpan in northwestern China. The extremely dry conditions and alkaline soil acted as preservatives, allowing a team of scientists to carefully analyze the stash, which still looked green though it had lost its distinctive odour The 789 grams of dried cannabis was buried alongside a light-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian man,[citation needed] likely a shaman of the Gushi culture, near Turpan in northwestern China -from Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gushi_culture
Information is pretty sparse...I did do some quick investigation, and turned up very little... -eg
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The Tarim mummies are a series of mummies discovered in the Tarim Basin in present-day Xinjiang, China, which date from 1800 BCE to the first centuries BCE.[1][2] The mummies, particularly the early ones, are frequently associated with the presence of the Indo-European Tocharian languages in the Tarim Basin,[3] although the evidence is not totally conclusive and many centuries separate these mummies from the first attestation of the Tocharian languages in writing. Victor H. Mair's team concluded that the mummies are Europoid, likely speakers of Indo-European languages Many of the mummies have been found in very good condition, owing to the dryness of the desert and the desiccation it produced in the corpses. The mummies share many typical Europoid body features (elongated bodies, angular faces, recessed eyes), and many of them have their hair physically intact, ranging in color from blond to red to deep brown, and generally long, curly and braided. Their costumes, and especially textiles, may indicate a common origin with Indo-European neolithic clothing techniques or a common low-level textile technology. Chärchän man wore a red twill tunic and tartan leggings. Textile expert Elizabeth Wayland Barber, who examined the tartan-style cloth, discusses similarities between it and fragments recovered from salt mines associated with the Hallstatt culture.[8] As a result of the arid conditions and exceptional preservation, tattoos have been identified on mummies from several sites around the Tarim Basin, including Qäwrighul, Yanghai, Shengjindian, Shanpula, Zaghunluq, and Qizilchoqa. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarim_mummies
Above is some information regarding Caucasian people's in ancient China... I'm unsure how these mummies relate to the "Caucasian gushi ganja shaman" I'm still learning as I go... -eg
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Another article on the same topic:
was buried alongside a light-haired, blue-eyed Caucasian man, likely a shaman of the Gushi culture, near Turpan in northwestern China. The extremely dry conditions and alkaline soil acted as preservatives, allowing a team of scientists to carefully analyze the stash, which still looked green though it had lost its distinctive odour. "To our knowledge, these investigations provide the oldest documentation of cannabis as a pharmacologically active agent," says the newly published paper, whose lead author was American neurologist Dr. Ethan B. Russo. Remnants of cannabis have been found in ancient Egypt and other sites, and the substance has been referred to by authors such as the Greek historian Herodotus. But the tomb stash is the oldest so far that could be thoroughly tested for its properties. The 18 researchers, most of them based in China, subjected the cannabis to a battery of tests, including carbon dating and genetic analysis. Scientists also tried to germinate 100 of the seeds found in the cache, without success. The marijuana was found to have a relatively high content of THC, the main active ingredient in cannabis, but the sample was too old to determine a precise percentage. http://www.thestar.com/b...nd_in_chinese_tomb.html
The region of China where the tomb is located, Xinjiang, is considered an original source of many cannabis strains worldwide... -eg entheogenic-gnosis attached the following image(s):  oldest-cannabis-stash-found.png (109kb) downloaded 116 time(s). discoverycannabis.jpg (63kb) downloaded 115 time(s).
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It's crazy to review some of these old threads from the beginning of the year, and to think about how much I have learned just in that short amount of time.
-eg
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Much moar could be said about the ancient Yarkand landrace strains, and by who and how these were spread into Khorasan, Gandhara ( Kandahar) and Indian plains, but we believe it wasn't birnds alone. And it probably happened in happy waves.... Quote:....Charas is sometimes collected on the plateaus of Central Asia and the southern Himalayas (Nepal), but both the yield and the quality are poor. The highest yield and best quality of charas resin are obtained from plants grown in Yarkand in Chinese Turkistan in central Asia. In that area there is an extensive natural growth of the plant at altitudes of 3,000 to 5,000 ft. above sea level. Until recent years, the major part of the charas produced in Chinese Turkistan found its way into India through Leh in Kashmir, and was one of the important articles of trade between Central Asia and India. This, however, is no longer the case, as the import of charas into India was entirely prohibited by the Government of (British) India nearly two decades ago. A certain amount is also prepared clandestinely from the cannabis plants growing in some hill areas of India and Nepal and finds its way into various contiguous states.....
Wood et al (1896)!!!  obtained the following constituents from genuine Yarkand charas:
1.5% of a terpene (C 10H 15), boiling point 165°C.
1.75% of a sesquiterpene (C 15H 24), boiling point 258-259°C.
A small amount of a paraffin hydrocarbon, melting point 64°C and
A toxic red oil , yield about 33% of the total, which set to a semi-solid mass on keeping.
This oil was insoluble in water but soluble in alcohol, ether, benzene and other organic solvents. It gave mono-acetyl and monobenzoyl derivatives and was termed cannabinol. It was considered to be the active principle of the drug. In a later paper (1899), the same authors showed that the cannabinol isolated was not a pure compound, but a mixture of at least two compounds having similar physical characters. They retained the name cannabinol for the pure compound C 21H 26O 2which was obtained by hydrolysing the crystalline acetyl derivative (m.p. 75°C). Source: here
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So how do we get our hands on that seed? I bet that Gushi Kush is some fire!
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Intezam wrote:Much moar could be said about the ancient Yarkand landrace strains, and by who and how these were spread into Khorasan, Gandhara ( Kandahar) and Indian plains, but we believe it wasn't birnds alone. And it probably happened in happy waves.... Quote:....Charas is sometimes collected on the plateaus of Central Asia and the southern Himalayas (Nepal), but both the yield and the quality are poor. The highest yield and best quality of charas resin are obtained from plants grown in Yarkand in Chinese Turkistan in central Asia. In that area there is an extensive natural growth of the plant at altitudes of 3,000 to 5,000 ft. above sea level. Until recent years, the major part of the charas produced in Chinese Turkistan found its way into India through Leh in Kashmir, and was one of the important articles of trade between Central Asia and India. This, however, is no longer the case, as the import of charas into India was entirely prohibited by the Government of (British) India nearly two decades ago. A certain amount is also prepared clandestinely from the cannabis plants growing in some hill areas of India and Nepal and finds its way into various contiguous states.....
Wood et al (1896)!!! obtained the following constituents from genuine Yarkand charas:
1.5% of a terpene (C 10H 15), boiling point 165°C.
1.75% of a sesquiterpene (C 15H 24), boiling point 258-259°C.
A small amount of a paraffin hydrocarbon, melting point 64°C and
A toxic red oil , yield about 33% of the total, which set to a semi-solid mass on keeping.
This oil was insoluble in water but soluble in alcohol, ether, benzene and other organic solvents. It gave mono-acetyl and monobenzoyl derivatives and was termed cannabinol. It was considered to be the active principle of the drug. In a later paper (1899), the same authors showed that the cannabinol isolated was not a pure compound, but a mixture of at least two compounds having similar physical characters. They retained the name cannabinol for the pure compound C 21H 26O 2which was obtained by hydrolysing the crystalline acetyl derivative (m.p. 75°C). Source: here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CqFiucWKo-8
-eg
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