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Between 16,000 and 25,000 years ago, a hunter-gatherer in modern-day Indonesia developed a habit of sucking on betel nuts, the seeds of the areca palm. The nuts numbed the mouth, perhaps soothing a toothache. They also caused distinctive grooves to develop in the teeth of this individual (whose sex is unknown).
After they died, their teeth survived for millennia in a cave on the island of Sulawesi. Now, archaeologists think these remains may be the earliest evidence for habitual drug use ever discovered. The word “habitual” is key.
According to a new study, published this week in the journal Science Advances, this habit harmed the forager in question, worsening dental disease. This damage would have been painful, possibly contributing to increasing dependence on the nuts’ numbing properties. The molars and jawbone were discovered during excavations in southern Sulawesi.
At another site, archaeologists also found teeth from a second individual who lived millennia later, between 6,300 and 7,600 years ago. Both sets of remains revealed evidence of dental disease. The damage was more pronounced in the second individual.
The dental wear had left the pulp exposed in several places, which would have increased infection risk. It was likely also quite painful. These teeth featured the same deep grooves as the first set of remains.
They pointed to an unusual activity, performed repeatedly over a long period.” The researchers eventually settled on the betel nut, which matched the size of the grooves. Upon further investigation, they found traces of arecoline, the psychoactive compound in the nuts, in both individuals’ dental tissue. As lead author Adam Brumm, an archaeologist at Griffith University in Australia, tells the New York Times’ Becky Ferreira, this clue was “as close to a smoking gun as we can get.” Previously, the oldest known evidence of drug use was traces of 13,000-year-old beer found in Israel.
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