ANCIENT USES OF HEMP
Hemp is possibly one of the earliest plants to be cultivated.Hemp has been cultivated in Japan since the pre-Neolithic period for its fibres and as a food source and possibly as a psychoactive material. 96 An archeological site in the Oki Islands near Japan contained cannabis achenes from about 8000 BC, probably signifying use of the plant.[7] Hemp use archaeologically dates back to the Neolithic Age in China, with hemp fiber imprints found on Yangshao culture pottery dating from the 5th millennium BC.[2][8] The Chinese later used hemp to make clothes, shoes, ropes, and an early form of paper.Cannabis was an important crop in ancient Korea, with samples of hempen fabric discovered dating back as early as 3000 BC.Hemp is believed to be consumed by Hindu God Shiva, and has been part of Hindu practice and culture.[10]Hemp is called ganja (Sanskrit: गञ्जा, IAST: gañjā) in Sanskrit and other modern Indo-Aryan languages.[11] Some scholars suggest that the ancient drug soma, mentioned in the Vedas, was cannabis, although this theory is disputed. Bhanga is mentioned in several Indian texts dated before 1000 AD. However, there is philological debate among Sanskrit scholars as to whether this bhanga can be identified with modern bhang or hemp.Cannabis was also known to the ancient Assyrians, who potentially utilized it as an aromatic. They called it qunabu and qunubu (which could signify "a way to produce smoke"), a potential origin of the modern word "cannabis". 305 Cannabis was introduced as well to the Scythians, Thracians and Dacians, whose shamans (the kapnobatai—"those who walk on smoke/clouds") burned cannabis flowers to induce trance.[15] The classical Greek historian Herodotus (ca. 480 BC) reported that the inhabitants of Scythia would often inhale the vapors of hemp-seed smoke, both as ritual and for their own pleasurable recreation.[16] Hemp from Vienna Dioscurides, AD 512Hemp residues have been found on two altars in Tel Arad, dated to the Kingdom of Judah in the 8th century BC.[17] Its discoverers believe that the evidence points to the use of hemp for ritualistic psychoactive use in Judah.Hemp has an ancient history of ritual use and is found in pharmacological cults around the world. Hemp seeds discovered by archaeologists at Pazyryk suggest early ceremonial practices like eating by the Scythians occurred during the 5th to 2nd century BC confirming previous historical reports by Herodotus.In China, the psychoactive uses of cannabis is described in the Shennong Bencaojing, written around the 3rd century AD. Daoists mixed cannabis with other ingredients, then placed them in incense burners and inhaled the smoke.
The Chinese character for hemp