Perhaps soon after Holocene warming began about 12,000 years ago, or later during the advent of agriculture, it was spread across Eurasia by humans. In any case, we believe Central Asia offers by far the most plausible location for the primary origin and early evolution of Cannabis. De Candolle (1967) stated that Cannabis occurs “wild” only south of the Caspian Sea, in Siberia near the Irtysch River, and in the Khirgiz Desert beyond Lake Baikal; he also suggested that it was first cultivated in southern Siberia.
However, Vavilov considered Cannabis to be a native crop that originated in Central Asia.
Vavilov characterized wild and weedy Cannabis populations from Chinese Turkestan and northern Central Asia (1931) as “shattering forms with a horseshoe at the base of the fruit, with seeds of different size, up to the dimensions of the cultivated large-seeded forms.”
Cannabis “to be indigenous to the temperate parts of Asia near the Caspian sea, southern Siberia, the Kirghiz Desert and Persia.” The natural origin of Cannabis took place in Central Asia, possibly in the upland valleys of the Tian Shan or Altai Mountains and that very early, if not the first, cultural applications of Cannabis took place in this same general area during the early Pleistocene. If Cannabis originated in Central Asia, it would have been ideally situated for diffusion south-eastward into eastern Asia and southwestward into Europe as Pleistocene ice sheets advanced.
The actual use of Cannabis
Recent studies indicate that anatomically modern humans (Homo sapiens sapiens or AMHs) dispersed from northeastern Africa about 60,000 BP and then began their spread across Eurasia and eventually the entire world. AMHs first reached Southeast Asia by about 45,000 years ago, Central Asia around 40,000 years ago, and Europe by 30,000 to 35,000 years ago (Carmichael 2007; also see Wells 2002; Stix 2008; Finlayson 2009; and Armitage et al. 2011).
According to human genetic evidence initial dispersal into Eurasia spread north into Central Asia before moving eastward into East Asia and westward into Europe. This vast human dispersal entered Central Asia via the southwestern Asian corridor, “a wide geographical area that extends from Anatolia and the trans-Caucasus area through the Iranian plateau to the Indo-Gangetic plains of Pakistan and northwestern India.” Today this region consists of “a patchwork of different physical anthropology types with complex boundaries and gradients and by the coexistence of several language families (e.g., Indo-European, Turkic, and Sino-Tibetan) as well as relict linguistic outliers” (Quintana-Murci et al. 2004).
In any case, it appeared clear “that an ancient M45-containing population living in Central Asia was the source of much modern European and Native American Y-chromosome diversity” and that “the pattern of Y-chromosome diversity indicates strongly that Central Asia has played a critical role in human history” (Wells et al. 2001).
In any case, it is clear that Central Asia was a major corridor for human movement and the associated expansions of certain plants and animals. Assuming that Cannabis has long been a native of Central Asia, at least well back into the Pleistocene, humans probably began their longterm association with it somewhere within this huge region, utilizing one of more of its natural products. Human-related dispersals and subsequent range expansion of Cannabis is described in more detail later. Even though evidence indicates human occupation in Central Asia was scattered sparsely over an enormous area, within a number of areas in this huge region, “settlement was continuous from the Middle Pleistocene to the Holocene” (Madeyska 1990; also see Bolikhovskaya et al. 2006; Agadjanian and Serdyuk 2005; Agadjanian 2006).
If humans first discovered Cannabis during early hunting and gathering forays into Central Asia, where the assumed natural origins of this genus are to be found, they could have carried the putative ancestors of modern Cannabis taxa to glacial refugia in both Europe and southern East Asia. Thus it is possible that even 30,000 years ago or more Cannabis’s biogeographical range and botanical evolution was already affected by human intervention, and this may have led to subsequent speciation (see Chapters 2 and 12 for discussions of the evolution of Cannabis species).
Thus we assume that geographical diffusion of Cannabis from its probable center of species formation in Central Asia was to a large extent aided by human agency, both knowingly and unknowingly, over time. This could have included wandering nomads, friendly or militant migrants, traders on land and inland waterways, fleeing victims of natural and cultural calamities, and common or elite travelers.
Early Relationships among Humans and Cannabis in Central Asia: It is known to archeologists that Central Asia was an important center for the transmission of new discoveries and religious ideas from prehistoric times onwards. The hemp plant, being of major technological importance as a fibre [sic] and being one of the most influential psychoactive plants in human culture was most likely a key trade item from a very early date. (RUDGLEY 1998)
The evolutionary origin of Cannabis was somewhere in Eurasia, probably in Central Asia in the southern margins of the taiga or forest steppe regions (see Chapter 3). This location effectively put native Cannabis populations in position for early relationships with humans, especially in areas located near fresh water. These aquatic environments included streams, rivers, lakes, and other wetlands and possibly open areas associated with environments known as tugia in Central Asia, which are ecological communities associated with wetlands “consisting of mature woodland, thicket and meadow in river valleys” (Dolukhanov 1986).
We know that Cannabis is a sun-loving plant that thrives in open, nitrogen-rich environments, including rubbish piles created by humans (Anderson 1967; Merlin 1972). Close associations between humans and Cannabis stimulated its early cultivation, and over time this eventually led to its domestication.
Consequently, in a recent trend, numerous scholars are focusing on regions east of Europe: “In fact, Russian archaeologists have recently turned up evidence in the Altai Mountain regions of Siberia as well as Central Asia of the early arrival of modern technologies as well—some time before 45,000 years ago” (Adovasio et al. 2007).
However, this early date precedes the proposed dispersal of AMHs into Central Asia around 40,000 years ago determined by human genetic analyses. It is in Central Asia, perhaps in the Altai Mountains that humans first encountered and eventually started using wild Cannabis in or near their early temporary settlements. Cannabis can be referred to as a “habitation weed” favored by high nutritive conditions in the soil that developed around these settlements, which to a large degree were unconsciously augmented by human waste and rubbish as well as manure from domesticated animals.
Hawkes (1969) refers to Sinskaja (1925), who studied Cannabis firsthand and observed “that weed hemp, just as cultivated hemp, required a very richly fertilized soil and that it was always to be found around the camps of the nomads in the Altai where the soil had been enriched by cattle during the winter, as well as in kitchen gardens and in rubbish heaps.” Sinskaja focused on the broad diversity of spontaneous hemp, “which followed man’s wanderings through the Old World,” and hypothesized that people selected among this diversity during famine times for “forms with less shattering fruits and higher oil content.”
Sinskaja (1925, as quoted by Vavilov 1926) referred specifically to her observations in the Altai region, where “one could see all the details of hemp cultivation,” and suggested four stages of a developing human-Cannabis relationship: “(1) The plant occurred only in the wild. (2) It spread from its original wild [centers] to populated places. (3) Hemp then began to be [utilized] by the population. (4) It was finally cultivated.”
In the discussion that follows, we look at some possible associations between Cannabis and humans during the Upper Paleolithic. “To some extent, the history of Eurasia as a whole from its beginnings to the present day can be viewed as the successive movements of Central Eurasians and Central Eurasian cultures into the periphery and of peripheral peoples and their cultures into Central Eurasia” (Beckwith 2009).
Although Cannabis was most likely distributed naturally and/or as a cultivated crop across parts of Europe, Central Asia, and East Asia for millennia prior to the beginning of the Metal Age (ca. 4,000 BP), intensive cultivation and use of Cannabis by settled cultures likely began around this time.
HEMP, HUMANS, AND HORSES IN EURASIA
Most importantly, Central Asia served as a setting for crucial communication routes and trade networks that eventually connected the civilization centers of Europe, the Near East, and the Far East. By the time of the Bronze Age, the vast and relatively homogeneous steppe region stretching across much of Eurasia with its numerous nomadic herding societies was facilitating crucial contact between more culturally advanced and settled cultures to the east and west.
Far from being only a “one-way corridor leading from west to east,” the Eurasian steppes served as a “bridge” across Central Asia, and following the opening of this long distance connection and the domestication of horses and their use for transportation, “the dynamics of historical development changed permanently, not just for the societies east of the Tian Shan [Mountains], but for all the peoples of Eurasia” (Anthony 1998).
However, we are not yet sure if during the early periods people were actually moving4 beyond their territories or whether only materials and technologies were being transferred. In any case, peoples in Central Asia were on the move, at least toward the southwest, migrating into what is now Turkey and other northern Mediterranean areas as new, high-ranking overlords spoke languages novel to these areas, and during the Middle Bronze Age (ca. 2000 to 1600 BCE), these migrating people created a ripple effect to the south of them as the people they displaced southward in turn displaced others to the south of them, and so on, all the way into Egypt.
Once the use of horses for pulling loads of humans and their goods in wagons and carts began, this new transport system diffused quickly, some would say “explosively,” through Western Asia and Eastern Europe, as well as eastward into China. “By the middle of the 2nd millennium BCE horses were being used to pull chariots from as far afield as Greece, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, the Eurasian steppe, and in China by the 14th century BCE” (Levine 2002; also see McGovern 1939).
This intensification of human migration, with its associated entourage of biota and trade goods, helped continue the spread of Cannabis and its uses farther and wider, even into many areas where the species could already be found, but in different forms put to different uses. Cannabis seeds were being spread with migrating peoples, perhaps both purposefully and unintentionally.
The dispersal of Cannabis as a cultivated crop and a camp-following weed, along with knowledge of its various uses, undoubtedly involved several Late Bronze Age peoples in Central Asia, especially those that utilized riverine environments to combine hunting, gathering, and fishing with agriculture. Examples include the Andronova culture, which covered a vast area of Central Asia during this period, and the Oxus Civilization, which flourished in the area drained by the Syr Darya and Amur Darya River systems.
SCYTHIANS AND CANNABIS
Archeological research at the ancient Astana-Karakhoja Tombs, now an underground museum located at Turpan in Western China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, has uncovered approximately 2,700 paper documents.
The technology of making paper using hemp fiber pulp also spread westward out of East Asia into Central Asia at least by the middle of the eighth century and possibly as early as the third century CE. Carter (1925) referred to paper produced in Turkestan dated from the third to eighth centuries that was made from the bast fiber of paper mulberry and hemp fiber extracted from rags (also see Bloom 2001).
Papermaking spread to the Indian subcontinent between about 800 and 900, and eventually the technology reached Europe in the late eleventh or early twelfth century. We assume that Cannabis fiber, in its raw form or in the rags of hemp clothing, was associated with most, if not all, of these early papermaking efforts.
Among the ideas that were spread far and wide was the use of hemp fiber and rags in the historically profound activity of papermaking.
However, the general origins of hashish may be traced through historical records to Central Asia, but precisely where or in which period is yet undetermined. All of Central Asia has been contested territory for millennia. Invaders and merchants from both East and West brought their cultural influences, various traditions, beliefs, and legends together, while leaving few written records.
Although presently we do not know when it started, there was significant trade in hashish (charas), at least in more modern times, from Central Asia to India, moving along innumerable trade routes and over high Himalayan passes to South Asia from the region formerly referred to as Chinese Turkestan (now known as Xinjiang, the “new frontier” province in Central Asia, e.g., see Watt 1889). In 1937 and 1938 this trade accounted for 42 percent of the total value of products being moved from Xinjiang to India (Lattimore 1950).
TURKEY
According to Balasa and Ortutay (1979), hemp cultivation and weaving were among the oldest culture traits of the Magyars, among whom “there can be little doubt that this domestic occupation, at least in part, belongs to the most ancient Hungarian crafts.” The hemp weaving culture of Hungary is much older than that associated with linen (flax), known in Hungarian as len, which “orginates from Slavic but its earlier significance in the Carpathian Basin cannot compare with that of hemp.” For example, the traditional national costume of Hungary was made of hemp cloth.
On the other hand, linguistic evidence seems to indicate a much more recent introduction of certain Cannabis uses. The Hungarian word for hemp is kender from the Turkish root word kenevir, which likely dates to Ottoman control of Hungary from the mid-sixteenth through late eighteenth centuries. How then could hemp weaving be such an old tradition and yet not have a name until the sixteenth century? Possibly the Turkish word supplanted an earlier Magyar term, or the history of Cannabis in Hungary may not be as old as some assert.
MEDITERRANEAN REGION
The geographical area where Cannabis initially appeared in the Mediterranean region is uncertain. This is largely due to the incomplete archaeobotanical record, which is problematic, especially as it applies to Cannabaceae pollen and remains of woven materials. In the case of woven remains, for example, an ancient piece of “hemp” fabric dated to approximately 2700 BP was recovered from a Phyrgian Kingdom grave mound site at Gordion, near Ankara in Turkey (Bellinger 1962; Godwin 1967b); however, the fiber source of this ancient artifact remains unverified.
It is generally believed that Cannabis originated and evolved naturally somewhere in Central Asia.
An ancient piece of “hemp” fabric dated to approximately 700 BCE was found in a Phyrgian Kingdom grave mound site at Gordion, near Ankara in Turkey (Godwin 1967b); however, whether or not this ancient artifact is in fact made of Cannabis remains unverified. In Greece, very old cloth fibers dated to ca. 500 BCE were found at Trakhones, in Attiki province. However, similar to the ancient cloth from Turkey, identification of these ancient Greek fibrous materials is not confirmed (Barber 1991).
During the Roman Empire, large amounts of hemp were utilized for a variety of purposes. Much of it was imported from Sura, a city in ancient Babylonia, as well as from ancient cities in Asia Minor such as Alabanda, Cyzicus, and Ephesus in present-day Turkey and Colchis in present-day Georgia that also served as “early major centers of hemp industries” (Frank 1959; see also Nelson 1996).
A recent report on human environmental change in ancient western Turkey at Bafa Gölü suggests that during the Roman period (first century BCE to fourth century CE) deforestation and extensive farming took place, with sediment cores revealing pollen grains of the “Humulus/Cannabis type that could be determined as Cannabis, therefore, cultivation of hemp is likely” (Knipping et al. 2008).
CHINA: Historical and Archeological Evidence for Cannabis Fiber Use in China
Russian crop plant geographer Nicholai Ivanovich Vavilov listed Cannabis as endemic to Central Asia and China (Vavilov 1949– 51). Was Cannabis one of the plants first cultivated in East Asia? Li (1975) not only asserted that “Cannabis is one of man’s oldest cultivated plants” but also suggests that it may have been among the first species planted intentionally in temperate areas of China:
SOURCE:
- magicgreenery.com/…/i/…/Cannabis_Evolution&Ethnobotany_Clarke&Merlin2013.pdf
- Cannabis – Evolution and Ethnobotany – magic greenery
- magicgreenery.com/…/i/…/Cannabis_Evolution&Ethnobotany_Clarke&Merlin2013.pdf
By: Robert C Clarke(Author), Mark D Merlin(Author)
Publisher: University of California Press
- https://www.amazon.com/Cannabis-Evolution-Ethnobotany-Robert-Clarke/dp/0520270487
- https://www.google.com/search?q=Robert+Connell+Clarke&oq=Robert+Connell+Clarke&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyDggAEEUYExg5GOMCGIAEMgkIARAuGBMYgAQyCQgCEAAYExiABDIKCAMQABgTGBYYHjIKCAQQABgTGBYYHjIGCAUQRRg8MgYIBhBFGDwyBggHEEUYPNIBBzg0OGowajSoAgCwAgE&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
- https://www.facebook.com/RobertConnellClarke/
- [email protected]
Backstory Atlas Istanbul: 10 Reasons We Can't Stop Visiting the City Between Empires (Backstory Atlas: Europe's Great Cities)
$4.99 (as of 30/05/2026 13:12 GMT +03:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
Rick Steves Istanbul: With Ephesus & Cappadocia
$17.28 (as of 30/05/2026 13:12 GMT +03:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
DK Top 10 Istanbul: Top 10 lists for your perfect trip, plus an all-weather folded map (Pocket Travel Guide)
$10.95 (as of 30/05/2026 13:12 GMT +03:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
Wonders of Istanbul: A Photo Collection of the City’s Most Beautiful Places to See – A Stunning Coffee Table Travel Photobook
$23.99 (as of 30/05/2026 13:12 GMT +03:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
Art and Architecture of Mimar Sinan: Self-Guided Walks Through Istanbul and Edirne (Masters of Architecture)
$24.95 (as of 30/05/2026 13:12 GMT +03:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
Istanbul: The Imperial City
$12.99 (as of 30/05/2026 13:12 GMT +03:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
DK Istanbul: Must-See Sights. Culture & History. Detailed Maps & Tours. Covers Sultanahmet, Beyoglu, & more (Travel Guide)
$24.99 (as of 30/05/2026 13:12 GMT +03:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
Berlitz Pocket Guide Turkey (Travel Guide eBook) (Berlitz Pocket Guides)
$5.32 (as of 30/05/2026 13:12 GMT +03:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
Istanbul & Northwest Turkey Travel Reference Map WP
$9.89 (as of 30/05/2026 13:12 GMT +03:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
Istanbul For First Timers: A Local's Travel Guide To Turkiye's Hidden Gems and Culture
$15.99 (as of 30/05/2026 13:12 GMT +03:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
Insight Guides Turkiye: Travel Guide eBook
$23.58 (as of 30/05/2026 13:12 GMT +03:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
Lonely Planet The Mediterranean: Over 30 Mesmerising Cities & Islands | 15 Weekend Long Road Trip Itineraries | Tips on Where to Eat & What to See | Stunning Photography
$23.67 (as of 30/05/2026 13:12 GMT +03:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
Osman's Dream: The History of the Ottoman Empire
$5.00 (as of 30/05/2026 13:12 GMT +03:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
Art and Architecture of Mimar Sinan: Self-Guided Walks Through Istanbul and Edirne (Masters of Architecture)
$24.95 (as of 30/05/2026 13:12 GMT +03:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
To the City: Life and Death Along the Ancient Walls of Istanbul
$2.72 (as of 30/05/2026 13:12 GMT +03:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
A Guide to Biblical Sites in Greece and Turkey
$11.99 (as of 30/05/2026 13:12 GMT +03:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
Lonely Planet Pocket Istanbul: Discover Twice the City in Half the Time | Top Sights | Maps & Walking Tours | Covers Sultanahmet & Sirkeci, Bazaar ... & Western Districts and more (Pocket Guide)
$8.28 (as of 30/05/2026 13:12 GMT +03:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
DK Top 10 Istanbul: Top 10 lists for your perfect trip, plus an all-weather folded map (Pocket Travel Guide)
$10.95 (as of 30/05/2026 13:12 GMT +03:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
DK Istanbul: Must-See Sights. Culture & History. Detailed Maps & Tours. Covers Sultanahmet, Beyoglu, & more (Travel Guide)
$24.99 (as of 30/05/2026 13:12 GMT +03:00 - More infoProduct prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on [relevant Amazon Site(s), as applicable] at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.)
