Bronze Age humans have become psychoactive Bétel nuts

Long before the Ethiopian monks of the 9th century discovered that the fruit of coffee helped them to remain awake during evening prayer (according to legend, in any case), the communities of Southeast Asia have cheated Bétel – the seeds of the Areca palm and a stimulation which increases the vigilance of people, energy, euphoria and relaxation. But new research indicates that chewing of Bétel is practiced even longer.

By studying the former dental plaque of bronze age individuals in Thailand, an international team of researchers suggests that people consumed the stimulant 4,000 years ago. This new approach opens the way to future investigations of ancient behavior in the absence of traditional archaeological evidence.

“We have identified plant derivatives in dental calculation from a 4000 -year -old burial at Nong Ratchawat, Thailand,” said Piyawit Moonkham, anthropological archaeologist at Chiang Mai University and the first author of the study published yesterday in Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology, in a press release. Dental calculation, also called tartar, is a hardened dental plaque. “These are the first direct biomolecular evidence of the use of Bétel in Southeast Asia.”

Moonkham and his colleagues analyzed 36 dental calculation samples of six Nong Ratchawat individuals, an archaeological site of the Bronze Age in the center of Thailand. The team also produced its own bétel liquid samples to study the interactions between the ingredients and ensure that their analysis could precisely detect psychoactive compounds.

“We used dried betel nuts, a pink limestone paste, betel pepper leaves and sometimes a bark of Senegalia Catechu and tobacco. We enclose the ingredients of human saliva to reproduce authentic chewing conditions, ”explained Moonkham. “Supply materials and” chewing “betel nuts experimentally to create authentic counterpart samples were both a fun and interesting process.” A Quid de Bétel is a chewing mixture made up of the Areca nut and other ingredients, such as those listed above. It should be mentioned that an intensive use of betel nuts can possibly cause health risks such as oral cancers and heart disease.

The team’s analysis revealed traces of arecoline and acaidine in three of the samples, all of the same individual organic compounds present in Bétel nuts as well as coffee, tea and tobacco, which can have a significant impact on the physiology of a person. In other words, chewing in Bétel has probably existed for at least 4,000 years.

“In essence, we have developed a means of making visible behaviors and practices invisible – revolutionaries that have been lost over time for 4000 years,” said Shannon Tushingham, principal of the study and associate conservative of anthropology at California Academy of Sciences. In addition, “the presence of Bétel compounds in dental calculation suggests repeated consumption, as these residues are incorporated into deposits of mineralized plaque over time by regular exposure.”

Although the coherent chewing of betel juice generally stains their teeth, the researchers have not identified such coloring. They suggest that this could be due to different consumption methods, the old practices of teeth cleaning or processes that have prevented stains from lasting more than 4,000 years. They also found no evidence indicating that the burial of the individual was special compared to others – the proof which, probably, could have understood why the individual consumed Bétel.

“Psychoactive, medicinal and ceremonial plants are often rejected as drugs, but they represent millennia of cultural knowledge, spiritual practice and community identity,” concluded Moonkham. “Archaeological evidence can inform contemporary discussions by honoring the deep cultural heritage behind these practices.”