Pipe for Smoking Hemp, with Eight Pebbles, late 4th–early 3rd century BCE

Pipe for Smoking Hemp, with Eight Pebbles, late 4th–early 3rd century BCE

Pipe for Smoking Hemp, with Eight Pebbles. Bronze, Stone, W.12 cm; H. 9 cm. Berel, Kurgan 9, late 4th–early 3rd century BCE. A. Kh. Margulan Institute of Archaeology, Almaty Photography © A. Kh. Margulan Institute of Archaeology, Almaty

The ancient Greek historian Herodotus (4.73-75) wrote that some nomads used hemp as part of a communal ritual during a funeral. Hemp seeds would be tossed on top of hot stones, and the resulting fumes inhaled. This pipe, found with hemp and pebbles inside it, comes from a tomb at Berel and provides archaeological clear evidence in support of that practice.