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.