Now archaeologists from Griffith University have found that humans may have consumed mind-altering substances by sucking and chewing betel nuts as early as the late Pleistocene, about 25,000 years ago, according to a paper published in Science Advances. Betel nut consumption is widespread in India and the South Pacific. This usually involves mixing the seeds with slaked lime (which releases the psychoactive compounds) and a few other ingredients to make a “quid” and then chewing them. Effects include mild euphoria and high alertness.
The Griffith team discovered two rare early human collector skeletons on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi and concluded that one was dated to 25,000 to 16,000 years ago and the other to 7,600 to 6,300 years ago. Both skeletons had deep, rounded grooves in their teeth, apparently caused by the constant sucking of whole betel nuts. By soaking betel nuts in artificial saliva, the authors concluded that this would release enough arecoline to alter brain function, although the psychoactive effects would be milder.
The authors believe that people from this period sucked betel nuts to relieve toothache, as these populations were known to have poor teeth and arecoline is a natural analgesic. But the seeds are abrasive and over time have worn down collectors’ teeth to the point where the internal pulp chambers have been exposed. “While this habit may have been a cure for toothache, years of prolonged nut sucking eventually caused much worse dental health problems and led to a cycle of ongoing habitual consumption,” said co-author Adam Brumm.
Science Advances, 2026. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aei1901.
New insights into Galileo’s telescopes
Historians generally agree that a German-born spectacle maker in the Netherlands, Hans Lippershey, invented the first true telescope in the 1590s. Similar instruments from other inventors soon appeared, and in 1609 “binoculars” could be purchased in Paris shops. Within months, the phenomenon had spread to Italy and caught the attention of Galileo Galilei, who constructed his own telescopes to make groundbreaking astronomical observations that helped the Copernican model of the solar system displace the Ptolemaic worldview that had prevailed for centuries.
