Scientists in China recently made an exciting discovery – uncovering what they call an “extraordinary cache” of cannabis at a burial site that’s thought to be about 2,500 years old.

The find was originally documented in the academic journal Economic Botany. According to a National Geographic report, the cannabis was found with the remains of a man who was approximately 35 years old when he died and was buried in the Jiayi cemetery in the Turpan Basin, a stop on the Silk Road in what is now Xinjiang in western China:

Thirteen cannabis plants, each up to almost three feet long, were placed diagonally across the man’s chest, with the roots oriented beneath his pelvis and the tops of the plants extending from just under his chin, up and alongside the left side of his face.

Archaeologist Hongencg says the discovery adds to earlier scientific data that suggests cannabis consumption was “very popular” thousands of years ago along the Eurasian Steppe: a belt of grasslands and savannahs that stretches thousands of miles from Hungary to Manchuria.

Click to read the full article on The Cannabist.