Image: AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty

Some people choose to be buried with objects that are emblematic of what they cared for in life. In the case of a 2,400-year-old skeleton recently uncovered in northwest China, that guy was all about that good bud.




A team of archaeologists from the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences unearthed the tomb in China’s 240-grave Jiayi cemetary near Turpan, which was once a waypoint along the Silk Road. Inside the tomb they found the body of some ancient layabout with thirteen cannabis plants placed on top of him as a form of burial shroud. Scientists believe the plants were grown locally and other graves in Jiayi also contained evidence of pot leaves or seeds, suggesting that a few thousand years ago this whole town was getting ripped off devil’s lettuce.

Similar evidence of the sticky stuff has been noted in grave sites in the surrounding region, but this use of The Good Plant as a shroud is the first its kind to be discovered. The shroud plants were also found to have been harvested when they had hit peak THC-laden ripeness. Hell yeah, this guy must have been so cool.


420 blaze it, weed skeleton. 420 blaze it.

[Economic Botany]