i think the first hash came from pickers in africa.it stuck to their hands.
There are number of Kurgans,ie;burial mounds from the Black Sea to Mongolia,throughout the steppe region of Eurasia, that contain bodies of shamans buried with cannabis. Herodotus,the Greek historian writes of Scythians using flower tops as fuel in makeshift ritual saunas,inhaling the smoke,but the evidence from the Kurgan graves shows that cannabis use on the steppes goes back thousands of years before the time of Herodotus,roughly 500 b.c.e.
My guess that hash first arose in Central Asia as a resin based intoxicant/incense much like early opium use. It's a natural byproduct that sticks to your hands when processing the plant,and much easier to transport via horseback/foot than bulk weed.
Not a lot of interest in Hash history it seems.
The first hashish was hand rubbed, from wild living plants then later from dried cultivated plants then sifted by beating dried plants over carpets and the fine resin falls between the carpet nap and the bigger pieces of leaf and trash stay on top of the carpet, they can be swept away. This was replaced by sifting through silk or other fabrics when they became more available. Also historically most Cannabis products were eaten, not smoked until after 1492. Extracts that were made with ghee or sesame oil from weed or later hash were very potent, made into majoun or other oral consumables.
I have 8 Cannabis seeds found in a leather/fur pouch, from the over 2,000 year old Pazyryk Synthian tomb, they were given to me by the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg.
-SamS
Last edited by Sam_Skunkman; 03-28-2015 at 05:18 AM.
That's amazing Sam Skunkman! I remember my mom telling me about the Pazyryk man and his seeds when I was younger and developing a fascination with cannabis. What an honor it must be to have such relics.