In 2026, researchers from Shandong University reported new archaeological evidence that cannabis was deeply integrated into daily life in Late Neolithic northern China. Analysing phytoliths from 132 samples at the Beitaishang and Qianzhongzitou settlements, they found that cannabis was not a marginal or occasional plant.

It was part of the core crop world.

The study suggests that by the Late Neolithic, cannabis had become a key crop in northern China, used mainly for food or fibre, and systematically integrated into the local agricultural economy. In other words, the plant was not simply present. It was useful, repeated, cultivated, and socially embedded.

For LIBERA HERBA, this is one of the great corrections. Cannabis was not born at the edge of society. It was there in the field, in fibre, in food, in labour, in storage, in tools, in daily survival.

Before the plant became a symbol,
it was infrastructure.
A crop people lived with.
A crop people worked.

A crop that helped organise the human day.

Factual Note

A 2026 report on a Journal of Archaeological Science study describes phytolith analysis of 132 samples from the Beitaishang and Qianzhongzitou Late Neolithic settlements in Shandong, northern China.

The findings suggest that cannabis had become a core crop by the Late Neolithic, primarily used for food or fibre, and was systematically integrated into the local agricultural economy.

Beitaishang and Qianzhongzitou settlements
Shandong, northern China
Late Neolithic

Archaeological sites where phytolith evidence suggests cannabis formed part of the core crop assemblage and daily agricultural economy.

The lost crop key – cannabis in the Neolithic economy

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