Oldest evidence of systematic drug use found on 25,000-year-old teeth in Indonesia

Archaeologists from Australia and Indonesia identified plant-based drug residues on 25,000-year-old human teeth in Indonesia, pushing back the earliest known systematic drug use by millennia. The finding is preliminary and based on trace analysis, but it suggests early humans engaged in ritual or medicinal substance use. This matters as it revises timelines of human behavioral complexity in Southeast Asia.