17/08/2025
#หลักฐานและข้อมูลการกินหมากเก่าแก่ที่สุดในเอเชียตะวันออกเฉียงใต้
Earliest direct evidence of betel nut chewing in Southeast Asia, a reference from Nong Ratchawat, a ???? site [4,000-3,000 BP] in west-central Thailand.
An innovative biomolecular study has revealed the earliest direct evidence of betel nut chewing in Southeast Asia. At Nong Ratchawat, a "Bronze Age" site in west-central Thailand with over 150 burials.
Researchers used liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC-MS) to test hardened dental plaque (calculus) from six individuals. Before examining the ancient remains, the team created their own “betel quid” controls — mixing dried areca nut, pink limestone paste, Piper betel leaves, and sometimes catechu bark and to***co, then grinding the ingredients with human saliva to replicate authentic chewing conditions.
When they analysed the archaeological samples, three - all from the same woman, known as Burial 11 - contained the alkaloids arecoline and arecaidine, the psychoactive compounds that give betel its stimulant effects.
The individual’s teeth showed no telltale reddish-brown staining, suggesting either different preparation methods, oral cleaning, or changes over the millennia that erased visible traces. This approach - “making the invisible visible,” as the authors put it - not only predates previous direct evidence of betel chewing in the region by at least a thousand years, but also demonstrates the power of dental calculus analysis to uncover “archaeologically invisible” behaviours.
Beyond its methodological breakthrough, the study reframes betel chewing as more than a habit: it’s a deep-rooted cultural practice tied to social bonding, ritual, and medicinal use, part of the long continuum of human-plant relationships in Southeast Asia.
: "Earliest direct evidence of bronze age betel nut use: biomolecular analysis of dental calculus from Nong Ratchawat, Thailand". (Mookham et al., Environmental Archaeology / July 31, 2025)
Thai Bioarchaeology