The Gushi culture (Chinese: 姑師文化; pinyin: Gūshī wénhuà), aka Jushi culture (Chinese: 車師文化; pinyin: Jūshī wénhuà), were an ancient culture around the Turpan basin,[1] in what is today the Xinjiang region of China.
The Yanghai Tombs, a vast ancient cemetery (54 000 m2) attributed to this culture, have revealed the 2700-year-old grave of a shaman. Near the head and foot of the shaman laid a large leather basket and wooden bowl filled with 789g of cannabis, superbly preserved by climatic and burial conditions. An international team demonstrated that this material contained tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive component of cannabis. The cannabis was presumably employed by this culture as a medicinal or psychoactive agent, or an aid to divination. This is the oldest documentation of cannabis as a pharmacologically active agent.[2]
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