“Water pipes originated in Africa, where they were historically associated with cannabis.

“Water pipes originated in Africa, where they were historically associated with cannabis.

“Water pipes originated in Africa, where they were historically associated with cannabis. The earliest direct evidence of cannabis smoking anywhere is residue that archeologists scraped from fourteenth-century water-pipe bowls unearthed in Ethiopia.”

• Chris Duvall (2019): The African Roots of Marijuana, page 16.
  “Two ceramic pipe bowls, excavated by J. C. Dombrowski (1971) at the site of Lalibela Cave in the Begemeder Province of Ethiopia (near Lake Tana), were tested for the presence of cannabinolic compounds. The pipes came from level 2 of the cave, with an associated radiocarbon date of l320 ± 80 A.D. […]

Archaeological remains from Lalibela level 2 differ but little from the present-day material culture of the region, and the workmen at the site were able to identify the pipe bowls and their mechanical operation. Both bowls formed part of waterpipes; an aperture at the bottom of the bowl allows for the attachment of a vertical stem, which presumably descended into a water container.”

• Nikolaas J. Van Der Merwe (1975): Cannabis Smoking in 13th-14th Century Ethiopia: Chemical Evidence, page 78.
  (The picture is from the 1960s in Gambela)