Pipe long

Plastic long pipe, Think a traditional, long-stemmed pipe with a relatively small, deep bowl at the end

Pipe smoking has been around for thousands of years, and is often regarded as the oldest form of traditional smoking. While pipes are most commonly used to smoke tobacco, they can also be used to smoke a variety of recreational drugs, such as cannabis.

A variety of Native American cultures followed pipe smoking traditions long before the arrival of European colonialism. For many of these cultures, smoking tobacco or herbal mixes was a ceremonial process and was often done using special ceremonial pipes. The “peace pipe” is arguably the most well-known ceremonial pipe used by Native Americans, although there were many others.

Some tobacco cultivation sites in Mexico date back to roughly 1400–1000 BCE. When Europeans arrived in the Americas, tobacco was exported back home, where it was smoked in pipes, snuffed, and chewed. At this time, tobacco was also being smoked through water pipes in China, Persia, and along the Silk Road.

By 1700, tobacco had become a major industry in Europe.

However, pipe smoking wasn’t just unique to Native Americans. Archaeological evidence suggests that other ancient cultures also used pipes to smoke psychoactive substances like cannabis and opium.

In 2013, for example, archaeologists excavated a kurgan (an ancient type of burial mound) in Russia created by the Scythians, a fierce group of nomads who inhabited large parts of the central Eurasian steppes between the 9th and 1st century BCE.

The excavations unearthed 2400-year-old water pipes (similar to bongs) used by the Scythians to smoke cannabis and opium.

In China, pipes were also used to smoke madak, a mixture of tobacco and opium in the 19th century.