Oh good call. Maybe Chinese Broad Leaf Hemp? Maybe Nepalese. Those get branchy too.
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I am aware of the technique. It is not the best way to find this out.
Look at the similarities between hops pollen ( Humulus lupulus L.) and cannabis sativa pollen
Hops
Cannabis
This is just the closest relative. There are many cousins also.
Heres something that has been found in Madagascar
Now imagine these being 3,000 years old and mixed in with a bunch of other shit.
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I donāt argue itās difficult, but thatās why there are experts that know what to look for to differentiate. I donāt know that thereās been any hops cultivation in Africa has there? Isnāt that a cold weather crop?
I always figure Madagascar must have some old cannabis pollen somewhere
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I rather think Thai or Vietnamese.
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Thatās a very good point. Sailing started long before the Europeans started doing it
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Sure looks like it. 
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I always wondered how they could pick out cannabis pollen from all the other plants. It all looks like little dots to me. lol
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Before debating the methodology; can you cite this?
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@CocoaCoir I happen to be stuck on a couch with a bum knee today. Here you go.
I would imagine the pollen was so well preserved from being in that cave in the Kalahari Desert which is one of the driest on Earth
See there at the bottom, it mentions Madagascar as well. Pollen samples there are about as old as the austronesians migration to the island. Ā± 2,000 years ago
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He doesnāt reference anything though. I have read this book also.
You can see even in the reference that they cannot differentiate from Cannabis / Humulus.
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Burney et al 1994 referenced.
Sorry for the poor pictures hereās a better one of that part. The page continues as to why he believes it was Cannabis.
This is the same guy that was studying cannabis pollen in Madagascar.
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I donāt take any of this stuff as gospel eitherā¦ I donāt think we have anywhere near a clear picture of the true Cannabis historyā¦ but I would rank it in the likely happened category at least.
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Iām looking but canāt find that there are any Humulus species native to Africa at all @CocoaCoir. You found any?
Itās native to colder regions in the northern hemisphere only that I can find but you canāt rule out the possibility it was grown in South Africa before the Europeans, although from what I can find, it showed up there with them, which would rule it out. I think Iām going to stick with its cannabis pollen that the guy found.
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It is more than that. Thatās why I posted the Cannabacae link
https://globalpollenproject.org/Taxon/Cannabaceae
You can see the one from Madagascar.
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You knowā¦I was thinking about another thing no one really talks about and that is that Empires disappear, cultures change. Just because Europeans didnāt see cannabis cultivation at a particular locale when they first arrived, doesnāt necessarily mean cultivation and use didnāt occur with a different culture at a prior time in history at that exact same place.
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Thatās why it is important to follow evidence instead of our biases and imaginations. We can imagine or think or hypothesize whatever we want.
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I didnāt see anything else in the link except for those pollen photos, but I do see that other screenshot you took of that Madagascar tree recently reclassified. The question is does pollen from that tree look like cannabis pollen?
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Well there is evidence the Portuguese saw cannabis in West Africa when they got there in the 1400s which puts cannabis in west Africa hundreds of years before the map posted by @mexcurandero420 shows.
None of us are scientists or archaeologists, so the best we can do is look at the discoveries they make and either accept it or dont.
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I am not disputing that it was there then. It was probably there as early as the 8th or 9th century from Islam in Northern Africa.
I am talking about the thousands of years ago claim and just trying to show that the pollen looks very similar under a microscope under sterile conditions. Pollen dating is not a reliable form and again, even Burney cannot differentiate between Cannabis / Humulus because they look nearly identical. So to say well has humulus been there at the time is the same as saying well has cannabis been there at the time?
It may be possible that Cannabis was there 2-3 thousand years ago or longer but there isnāt reliable enough information in my opinion for me to say this; even though I do see those pollen samples.
More research is needed.
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No doubt. I wish more of it was being done.
[quote=āCocoaCoir, post:59, topic:151832ā]
So to say well has humulus been there at the time is the same as saying well has cannabis been there at the time?
[Quote]
Cannabis was one of those crops that was brought just about Everywhere by everybody that used itā¦ so the odds of it traveling great distances to places it wasnāt indigenous seems much more likely to me than a random tree being brought somewhere. Aside from making brush fences it doesnāt sound like the tree is used for much. If itās not indigenous, cannabis pollen seems most likely.
Hopefully they can revisit that cave someday.
Another thing to consider . If cannabis pollen is impossible to distinguish from humulus pollen, how can they tell when the two species diverged? I want to say the books say 28 million years ago? Iām going to have to look that up. Iām bored stiff sitting on a couch with nothing better to do
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