"The Scythians, as I said, take some of this hemp-seed [presumably, flowers], and, creeping under the felt coverings, throw it upon the red-hot stones; immediately it smokes, and gives out such a vapour as no Grecian vapour-bath can exceed; the Scyths, delighted, shout for joy.
"[6] Based upon the botany, archeology, and linguistic history of cannabis, Elizabeth Wayland Barber concluded, People all across the middle latitudes of Europe and Asia – and that would include the early Indo-Europeans (IE's) – knew and were using hemp since 5000 B.C.
[7]Barber analyzed cognate words for "hemp" and "cannabis" in Indo-European languages, and proposed an etymological root of *kan(n)aB- (where *B represents a *p or *b bilabial stop).
A reconstructed Proto-Indo-European (PIE) *p is evident in many IE subgroups: Words in Germanic languages (Old English hænep, Old Norse hampr, and German der Hanf) go back to *hanap-, which by Grimm's Law would come from a *kanab- form, but this loanword preceded Romano-Germanic culture.
[9] Further corroboration comes from 1st millennium BCE Neo-Assyrian cuneiform texts, "where a word qunabu (qunnapu, qunubu, qunbu) begins to turn up, for a source of oil, fiber and medicine.
"[10] Thus, Barber's well-researched hypothesis involves two stages: in the late Palaeolithic and early Neolithic, a *ken- or *kan- name spread across Asia with the hemp plant, which was used for fiber and food; then in the early Iron Age, "an enlarged version of this very word, local to Iran and perhaps northern India…spread with the drug-bearing variety.
[11] Semitic anthropologist Sula Benet, of the Institute of Anthropological Sciences in Warsaw, has indicated the origin to be the Hebrew word קַנַּבּוֹס (qannabbôs) kaneh bosm (קנה בושם).
The Iranian Scythians were probably related to the Medes, who were neighbors of the Semites and could easily have assimilated the word for hemp.
[13][14] The word 'gan-zi-gun-nu' is referenced from stone tablets (dating 700 BCE) that indicate a connection with eastern and near-eastern terms for the plant (gan-zi > ganja, gun-nu > qaneh).
[18] The Biblical Hebrew term qěnēh bośem, literally "aromatic reed" (qěnēh- "reed", bośem- "aromatic"), probably[19] refers to cannabis according to some etymologists,[12] but is more commonly thought to be lemon grass, calamus, or even sweet cane, due to widespread translation issues.