Direct evidence of European use of multiple… psychoactive substances
The findings are an affirmation of the knowledge and use of plants as drugs among prehistoric Europeans, says ethnobotanist Giorgio Samorini, an expert on psychoactive substances… in a study published… in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers confirm that chemical signatures in the secreted samples of Es Càrritx hair provide the first direct evidence for hallucinogenic drug use in Europe some 3,000 years ago…
…the recovery of human hair in a Late Bronze Age burial cave in Menorca, in the Balearic Islands [province of Spain], provided a unique opportunity to further probe into the medicinal and ritual realms of indigenous inhabitants of the Western Mediterranean as early as 3,000 years ago through the analysis of its alkaloid content. The results furnish direct evidence of the consumption of plant drugs and, more interestingly, they reveal the use of multiple psychoactive species. [For] archaeologist and analytical chemist Rebecca Stacey of the British Museum in London, the evidence from Menorca solidifies the idea that psychoactive drugs were being actively consumed in Europe’s prehistory. Previous studies have only found indirect evidence for the ingestion of mind-altering substances on the continent, in the form of tell-tale chemical traces in residue from ancient containers or as psychoactive plant remains left at ritual sites.
Original Article (National Geographic):
European ‘shamans’ took psychedelic drugs 3,000 years ago
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