Is drug culture nothing new?

A recent ground breaking study has unveiled a surprising secret from the Bronze Age: the inhabitants of Menorca were experimenting with a cocktail of drugs.

Archaeologists have long suspected that ancient cultures experimented with psychoactive substances, with the use of plants with mind-altering properties documented across various civilisations. However, concrete evidence has been hard to find.

Now new research has analysed hair samples from individuals buried in the Cova des Càrritx cave, a Bronze Age burial and cult site in modern day Menorca, Spain.

By using advanced techniques like Ultra-High-Performance Liquid Chromatography-High Resolution Mass Spectrometry, researchers were able to identify traces of multiple drugs, including ephedrine; a stimulant; and atropine, and scopolamine both of which have hallucinogenic properties. These potent ‘alkaloids’ – are active compounds in many plants, such as henbane, deadly nightshade, and ephedra.

So what were these ancient Menorcans up to? Perhaps in the times of approximately 3300 to 1200 BC, these substances were used in religious rituals, creating altered states of consciousness for shamanistic practices or communicating with the spirit world. Another theory suggests they might have been used for medicinal purposes, to treat pain or illness. The discovery of multiple drugs in a single individual is particularly fascinating. Were these combinations intentional, or perhaps accidental? Did they enhance or counteract each other's effects? The complexity of this drug use raises even more questions about the sophisticated knowledge and practices of these Bronze Age people.

While we cannot definitively determine the exact purposes or cultural significance of these drugs without further context, this study offers a unique glimpse into the lives and beliefs of our Bronze Age ancestors.

It challenges our preconceptions about prehistoric societies and opens up new avenues of research into the complex relationship between humans and plants.

Source:

Guerra-Doce, E., Rihuete-Herrada, C., Micó, R., Risch, R., Lull, V. and Niemeyer, H.M. (2023). Direct evidence of the use of multiple drugs in Bronze Age Menorca (Western Mediterranean) from human hair analysis. Scientific Reports, 13(1), p.4782. doi:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-31064-2.

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