We already know what substance the prehistoric Europeans for their shamanic rites consumed

Some strands of hair 3,000 years hidden in a corner of the island of Menorca. It is all that a group of researchers needed to find direct evidence older of the consumption of psychoactive substances in Europe. Drugs attributed to local shamans and their religious rites, in which they would be used as sensory potentiars.

How to get here. Until now the evidence of this type of substance in the past were indirect: samples found in vessels or remains of plants in the deposits, as pointed out in statements collected by The country Elisa Guerra twelve, one of the authors of the investigation. The strands in which the substances were detected had been dyed red and hairstyles before their cut.

“Thanks to extraordinary conservation conditions, the hair and all the instruments used in their treatment have reached our days and have been able to be scientifically analyzed,” he explained In a press release Cristina Rihuete, another of the researchers involved in the finding.

Three alkaloids. The substances identified in the strands are the efedrine, atropine and scopolamine alkaloids. The first of these substances is a stimulant today used, for example, as a bronchodilator. Atropine and scopolamine on the other hand are substances considered hallucinogenic and psychoactive.

These substances can be found in different plants belonging to the insular flora of Menorca, such as the epfradra (Ephedra Fragilis), the mandragora (Mandragora Autumnalis), The White Beleño (Hyoscyamus albus) and the estramonium (Stramonium datura), All of them belonging to the Solanáceas family.

A small necropolis. Due to the context, the researchers consider that drugs were consumed before dying. The capillary samples belong to ten individuals, of the 210 who could be buried in the cave.

The fact that the funeral rite of these ten individuals was slightly different from that of the rest, together with the fact that other differences are not appreciated that could denote a society with classes, castes or other form of social stratification, makes researchers think that it was some kind of shamans or spiritual or religious leaders.

Multidisciplinary team. The details about the investigation were published in An attrition In the magazine Scietific Reports. It details that the substances were found when performing a liquid chromatography of ultra high performance coupled to high-resolution mass spectrometry (UHPLC-HRMS).

The team responsible for the finding was made up of prehistoriators and archaeologists from the University of Valladolid and the Research Group of Mediterranean Social Archeoecology of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Asome-UB); and for Hermann M. Niemeyer, chemist from the University of Chile.

Interior of the COVA des Càrritx (above); Vaso with a spoon and wood comb found in the Menorquín site (below). ASOME-UAB.

It is Càrritx. Closed by a detachment about 2,800 years agothe Càrritx cave was rediscovered in 1995 by two local speleologists, Pere Arnau and Josep Márquez, who achieved in that year access to their interior. The cave is located northwest of the island of Menorca, about 10 kilometers from Ciutadella and extends throughout 170 meters, in a route in which seven rooms are distinguished, the first vestibular being, the place where the human remains were found.

The other important part of this funeral complex was after a narrow passage, in room six. In it the archaeologists found the locks of human hair introduced in cylindrical containers created from of woodwood, heather and olive and bovid horn. Other objects such as glasses and a wooden comb were also found; ceramic pieces and a bronze blade.

On either side of the Atlantic. The use of “shamanic drugs” is often associated with pre -Columbian cultures, but we have long known that it was actually much more widespread. A example of this is the use of derivatives of the cannabis In the China of the Zhou dynasty, 2,500 years ago. Guerra-Doce made A few years ago a Review to archaeological tests of drug and fermented drug use in prehistory. With the new work, our knowledge about the use of this type of chemicals expands.

Perhaps we never know the details about the rituals in which the alkaloids found were used, but little by little we are knowing details about how they were who inhabited Europe millennia before us. And some things they had in common with us.

Images (cover) | Jason Swanson, CC0 1.0 / Gugatchitchinadze, CC by-SA 4.0

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