Ancient Hair Reveals that Bronze Age People Took Drugs for Rituals

VIVA – Archaeologists have found ancient hair recovered from a 3,600-year-old burial site in Spain, it provides the first direct evidence of drug use of Bronze Age people in Europe. The drug known as hallucinogenic. The hairs had been dyed red and put in boxes decorated with concentric circles.

The chemicals atropine and ephedrine are found in hair. Atropine can trigger hallucinations while ephedrine is a stimulant and is used to make modern meth. 

Elisa Guerra-Doce from the University of Valladolid in Spain said it was the first direct evidence of prehistoric drug use in Europe. Her study published in the journal Scientific Report said the users may have been in a drug-induced altered state of consciousness.

The discovery of psychoactive plant remains and preparation tools as well as depictions in art have hinted at a European culture that sought ways to get high. Finding traces of the compounds in body tissue samples, such as hair, has brought much greater evidence. 

Researchers tested hair with advanced particle processing techniques to identify key traces of atropine and scopolamine.

"The results provide direct evidence of the medicinal consumption of plants. And more interestingly, they reveal the use of several psychoactive species," the researchers wrote in the published paper. 

Nightshade plants such as mandrake (Mandragora autumnalis), henbane (Hyoscyamus albus), thorn apple (Datura stramonium), and joint pine (Ephedra fragilis) are the most likely sources of drugs used. These herbs would have been available in the area of the burial site and have been found at other similar sites. 

The researchers think that the drugs may have been administered as part of some sort of ritual and may have been given by a shaman, an ancient medical and religious expert who had extensive experience in the preparation and delivery of plant material.