Elisa Guerra Doce
PhD in Prehistory
University of Reading, United Kingdom
Drug use in Europe is an ancient practice that, based on compelling archaeological evidence, dates back to Prehistory. Archaeobotanical remains of psychoactive plants have been unearthed at several archaeological sites, drug alkaloids have been detected in prehistoric artifacts and their metabolites in human bones, and various ritual artistic representations incorporate images of psychoactive plants into their designs. All this suggests that prehistoric European communities made use of drugs and situated their consumption within ritual frameworks, given the recurring presence of these substances in burial sites and ceremonial spaces.
Introduction: When 19th-Century Miners Stumbled Upon Europe’s Psychoactive Past
In the mid-19th century, a group of miners uncovered the entrance to a cavern in Albuñol, in the Spanish province of Granada, and decided to explore its interior. To their astonishment, they stumbled upon dozens of carefully arranged skeletons deposited there long ago, as suggested by the archaic appearance of the funerary offerings placed alongside the bodies. The details of the discovery of this cavern, known as the Cueva de los Murciélagos (Cave of the Bats), were documented in Antigüedades Prehistóricas de Andalucía (Góngora 1868). The account notes that among the grave goods recovered, serving as symbols of sleep or death, was a vast quantity of capsules and seeds of the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum), the source plant of opium—although it was impossible at the time to confirm whether those ancient people made use of its narcotic properties. Thanks to typological studies of the artifacts and radiocarbon dating of select samples, this find can be attributed to the Neolithic, dating between the mid-sixth and late fourth millennium BCE.
Other lines of evidence pointing to drug use among Europe’s ancient populations have accumulated alongside the Albuñol discovery. We now possess substantial archaeobotanical remains of plants with psychoactive properties recovered during archaeological excavations; drug alkaloids and their metabolites have been identified in prehistoric artifacts and human skeletal remains, respectively; prehistoric artwork depicting plants with such properties is well documented; and finally, numerous classical Greco-Roman texts explicitly describe the use of specific drugs for varied purposes. Taken together, these findings strongly suggest that prehistoric European populations engaged in these practices, primarily within ritual contexts. In fact, hallucinogen consumption is extensively documented among many contemporary traditional societies, who regard these plants as gifts from the gods that enable communion with deities—hence their indispensable role in religious ceremonies (Furst, 1972; 1980; Harner, 1976; Ott, 1996; Schultes and Hofmann, 1982).
When Did Drug Use Begin in Europe?
For thousands of years, early humans relied for survival on foraging wild plants, scavenging, hunting, and fishing. This lifestyle necessitated an intimate relationship with the natural environment, making it almost inevitable that they quickly discovered the psychoactive properties of surrounding flora and fauna. It seems probable that humanity’s initial encounters with mind-altering substances reach back to our earliest beginnings, even if evidence from the Paleolithic remains inconclusive for now (Guerra 2005). From the Neolithic onward, however, the record becomes far more robust. Psychoactive plant remains have turned up consistently across archaeological sites from this era (Guerra in press; Juan-Tresserras 2000), though we must emphasize that the mere presence of such plants does not automatically prove they were used as drugs; they may have served other utilitarian functions, or their deposition could have been incidental (animal activity, later contamination, etc.).
The earliest known remains of the opium poppy (Papaver somniferum) date back to the sixth millennium BCE, recovered from Neolithic sites in central Italy (La Marmotta) and Spain (La Lámpara in Soria; Cueva de los Murciélagos in Zuheros, Córdoba), and somewhat later at other Iberian sites (Cueva de los Murciélagos in Albuñol, Granada; Cueva del Toro in Antequera, Málaga) as well as across Central and Northern Europe. It comes as no surprise, then, that the narcotic properties of its latex were identified early on. Opiates have been detected in the skeletal remains of two adult males buried in the Neolithic mines of Can Tintorer (Gavà, Barcelona) during the fourth millennium BCE. The discovery of poppy capsule fragments lodged between the teeth of one individual prompted a targeted study to screen for opium consumption among those interred in the gallery. The results came back positive both for that individual—whose skull also showed evidence of a double trepanation—and for another skeleton displaying signs of severe occupational stress. In contrast, no opiates were detected in the remains of an adult female or a young girl. For now, it remains unclear whether opium consumption at this site was an exclusive prerogative of adult men, or whether its administration was related to the grueling labor of the mines or to medicinal treatments (Juan-Tresserras and Villalba 1999).
The presence of Cannabis is documented starting in the third millennium BCE, primarily through textile remains (Abrigo de los Carboneros in Murcia, Spain; Kerbors in France), although certain finds suggest exploitation of its euphoric and intoxicating properties. The discovery of charred Cannabis seeds inside a polypod bowl deposited in a burial mound (kurgan) at Gurbanesti, Romania, dating to around the third millennium BCE, indicates that this vessel likely served as a brazier for burning cannabis (Sherratt, 1991), with female plants deliberately selected for this purpose.
Several Northern European Neolithic settlements have yielded remains of ergot (Claviceps purpurea), a parasitic fungus of cereal grains that produces potent psychotropic alkaloids, later synthesized in modern times to create LSD. Remnants of hallucinogenic nightshades (Solanaceae family) have also been identified, including black henbane (Hyoscyamus niger), black nightshade (Solanum nigrum), and bittersweet nightshade (Solanum dulcamara). Prehistoric Europeans likely exploited many other indigenous psychoactive species as well: deadly nightshade (Atropa belladonna), mandrake (Mandragora autumnalis), monkshood (Aconitum napellus), ephedra (Ephedra sp.), Syrian rue (Peganum harmala), the fly agaric mushroom (Amanita muscaria), and various other visionary fungi. Once again, finding these plants at prehistoric sites does not unequivocally prove drug use, but certain discoveries leave little room for doubt. For instance, in the burial cave of Calvari d’Amposta in Tarragona, Spain, a ceramic vessel decorated in the Maritime Bell Beaker style contained traces of a fermented cereal beverage in which the alkaloid hyoscyamine was identified (Fábregas 2001). This was likely the residue of a beer brewed with an infusion of a Solanaceae plant—perhaps henbane—to produce a hallucinogenic drink consumed during funerary rites celebrated there around the third millennium BCE.
This body of evidence firmly supports the existence of drug consumption in Europe beginning in the Neolithic, definitively dated to at least the fourth millennium BCE (Can Tintorer), with the strong possibility that future excavations will push this timeline even deeper into prehistory. Furthermore, because these botanical substances and the paraphernalia associated with their preparation and ingestion are repeatedly found in mortuary and ceremonial settings, scholars widely argue that they played a central role in prehistoric religious life, serving as sacred vehicles to achieve ecstatic states for ritual purposes (Guerra 2005; Sherratt 1987; 1991; 1995).
References
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