They find the earliest evidence of drug use in Europe in a nearly 3,000-year-old strand of hair

a lock of hair of nearly 3,000 years ago was enough to obtain the first direct evidence of drug use in Europe. The hair was part of a funeral rite and was hidden in the cave of Es Càrritx (Spanish island of Menorca) at a time when Bronze Age society was changing.

Atropine, scopolamine and ephedrine coming from plants are the hallucinogenic substances that a group of Spanish and Chilean researchers found in that lock.

The study, conducted by Elisa Guerra of the Spanish University of Valladolid and published by Scientific reportspoints out that these drugs could have been used as part of ritual ceremonies.

Discovered in 1995, Es Càrritx (western Menorca) housed a chamber used as a burial place in which small cylindrical wooden containers with fur dating back to around 2,900 years old.

The search raises the oldest direct evidence of drug use in Europein the Late Bronze Age, explains to EFE one of the signatories of the study Cristina Rihuete, from the Autonomous University of Barcelona.

In Europe there have been indirect indications such as the detection of opium alkaloids in containers or narcotic plant remains in ritual contexts. The oldest direct record in the world is around 3,000 years old in Chile.

The study used only a few of the wires available, some up to 13 centimeters long. Finding preserved hair from that period in the western Mediterranean is “absolutely extraordinary”stands out.

An analysis with ultrahigh performance liquid chromatography and mass spectroscopy revealed the presence of atropine, scopolamine and ephedrine.alkaloids that remain fixed in the hairand which may respond to the consumption of plants such as mandrake, henbane or weed apple, underlines the researcher.

Atropine and scopolamine occur naturally in the nightshade family and can cause delusions and hallucinations; ephedrine is a stimulant derived from some species of shrubs and pines.

The team does not believe these substances were used for pain relief, although there is a fine line as to whether something is for medicinal, magical or divinatory use,” Rihuete said.

The presence of scopolamine and atropine together are substances that induce sedation, but their handling is very risky, due to their high toxicity, which leads, Rihuete indicates, to think more about the consumption of hallucinogens than for therapeutic purposes.

Hair growth leaves traces of certain substances and the surprise is that it was possible to demonstrate that consumption took place for at least a year, but there is no indication of how it was taken.

The Es Cárritx cave also tells the story of the late Bronze Age settlers in Menorca, “very interesting” societies, densely populated, who knew how to live peacefully and in which grazing had an important weight, reports the researcher.

In one of his rooms a funeral rite took place in which the hair was dyed red, combed and cut into strands to be placed in cylindrical wooden tubes with lids. Previous research suggests that around 210 people were buried, but only a few underwent the practice.

“It is probable – he estimates – that they were some people from the final chronology of the necropolis who perhaps they had those shamanic diviner attributes with which the taking of drugs is connected”.

Six of those tubes were hidden in a dug and sealed pit in a remote area of ​​the cave – which helped preserve the hair – along with horn containers, spatulas, pots and a wooden comb, and some bronze objects.

Some pieces that, together with other materials from the cave, have begun to be exhibited at the Can Saura Municipal Museum in Ciutadella (Menorca), the researcher points out.

The box -as Rihuete calls it- chosen for the examination is made up of three olive wood tubes, made with the base of the tree trunk, to which they have added a lid which, to let it fit, is a work of Extraordinary joinery, considering the tools of the time.

The researcher draws attention to the covers, decorated with concentric circles, already seen in other cultures, which may have a drug-related interpretation.

These designs have been interpreted “many times as a symbol of pupil dilation linked to the assumption of substances that open the eye, open inner knowledge”, he points out.

Creating a cache to leave objects related to that funeral rite could be a way to preserve ancient traditions in the face of cultural changes that occurred about 2,800 years ago.

At that time, says Rihuete, there was a world ending, cave burials ceased, and “the emphasis on cemeteries and secular rituals ceased to give more importance to civilian life. It’s a brutal change from death to life”.

EFE extension