Bowls. tools and seeds are evidence of prehistoric drug and alcohol use
Posted on 05/17/2014 12:09:18 PM PDT by Renfield
It’s not much of a stretch to believe that getting stoned in the Stone Age was as popular among prehistoric Europeans as it is now. However, new evidence suggests that marijuana, mushrooms, alcohol and other mood-altering substances were used for more than zonking with Zonk – they played crucial roles in spiritual practices, especially burial rituals and communications with the after-world.
Elisa Guerra-Doce of the Universidad de Valladolid in Spain has documented the cultural contexts in which forms of alcohol and drugs were used in prehistoric Europe. The forms she looked for were fossilized leaves and seeds of psychoactive plants, residues of alcohol, psychoactive alkaloids in artifacts and bones and drawings or paintings of the use of these substances. Some samples she found were bits of opium in teeth in Spain, cannabis seeds in Romanian bowls, beer vessels in Iberia and art in the Alps depicting the use of hallucinogenic mushrooms.
Bowls. tools and seeds are evidence of prehistoric drug and alcohol use
Guerra-Doce reports in the Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory that the evidence of drugs and alcohol was most often found in tombs and places where ceremonies appeared to occur. This suggests they may have been used to prepare the bodies for burial, provide the dead with sustenance and comfort in the next world and possibly alter the consciousness of the living in an attempt to communicate with them.
Because evidence of drugs and alcohol was found much less frequently outside of ceremonial areas, Guerra-Doce surmises that their usage was regulated.
Far from being consumed for hedonistic purposes, drug plants and alcoholic drinks had a sacred role among prehistoric societies. It is not surprising that most of the evidence derives from both elite burials and restricted ceremonial sites, suggesting the possibility that the consumption of mind-altering products was socially controlled in prehistoric Europe.
Perhaps it’s time we start looking beyond just ‘eating’ like a caveman.
Ping
This sort of thing has been known for a long time.
Pagans have always done this.
When the Old Testament talks about witchcraft it uses a word that means drugs, we got our words pharmacy, pharmaceuticals etc.. from it’s root.
Philip K Dick wrote a book about an Episcopal priest who became so obsessed with the idea that the original Host was actually a hallucinogenic mushroom found in cave in the Middle East that he went out looking for it and was never found again, or died looking for it. The book is called The Transmigration of Timothy Archer and was based on a Bishop Pike.
It's not science when the agenda is so blatant.
A litte Peyote or Syllacibin makes a vision quest move along a whole lot smoother. :-)
I always found it somewhat puzzling the giving the ambiguous meanings of pharmakeia, they chose "drugs" over "poisons".
Cannabis seeds are highly nutritious but they are not psychoactive so she can scratch that one off of the list.
This brings back reading all those novels about Carlos Castendeda, and the teachings of Don Juan.
Thanks Renfield.
Priestly elites were drunks and stoners
I thought it said puppies.
Stoopid iPhone.
Far from being consumed for hedonistic purposes, drug plants and alcoholic drinks had a sacred role among prehistoric societies.
***
Well, when every waking moment is consumed with keeping body and soul together, I don’t think one has the luxury of being drunk and stupid.
Good point.
See Crawford H. Greenewalt, Ritual Dinner in Early Historic Sardis (University of California Press). Greenewalt cites an older book by H. Scholz, Der Hund in der griechisch-roemischen Magie und Religion, which I have not seen. Greenewalt also cites Isaiah 66.3, which seems to refer to some kind of ritual killing of dogs.
I thought it was “poopies”, and wondered why the big deal?
Herodotus tells how the Massagetae threw a plant on the fire (apparently marijuana) and became intoxicated from the smoke, comparing it to wine in Greece (1.102). He also tells how the Scythians threw cannabis seeds on the fire; the fumes would make them shriek with delight (4.75). He regards that (the fumes from the seeds) as how they got clean instead of bathing with water.
BLEAH!
Don’t wanna read ~that~.
:-\
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