Spaniards Were Consuming Drugs 3,000 Years Ago, Study Finds

After examining Bronze Age hair fragments discovered in the Es Carritx cave on the Spanish island of Menorca, researchers made the finding.

Ancient humans were using hallucinogenic chemicals to get high during cave ceremonies 3,000 years ago, according to a recent study by researchers studying ancient human civilizations.

The finding of hairs from a burial site in Menorca, Spain, by specialists demonstrates that drugs originating from plants and bushes were utilised by prehistoric human civilizations.

According to a report by The BBC, the findings, published in the journal Scientific Reports, showed signs of human activity at the Es Carritx cave, on the south-western side of Menorca. The cave houses more than 200 human graves and is believed to have served as a ritual and funerary site for about 600 years, until 800 BCE.

The authors of the study explained that "as early as the Palaeolithic period, humans came across the non-food properties of certain plants." The results presented here indicate that several alkaloid-bearing plants were consumed by Bronze Age people from Menorca (although Solanaceae and Ephedra were not the only ones to have been consumed)."