A lock of hair from almost 3,000 years ago has provided the first direct evidence of the use of drugs in Europe.
The hair was part of a funerary ritual and was hidden in the cave of Es Càrritx (Minorca) at a time when Bronze Age society was changing.
Atropine, scopolamine and ephedrine from plants are the hallucinogenic substances that a group of Spanish and Chilean researchers detected in the hair.
The study, led by Elisa Guerra from the University of Valladolid and published in the journal Scientific Reports, suggests that these drugs may have been used as part of ritual ceremonies.
Discovered in 1995, Es Càrritx (western Minorca) housed a chamber used as a burial space in which small cylindrical wooden vessels containing hair dated to around 2,900 years ago were found.
The research provides the oldest direct evidence of drug use in Europe, in the Late Bronze Age, one of the authors of the study, Cristina Rihuete, from the Autonomous University of Barcelona, explained.