--- title: "Scientists Discover That Ancient Humans Were Tripping Balls in a Cave" description: "Recovered human hairs provide the first direct evidence that prehistoric Europeans were fond of consuming psychoactive rugs like scopolamine." date: "2023-04-08" modified: "2023-04-08" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore" url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/ancient-humans-tripping-balls-cave" categories: - "Science & Energy" tags: - "archaeology" - "drugs" - "history" - "the digest" --- # Scientists Discover That Ancient Humans Were Tripping Balls in a Cave ![Recovered human hairs provide the first direct evidence that prehistoric Europeans were fond of consuming psychoactive rugs like scopolamine.]() *\Image: Getty / Futurism\* ## Same Drugs, Different Era What were our bronze-age ancestors doing to kill the time? Getting high out of their minds, apparently. Human hair strands discovered in a cave burial site in Menorca, Spain, provide the first direct evidence that prehistoric Europeans favored a heady high and consumed psychoactive drugs, according to a new [study]() published in the journal *Scientific Reports.* "These findings are so singular," study lead author Elisa Guerra-Doce, an associate professor of Prehistory at the University of Valladolid, [told *The New York Times*](). "Sometimes when people think about drugs, they think it's a modern practice. These results tell a different story." ## Prehistoric Plug By using a combination of chromatography and mass spectrometry, Guerra-Doce and her team detected the presence of alkaloid substances that have a variety of effects. Derived from nightshade plants, scopolamine and atropine act as depressants on the central nervous system and can induce some pretty trippy hallucinations, states of delirium, and even out-of-body experiences. Ephedrine, on the other hand, is a powerful stimulant that will send your heart racing, and can be found in certain species of pine shrub. God help our ancestors if they took all these at the same time and enjoyed the ancient equivalent of speedball. All are native to the region, so Bronze-Agers could more or less get high on nature's supply. ## Writing on the (Cave) Wall Figuring out why exactly these prehistoric humans were taking these drugs is a difficult question to answer, if not impossible. For all we know, they could've been popping some scopolamine to look at mesmerizing cave paintings in flickering torchlight. But we do have some clues. For one, the location of the discovery: a cave known as Es Càrritx, which when first uncovered in 1995, contained the buried remains of some 210 people. Alongside the remains, spelunking archaeologists noticed wooden and animal horn boxes decorated with trippy, spiraling circles, that contained the drug-addled hairs. These clues may suggest a ceremonial or ritual use for the drugs, according to Giorgio Samorini, an ethnobotanist who was not involved in the study. "This was not a profane purpose of 'searching for a high' but more generally the search for existential meaning that has been largely lost to time," he told *NYT*. Samorini maintains that these latest findings add to a growing body of evidence that the use of drugs was integral to ancient humans, and honestly? Good for them. **More on ancient humans:** *[Early Mayan Civilization Was Far More Advanced Than We Thought, Scientists Say]()* ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()