Drug dominance: Barbarian warriors may have used spoons to get high before battle
Were Germanic soldiers high on the battlefield in ancient Roman times? New research suggests that warriors might have used small spoons that fastened to their belts for a stimulant boost.
The consumption of alcohol and stimulants has been well-recorded throughout history, especially in the context of ritual and war, to motivate soldiers and quell their fears and even hunger.
However, “the custom,” study authors write in a new intriguing study, of ingesting drugs “went nowhere beyond Ancient Rome.” Except, that might not be true once the researchers dug deeper into the history of narcotics. After all, what were the Germans doing with these random yet commonly worn spoons?
A small but mighty weapon on the battlefield?
After collecting 241 spoons at 116 locations across Scandinavia, Germany, and Poland, researchers from Maria Curie Sklodowska believe that Germanic warriors dispensed stimulants with spoons that attached to their belts which they found in contexts related to ritual and war.
At first, study authors admit that “the barbarians” outside Mediterranean cultures showed no signs of drug use outside of alcohol. But other discoveries have challenged that belief, most notably the lump of opium found in a tomb in the village of Kiln-Yar in the Caucasus.
Therefore, the idea that cultures outside ancient Rome consumed narcotics becomes feasible as the world at large has for a very long time.
At about 2.64 inches long and with a diameter of about 11/16 inches, these hundreds of spoons came from graves and war sacrificial sites directly associated with warriors. Spoons dangled from about half of the 150 belts excavated at the war-related marsh at Illerup. Due to how they hung off the waistline, they were designed to be able to lift to face height easily.
“This allows for the thesis to be put forward that this utensil was a common part of a warrior’s armor and from here, it is close to conclusive that pharmacological stimulation of warriors in the face of stress and exertion was the order of the day.”
Multiple drugs
Were Germanic warriors dipping spoons in drugs in powder or liquid form? Were they dosing themselves? According to study authors, it appears to be highly likely. The Germanic tribes would have had a wealth of psychoactive substances such as poppy, cannabis, hops, fungi, and belladonna in their grasp.
Archeological evidence shows that these drugs had been consumed for thousands of years in Sumerian Mesopotamia, China, and of course, the ancient Egyptians were famous fans of drugs for medicinal and narcotic effects. Many cultures wrote about the benefits and dangers of opium, in particular.
“We believe that the properties of the poppy may have been known to and used by the Germans,” study authors state in a study that was recently published in Praehistorische Zeitschrift.
Which drugs they might have been dipping into remains to be seen, but what researchers know, too many cultures ingested drugs to exclude the Germans from the mix.
Given the little accessory discovered on almost a hundred belts in tandem with war-related paraphernalia, the study authors conclude that this little spoon conveniently in reach would have brought drugs in some form to the German wearers’ noses or mouths to aid their violent pursuits and conquests.
Source: Interesting Engineering
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Drug dominance: Barbarian warriors may have used spoons to get high before battle