Centuries of votive offerings cast into a lake in Denmark and other archaeological discoveries have revealed that barbarian warriors may have indulged in psychotropic drugs to stimulate themselves during battle against the Romans and other enemies.
These warriors may have used small spoons — dozens of which have been discovered attached to Barbarian belts — to ingest or measure magic mushrooms, an organic precursor for LSD or other substances.
“The lack of fatigue or inhibition, and the mobilization before a battle were desirable,” says Anna Jarosz-Wilkołazka, a biologist at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Poland. “Therefore, products natural at that time were sought which had this effect on the warrior’s body.”
Barbarian Drug Spoons
Researchers have been discovering small spoons, roughly about as long as a house key, for decades, but they never knew what they were used for. They have been found on the end of belts, which led many people to believe that they might have buckled the belt together.
But Andrzej Kokowski, an archaeologist at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, wasn’t convinced. “Why then a spoon at the end?” he wonders, while also dismissing cosmetic use as they were too small.
“This is the only logical explanation — we can find no other use,” Kokowski says.
In a study published in the journal Praehistorische Zeitschrift, Kokowski, Jarosz-Wilkołazka, and Anna Rysiak, another biologist at the Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, identified 241 spoon-like objects found at 116 sites in Scandinavia, Poland, and Germany that dated to the Roman era.
Many of the belts with these spoons attached to the ends were found in a marsh in Denmark called Illerup Ådal, along with thousands of other weapons and pieces of military equipment. Around two millennia ago, this area was a lake where warriors would throw these items, likely as votive offerings, after battle.
Today it’s just a marsh, and archaeologists have excavated about 150 belts, half of those with spoons, the authors of the study wrote. Others were found in grave sites, also in the context of weapons and military gear.
Read More: Just How Dark Were the Dark Ages?
Ancient Drug Use
The researchers haven’t yet found any traces of substances on these special spoons. But traces have been found in earthenware pots dating to this period. The team also surveyed the types of stimulants that would have grown locally or through trade in dried form.
They found a wide variety that barbarians could have accessed, including hallucinogenic mushrooms, cannabis, opium poppies, and ergot — a type of fungus that contains lysergic acid, a natural precursor to LSD.
What was the Purpose?
Some of these drugs may have reduced fatigue for warriors, improving their performance in battle. Other drugs may have reduced the fear or stress of going into battle, or reduced pain from injuries.
“It cannot be ruled out that they were occasionally used ‘for fun,’ but this is a weak assumption,” says Jarosz-Wilkołazka. “It should be remembered that they were found in the belts of warriors for whom courage, resistance to pain, or lack of inhibition during an attack were very important.”
Whatever the reason, barbarians likely used the spoons either to snort powdered substances, or to measure out a quantity to place into drinks like beer, or into pipes to be smoked.
“The ‘spoons’ described are probably dosage tools for the raw material,” according to the study authors.
The fact that so many of these spoons were discovered reveals that there was likely a whole industry involved in the collecting, processing, and trading of various drugs at the time, Jarosz-Wilkołazka says.
“These were not cartels on the scale of Medellin, but small cartels that responded efficiently to the needs of their armies,” she says. “We dare say that, along with the quality of weapons and food supplies, stimulants were the third essential element for war success during the barbarian German’s time.”
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Joshua Rapp Learn is an award-winning D.C.-based science writer. An expat Albertan, he contributes to a number of science publications like National Geographic, The New York Times, The Guardian, New Scientist, Hakai, and others.
