Dear Caroline,
Hello from Thessaloniki, northern Greece. Please find attached a paper
that might be of interest to you though it focuses on plant remains
from the 'barbarian' north Aegean region rather than the
sophisticated, 'civilised' south!
Best wishes,
Tania
Quoting Caroline Tully <[log in to unmask]>:
> Hello,
>
> I've just subscribed to this list (as I only just discovered it). I'm a PhD
> candidate in the Centre for Classics and Archaeology at the University of
> Melbourne, Australia, studying tree cult in Minoan religion.
>
> For a separate project however, I’m seeking information on the use of
> psychoactive drugs in Bronze Age Crete and I wonder if anyone here has any
> suggestions regarding pollen, residue or macrobotanical evidence dating to
> the Bronze Age for plants with psychoactive properties?
>
> We know the Minoans were familiar with Opium and alcohol. They probably did
> not have the classic hallucinogens: the Fly Agaric and psilocybin
> mushrooms, or ergot, and most certainly not the mescal and peyote cacti.
>
> The Aegean version of the Sea Daffodil (Pancratium Maritimum) is not
> hallucinogenic, although an African cousin, Pancratium Trianthum, is
> reputedly so.
>
> Minoan archaeologist, Sabine Beckman, has said there is a Cretan version of
> Henbane (Hyoscyamus albus), although we don't know the level of alkaloids
> or whether the plant was used as a hallucingen. Crete has Mandrake
> (Mandragora officinarum) as did Egypt, but other traditional European
> hallucinogenic plants such as Deadly Nightshade (Atropa belladonna),
> Hemlock (Conium maculatum), Monkshood (Aconitum napellus) or Thornapple
> (Datrura strammonium) really come from cooler climates.
>
> I'd love to hear whether anyone has any advice on this,
>
> Thanks,
> from
>
> Caroline Tully.
>
> PhD Candidate
> Centre for Classics and Archaeology
> University of Melbourne
> Australia.
>
> http://shaps.unimelb.edu.au/classics-archaeology
Soultana Maria Valamoti,
Associate Professor,
Dept of Archaeology,
School of History and Archaeology,
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki,
Greece
http://www.hist.auth.gr/en/content/valamoti-soultana-maria
http://iwgp-2013.web.auth.gr/
http://auth.academia.edu/SoultanaValamoti
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