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,