Bronze Age people were already taking drugs in Menorca.

The Bronze Age was a historical period when the metallurgy of this metal, obtained as a result of an alloy of copper and tin, developed. It began around 3300 BC. in the Middle East and Europe and spread to other regions of the world in the following centuries. The Bronze Age is characterized by the use of bronze tools, weapons and art, and by the emergence of the first urban and complex civilizations.

And it was during this period that a new humanity began to form, which, apparently, also began to use drugs in rituals, especially of the hallucinogenic type.

Archaeologists have recovered ancient hair from a cave in Menorca, one of the Balearic Islands, and found that it contains compounds that can cause people to hallucinate or have altered states of consciousness.

The organic compounds found in the hair are opium alkaloids, which, if ingested, can cause delirium, feelings of arousal, and bursts of energy, among other effects. Alkaloids occur naturally in some plants (including nightshade) and the research team suggests that such plants may have been used in Bronze Age ceremonies; their study is published today in Scientific Reports.

The hair was taken from Es Carritx Cave in Menorca, Spain, the easternmost part of the Balearic archipelago, a chain of islands southeast of Spain that includes Ibiza, Mallorca and Formentera. According to Scientific Reports, the cave was first inhabited around 3,600 years ago and was used as a burial chamber around 2,800 years ago.

The team tested the hair using high performance liquid chromatography and mass spectroscopy and found the presence of atropine, scopolamine, and ephedrine; The first two are found in the nightshade family, and the last in some shrubs and pines.

Since the alkaloids likely originated from toxic plants, the researchers believe they were provided by shamans who must have had special knowledge of how much of the material could be safely ingested.