Trove of spices from around the world on sunken fifteenth-century Norse ship
phys.org
phys.org
They always dance around hallucinogenic plants. Just admit people have basically been dropping acid for centuries
Circe also used it in the Odyssey to turn Odysseus's men into pigs. Odysseus prevented succumbing to Circe's poison by taking galantamine from the flowers of Galanthus nivalis, which is an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor. Galantamine counteracts the effects of anticholinergics by inhibiting the enzyme that breaks down acetylcholine.
What's that based on? I can't seem to find any mention (in this translation at least) of what Circe used. Beyond just "evil drugs", "baneful drugs" etc.
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext...
At any rate it's not a translation issue. You can see in your link, which also has the original Greek, that the phrase used is "pharmaka lugros", which means precisely what the translation said. Maybe there is some other tradition besides Homer that handed it down, but it's healthy to have a lot of skepticism with claims like this.
As for the trip… we have it growing wild at our place, and I’ve been schooling myself as a herbalist/botanist, mostly for practical purposes. I’ve smoked it and had it in tea. It’s not a “oh wow I want to do that again!” but it’s also not “oh sweet Jesus no”. Floaty, tranquil, visuals not unlike DMT, and a terrible stomach upset.
Some locals still use it, as an alternative to hemlock, to stun fish.
One fun thing I found out today: Linnaea is a genus of honeysuckle named after botanist Carl Linnaeus whose name derives from the Swedish lind or linden tree. So it's a plant named after a person named after a plant!
I bet I could find a lot more examples like this if I kept digging. I only recently realized how common it is for names to derive from plants and I've had a lot of fun digging into it
Why is anyone using Hemlock to stun fish? Given there are dozens of plants that stun fish, it seems odd that folks would use one that's also absurdly toxic to humans.
Because they are criminals. This is strictly forbidden in most countries.
And because they are stupid and like to play with their own health
From what I understand it can be poisonous if consumed directly. You'd probably get poisoned from directly consuming tobacco leaves too so I wonder if this is a similar situation where smoking is safer than direct consumption
Would you describe the experience as a "trip" like other psychedelic plants and fungi?
And yes, it was a trip - but mild in the grand scheme of things.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4224707/
> In the Norwegian tradition, women put an ointment contain mixture of some plants such as BH on parts of the body with thin skin and became hallucinated
> It Soothsayers applied BH as a component of their hallucinatory mixture
Based on what little I know, that sound scary.
And Psilocybe themselves are global in distribution with hundreds of species. Almost all hallucinogenic and none are poisonous.
A quick google search shows we have evidence for magic mushroom use in Europe for at least up to 6k years ago:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20928025-400-earliest...
This is misinformation. It contains ibotenic acid and muscimol. The effects are very different than psilocybin containing mushrooms.
Reference on the chemical compounds: https://pharmacia.pensoft.net/article/56112/
I never heard of christmas deriving from reindeer, it is commonly associated with winter solstice, but given the first record of the festivity is in Rome in 336CE it seems odd.
Maybe you mean the "association of reindeer with christmas", but that seems likely to have originated in the 19th century.
Do you have any source?
And I mean... obviously. A red and white mushroom that can get you high as fuck with the help of some reindeer...
https://www.livescience.com/42077-8-ways-mushrooms-explain-s...
but the "Father Christmas" in english tradition was green.
https://www.ssgreatbritain.org/why-is-our-father-christmas-g...
Honestly, it would be groundbreaking if one grandma told stories about how her mother used to make mushroom tea. But we don’t have those stories. And, there is nothing in all of the Latin and Greek texts of the past 2500 years. It is a real enigma.
For example, this paper[0] explores the ethnobotanic use of hallucinogenic mushrooms in Slovenia says
> Use of hallucinogenic plants and fungi, believed to extend back thousands of years, is an important part of the human experience
> The term hallucinogen first became popular in the 1950s and was originally used as the substances were said to produce hallucinations, though we now know that this is often not the case at lower doses
Ancient Greeks drank psychoactive concoctions that contained a mix of psychedelic mushrooms and even reports from the Middle Ages document their use. Clusius (1525-1609), a physician and botanist, discovered ‘bolond gomba’, a mushroom known in Germany as Narrenschwamm or Fool's mushroom, which was used in rural areas to concoct a love potion. ‘Fools mushrooms’ were also documented around the same time in Slovakia, Poland, and in England
Fool’s mushroom also does not have psilocybin.
Because its medical use was for asthma. You could buy solanaceous cigarettes in the US until the 70s or so.
> Henbane is used in traditional herbal medicine for ailments of the bones, rheumatism, toothache, asthma, cough, nervous diseases, and stomach pain. It might also be used as analgesic, sedative, and narcotic in some cultures
Some other examples of highly medicinal plants from PFAF:
Ammi visnaga[^0]
Visnaga is an effective muscle relaxant and has been used for centuries to alleviate the excruciating pain of kidney stones[254]. Modern research has confirmed the validity of this traditional use[254]. Visnagin contains khellin, from which particularly safe pharmaceutical drugs for the treatment of asthma have been made[254]. The seeds are diuretic and lithontripic[46]. They contain a fatty oil that includes the substance 'khellin'. This has been shown to be of benefit in the treatment of asthma[238]. Taken internally, the seeds have a strongly antispasmodic action on the smaller bronchial muscles[254], they also dilate the bronchial, urinary and blood vessels without affecting blood pressure[238]. The affect last for about 6 hours and the plant has practically no side effects[254]. The seeds are used in the treatment of asthma, angina, coronary arteriosclerosis and kidney stones[238]. By relaxing the muscles of the urethra, visnaga reduces the pain caused by trapped kidney stones and helps ease the stone down into the bladder[254]. The seeds are harvested in late summer before they have fully ripened and are dried for later use[254].
Red bark has a long history of native use, especially as a treatment for fevers and malaria. Modern research has shown it to be a very effective treatment for fevers, and especially as a treatment and preventative of malaria. The bark contains various alkaloids, particularly quinine and quinidine. Up to 70 - 80% of the total alkaloids contained in the bark are quinine[ 418 ]. The bark is a bitter, astringent, tonic herb that lowers fevers, relaxes spasms, is antimalarial (the alkaloid quinine) and slows the heart (the alkaloid quinidine)[ 238 ]. The bark is made into various preparations, such as tablets, liquid extracts, tinctures and powders[ 238 ]. It is used internally in the treatment of malaria, neuralgia, muscle cramps and cardiac fibrillation[ 238 ]. It is an ingredient in various proprietary cold and influenza remedies[ 238 ]. The liquid extract is useful as a cure for drunkenness[ 418 ]. It is also used as a gargle to treat sore throats[ 238 ]. Care must be taken in the use of this herb since excess can cause a number of side effects including cinchonism, headache, rash, abdominal pain, deafness and blindness[ 238 ]. The herb, especially in the form of the extracted alkaloid quinine, is subject to legal restrictions in some countries[ 238 ].
Witch hazel bark is a traditional herb of the North American Indians who used it to heal wounds, treat tumours, eye problems etc[254]. A very astringent herb, it is commonly used in the West and is widely available from both herbalists and chemists[222]. It is an important ingredient of proprietary eye drops, skin creams, ointments and skin tonics[238]. It is widely used as an external application to bruises, sore muscles, varicose veins, haemorrhoids, sore nipples, inflammations etc[238]. The bark is astringent, haemostatic, sedative and tonic[4, 14, 21, 165, 171, 222]. Tannins in the bark are believed to be responsible for its astringent and haemostatic properties[222]. Bottled witch hazel water is a steam distillate that does not contain the tannins from the shrub[222], this is less effective in its action than a tincture[238]. The bark is used internally in the treatment of diarrhoea, colitis, dysentery, haemorrhoids, vaginal discharge, excessive menstruation, internal bleeding and prolapsed organs[238]. Branches and twigs are harvested for the bark in the spring[238]. An infusion of the leaves is used to reduce inflammations, treat piles, internal haemorrhages and eye inflammations[213]. The leaves are harvested in the summer and can be dried for later use[238]. A homeopathic remedy is made from fresh bark[232]. It is used in the treatment of nosebleeds, piles and varicose veins[232].
The kudzu vine, known as Ge Gen in China, is commonly used in Chinese herbalism, where it is considered to be one of the 50 fundamental herbs[218 ]. Recent research has shown that compounds called 'daidzin' and 'daidzein', which are contained in the roots and the flowers, are a safe and effective method for treating alcohol abuse[238 ]. They work by suppressing the appetite for alcohol, whereas existing treatments interfere with the way the alcohol is metabolised and can cause a build-up of toxins[238 ]. The plant is often used in combination with Chrysanthemum x morifolium in treating alcohol abuse[254 ]. The flowers and the roots are antidote, antiemetic, antipyretic, antispasmodic, demulcent, diaphoretic, digestive, febrifuge, hypoglycaemic and hypotensive[174 , 176 , 218 , 222 , 238 ]. A concoction of the flowers and tubers is used to treat alcoholism, fever, colds, diarrhoea, dysentery, acute intestinal obstruction etc[174 , 176 , 218 , 222 ]. It is useful in the treatment of angina pectoris and migraine[218 ]. The root is frequently used as a remedy for measles, often in combination with Cimicifuga foetida[254 ]. The root contains puerarin. This increases the blood flow to the coronary artery and protects against acute myocardial ischaemia caused by the injection of pituitrin[176 ]. The root can be harvested from the autumn to the spring and is used fresh or dried[238 ]. The flowers are harvested just before they are fully open and are dried for later use[238 ]. The stems are galactagogue and are also applied as a poultice to incipient boils, swellings, sore mouths etc[218 , 222 ]. The seed is used in the treatment of hangover and dysentery[218 , 222 ]. The leaves are styptic[218 ].
[^0]: https://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Ammi+visnaga
[^1]: https://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Cinchona+pubescen...
[^2]: https://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Hamamelis+virgini...
[^3]: https://pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Pueraria+montana
Therefore with herbal medicine there is always a risk of overdosing or receiving an useless (too low) dose. The importance of this fact when people deal with such evil things as Scopolamine shouldn't be dismissed.
The profit motive of pharmacological companies is to have repeat customers. So no real incentive to cure.
You can't really dismiss this as a concern, as it's reflected in reality. Americans are some of the most drugged people in the world. The number of drugs Americans are now taking is growing exponentially. Yet this hasn't translated into life expectancy gains at all.
If anything, chances are you will be given the most drugs in the last year of your life. The risk of complications from taking so many drugs, will probably be working against benefit. As you get worse, the doctors will try to increase the dose. A feedback loop of sorts.
Hey, it's not like I'm against modern medicine. It's just it's a little more complicated, when game theory comes into play and individuals/companies have incentives that aren't always aligned with your best interest.
Every year there's between 10 and 60 total fatalities due to plant and mushroom poisoning annually in the United States. But more than 106,000 persons in the U.S. died from drug-involved overdose in 2021. Obviously many more people take pharmaceutical drugs than take herbal medicines, but I do think that even if you adjusted the numbers to account for that you'd still see a huge difference
The fact is humans have been eating plant matter for millions of years and even though secondary metabolites of plants can be unique, they still often have certain chemical properties that our digestive system can evolve to account for. For example oxalic acid (rhubarb, brown rice, almonds, etc) and saponins (beans, asparagus, spinach, etc) are two very lethal poisons that will kill your cat but that us omnivores have evolved to neutralize and most of us consume daily. In comparison, pharmaceutical drugs are specifically isolated and optimized for potency and it's simply much more difficult for our bodies to adapt to individual chemicals like this (especially if they have novel chemical properties not seen in other parts of nature)
However, this 'extracting and purifying' step is one that must be done, you don't want to give the patient the whole 'cocktail' of active substances that happen to be in the herb along with the one thing that does have the desireable effect; so skipping that step and using the herb directly often is not appropriate; sure, it can work and have some beneficial effect as it was used historically, but that's something you stop doing once you have the practical ability to do it better by properly extracting the appropriate component.
Potato family. Common secondary effects, Permanent insanity and death
A good example is the spread of wheat cultivation across Europe. We can get fairly accurate reads on this because of DNA sequencing of wheat and it was a new crop. There is cultivated wheat at the bottom of the English Channel, meaning it was farmed there before the English Chanel was flooded by the North American ice sheet melting.
Another example is the from the Bronze Age (>3300 years ago). There was a vast trade network at this time that we have direct evidence for [1], being a ship carrying goods from all across the known world from modern day Afghanistan to Europe.
The Bronze Age spectacularly and suddenly ended, which is a whole other story. It's still speculated as to what caused this. One interesting aspect are the so caled "Sea Peoples", that were directly documented (and drawn) by the Egyptians at the time. There's speculation that the "Sea Peoples" themselves were refugees from some other disaster. This too hints at great mobility that so many people could migrate so far.
Trade and human movement in historic times was way more extensive and common than you might otherwise assume.
[1]: https://medium.com/teatime-history/bronze-age-shipwreck-reve...
A few north Korean traders does not make north Korean people an international trading culture.
It kind of does, just that the people themselves aren't terribly mobile.
Trade is goods and capital, not people.
We see even in neolithic times that people ranged far with trade goods and community, such as sites like Göbekli Tepe.
But people from poor countries actually do travel a lot, as gastarbeiters, to send remittance back to their families. They do so using buses, though. Lots and lots of buses.
Good rhetorical technique, I’m sure a lot of people have a relatively ‘naive’ preconception about such things - but I also think a lot of people do have an understanding that these kinds of things were possible as it is.
I think you’re forgetting how expensive international airfare was even in the 1980s. Traveling around the world multiple times in the 1960s, 70s, and 80s would have been very expensive compared to today (note: I’m considering airfare only, not accommodations)
Most people tend to think of themselves as "middle-class". Your family may have been. Or maybe that's what you grew up with and was normal in your community but not "middle-class".
That point aside, the 1980's was the beginning of cheaper travel. In the 1950's it was the modern equivalent of $45,000 (all 'modern' prices are pre-COVID inflation adjusted Perth-to-London). It decreased by by 82% by 1980. It pretty much leveled out in the mid-1980's to today, inflation adjusted. Although the same rates your parents paid probably would have gotten them business class tickets now.
Cloves have been found at Syrian 4th millennium B.C. sites, Tel Mozan I think, indicating an unbroken route to Indonesia. Our ancestors were not unsophisticated.
Looking at the options now, 200 eur is very doable, although there will be extra fees for luggage. But there have been almost 20 years in between! In 2004, 700 eur must have been around the average net monthly salary in CZ; now, the average net salary is almost twice as high.
So, from a purchasing power point of view, costs of flying have gone down about 7x for a Czech person, in mere 19 years.
Citation? I'm no expert but I had thought that the introduction of farming to the region post-dated the inundation of the channel by millennia.
Especially interesting to me were the images of watermelon from painted still lifes over the centuries. It was clearly a very different fruit to the one we know today.
(But I love Ryan North)
Can we determine where the spices came from? Did he trade with the Mughal empire or an agent of theirs? All of them sound South Asian, except I don't know where almonds came from.
It's possible there was centuries-long trade between Vikings and Arabs that stopped at the Horn of Africa, because Arabs kept the route to India, Malacca and the Moluccas a mostly well-guarded secret against Europeans.
That being said, it's possible for the Scandinavians to have indirectly acquired these spices from the Arabs, because the Arabs certainly resold a lot of them from the Vijayanagara Empire and the Srivijiya Sultanate (both which existed around that time). But the lack of any outposts or major presence like the Arabs did, means that the Europeans did not have direct access to Greater Asia (India, China, SEA) until the Portuguese opened up the routes.
As you can expect, the number of middlemen involved meant that the prices commanded by these goods was extremely high.
Edit:- Denmark had an outpost in Tuticorin (Southern India) much later though
Honestly, in those days, a trip from Stockholm to Malacca in those days would have been much faster than a trip from the Kara sea through Siberia. Not to mention, much safer - you don't have to worry about nomadic raiders stealing your goods (which was a very significant concern in the Silk Road overland route vis a vis the Spice Route).
> nutmeg, cloves, mustard and dill.
None of these were common as some sort of powder back then (nor today except nutmeg). All would be extremely difficult to fake
They would be shipped as whole plant parts but dried. You'd powder or grate right before using.
If they were powdered before shipping they'd lose so much flavor and potency along the way.
There's a 1963 presentation by Ruggiero Romano, Alberto Tenenti and Ugo Tucci called Venise et la Route du Cap: 1499-1517, which has this table [1] of imports of spices in the Mediterranean Sea and Southern Europe going from the late 1490s to the early 1500s. One can see that the Portuguese only started bringing spices in Europe in 1501, and they started rivalling the Venetians in terms of quantities in 1503.
Some can be snacks but its main purpose could be very different. Flax seeds are tiny and really not so valuable as snack, but you can powder them and obtain a very fine oil to use in lamps. In a six month dark winter or in a ship this can be more than a luxury. You could also save them for culturing at home and obtain a source of fine and durable clothes. Almond oil can be used in skin care to alleviate the effect of the cold in the face. Can be used also in candles.
Flax oil can be used also in another very important thing in a wooden ship, to protect the wood and made it shiny, more durable and waterproof.
Henbane is the outlier but could be used externally and its purpose in navigation is fascinating. Rare in the North but can be found in central and southern Europe if you know what to look for. Is not a creature that you should underestimate or play with but Vikings really don't need to navigate a lot to find it.
The dried berries are all European crops. Maybe their purpose was to acquire valuable varieties of crops. May be used also to dye clothes.
Perhaps food wasn't always so fresh back then.
[1] https://www.mccormickscienceinstitute.com/resources/history-...
This story is of a Norwegian ship, a place where they regularly ate fish soaked in lye. Their food options weren't great.
I'm unsure of which regions did this, but I didn't mean they baked a bunch of pies in the fall.
as a vegetarian spice is essential. a lot of indian vegetarian cuisine is about spice use such as frying seeds in oil, add some other powdered spices to make a paste, adding certain other spices near the end. etc etc.
Speak for yourself!
Your "charitable" ad-hominem is instead "severely lacking" in substance.