There is evidence of opium use as a drug (medicinal and ritual) from
4,500 years ago in Spain at several sites in Andalusia and Catalonia. The use of opium use as a drug was
previously known in the Daunbian Neolithic of Eastern Europe, but evidence of this use had not been found in Southwest Europe. The find predates the arrival of Celtic culture in the region, which is frequently viewed as the point at which the Indo-European languages arrived in Iberia, and instead was present at the mid-to-late stone age farming stage of civilization there.
Not 'Eastern Europe': it was the Danubian Neolithic of Central Europe (there was almost no such thing in Eastern Europe, excepting the Ukrainian SW and the Moldavias). In fact opium usage is a specificity of the 'Western facies' (later evolving into Rössen culture) of Germany and surroundings, along with weapons in burials and scattered population.
ReplyDeleteIt is possible that the plant was used in other places and times but I'm not aware of it.