PREHISTORIC DRUG KIT IS EVIDENCE OF STONED AGE

Stone Age humans could well have deserved the name. Scientists have
found the drug paraphernalia used by prehistoric humans to cook up
herbal mixtures to get themselves high.

Scientists have long suspected that humans have an ancient history of
drug use but much of the evidence has been indirect, ranging from the
bizarre images found in prehistoric cave art to the discovery of hemp
seeds in excavations.

Now, however, researchers have found equipment used to prepare
hallucinogenic drugs for sniffing, and dated them back to South
American tribes.

Quetta Kaye, of University College London, and Scott Fitzpatrick, an
archeologist from North Carolina State University, found the ceramic
bowls, plus tubes used to inhale drug fumes or powders, on the
Caribbean island of Carriacou.

The bowls appear to have originated in South America between 100BC
and 400BC and were then carried the 400 miles to the islands. One
implication is that drug use may have been widespread for thousands
of years before this time.

Kaye's research, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science,
said: "The objects tested for this study are ceramic inhaling bowls
that were likely used for the ingestion of hallucinogenic substances."

The use of such paraphernalia for inhaling drugs is well-known but
the age was a surprise. What is less clear is exactly which drugs
would have been used. Cannabis was not found in the Caribbean then.

There were, however, alternatives. Kaye believes one of the most
likely was cohoba, a hallucinogen made from the beans of a mimosa species.

Archeological investigations in Mexico and Texas have found indirect
evidence that as far back as 5,000 years ago humans were extracting
mind-expanding drugs from mescal beans and peyote cacti, while
opiates can be obtained from species such as poppies.

Fungi may also have been used. Moulds, including the powerfully
hallucinogenic ergot found on rotting vegetation, were common in
caves. Fungi like the fly agaric toadstool or psilocybin mushroom
were also widespread.

Richard Davenport-Hines, a former history lecturer at the London
School of Economics and author of The Pursuit of Oblivion, a global
history of narcotics, believes humans have been using drugs for
thousands of years.

"Drug use became widespread in many early agriculture-based societies
simply because it was the only way people could cope with spending
long hours working in the fields, often in horrible conditions like
baking sun," he said.

Many archeologists believe religion and spiritual beliefs must also
have played a part, with drugs being used to induce spiritual or
trance-like states.