The Religion with No Name · source record · paper

Direct evidence of the use of multiple drugs in Bronze Age Menorca (Western Mediterranean) from human hair analysis

Guerra-Doce, E.; Rihuete-Herrada, C.; Micó, R.; Risch, R.; Lull, V.; et al. · 2023

AI-verified citationSRC-GUERRA-DOCE-2023

identifier / locator: Scientific Reports 13: 4782 (2023-04-06). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-31064-2
url: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-31064-2
verification note: DOI, title, journal, and article number verified via the Crossref API (2026-08-25 batch).
reliability notes: The strongest single background datum for the Western Mediterranean: alkaloids measured in human hair (direct consumption evidence), ~1000 BCE, from a burial/cult cave.
Says nothing about which ceremony, what purpose, or any connection to later Greek mysteries.

Evidence drawn from this source

Supports· strongTIK-E002

what the source states: UHPLC-HRMS analysis of human hair from the burial and cult cave of Es Càrritx detected ephedrine, atropine, and scopolamine, which the authors present as direct evidence that people there had consumed multiple alkaloid-bearing plants by around 1000 BCE.
what we infer: The strongest background datum for the Western Mediterranean: the compounds are measured in human tissue (consumption, not proximity). It does not say which ceremony, what purpose — visionary, therapeutic, social — or anything about later Greek mysteries.
limitations: Tropane and ephedra alkaloids, not ergot; Menorca, not Attica; ~600 years before the classical Mysteries' peak.