Barbarian warriors in Roman times used stimulants in battle, findings suggest

[Still Waters]

Small, spoon-shaped objects found on the end of warriors' belts at archaeological sites across northern Europe could have been used to dispense stimulants before battle, a study suggests.

The widespread use of narcotics, such as opium, in ancient Greece and Rome is well-documented in ancient sources and supported by archaeological finds. However, this body of evidence is missing for the barbarian peoples living outside the Roman Empire, and it is generally assumed that they made little use of drugs apart from alcohol.

Now, analyses by archaeologist Prof. Andrzej Kokowski and biologists from Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin, Poland, shed a different light on these issues.

https://phys.org/news/2024-12-barbarian-warriors-roman.html