RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article
T1 Direct evidence of the use of multiple drugs in Bronze Age Menorca (Western Mediterranean) from human hair analysis
A1 Guerra Doce, Elisa
A1 Rihuete-Herrada, C.
A1 Micó, R.
A1 Risch, R.
A1 Lull, V.
A1 Niemeyer, H. M.
K1 Arqueología, Prehistoria
K1 Archaeology, Diagnostic markers, Mass spectrometry, Organic chemistry
K1 5504.05 Prehistoria
AB Human hair dated to Late Prehistory is exceedingly rare in the Western Mediterranean. Archaeological excavations in the Bronze Age burial and cult cave of Es Càrritx, in Menorca (Balearic Islands) provided some human hair strands involved in a singular funerary rite. This finding offered the opportunity to explore the possible use of drug plants by Late Bronze Age people. Here we show the results of the chemical analyses of a sample of such hair using Ultra-High-Performance Liquid Chromatography-High Resolution Mass Spectrometry (UHPLC-HRMS). The alkaloids ephedrine, atropine and scopolamine were detected, and their concentrations estimated. These results confirm the use of different alkaloid-bearing plants by local communities of this Western Mediterranean island by the beginning of the first millennium cal BCE.
PB Springer Nature
SN 2045-2322
YR 2023
FD 2023
LK https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/81462
UL https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/81462
LA eng
NO Scientific Reports, Abril 2023, vol. 13, p. 4782
NO Producción Científica
DS UVaDOC
RD 12-feb-2026