by Scientists in the Netherlands have discovered a hollowed-out bone containing black hen seeds at a Roman archaeological site. For centuries, the plant has been associated with medicine and magic.
Black hen (Hyoscyamus niger) contain toxic and potentially fatal compounds called tropane alkaloids. These compounds include hyoscyamine and scopolamine, which are concentrated in the leaves and seeds and are known for their psychoactive and medicinal properties.
An exciting discovery by Houten-Castellum in the Netherlands has shed light on the deliberate collection and use of black hen seed during the Roman Empire. Excavation of a water hole at the site, dated to around AD70-100 AD, uncovered a hollowed-out sheep or goat bone, plugged with birch-bark tar, filled with over a thousand black hen seeds.
The bone was interpreted as a container rather than a pipe, since there was no evidence that the seeds had been burned. Tobacco pipes were also rare in Europe before the advent of tobacco. At the same archaeological site, a flower head of henbane was found with a basket and ceramic cooking pots. These were interpreted as offerings when people abandoned the settlement.
Remains of black hen seeds have been found in association with other medicinal plants at archaeological sites in northwestern Europe. These date from the Neolithic period onwards, including at some Roman sites.
The earliest finds date back to the first farmers in Europe, around 5500-4500BC. It has been suggested that the plant migrated with farming communities, intentionally or accidentally, as a “cultivated weed”.
However, conclusive evidence for human use of black hens at these sites is usually lacking. This is due to the plant’s habit of growing naturally on disturbed ground across temperate Eurasia and northwest Africa, along with the fact that henbane produces many seeds.
There is little evidence of the cultivation or medicinal and hallucinogenic uses of hens until the Roman period, although it is mentioned in the Papyrus Ebers from Ancient Egypt, around 1500 BC.
The medicinal use of henbane throughout the Roman Empire is unknown, but it may have been common, as it has been found in 65 of 83 Roman-era sites in the Netherlands.
Archaeological finds from a first-century AD hospital at a Roman fort in the Rhineland included the burnt seeds of black hen along with several other medicinal plants – providing strong circumstantial evidence that people in the Roman Rhineland were aware of it, and using, the black carp for its medicinal properties. .
Treating everything from fever to flatulence
Medical texts that survive from the Roman period also provide details of how the carp was used. The Roman natural historian Pliny the Elder and the Greco-Roman physician Dioscorides both wrote about the properties of hens in the first century AD.
In his famous herbal, De Materia Medica, Dioscorides referred to three types of henbane: white, yellow and black. The black type is probably black henbane, and the yellow and white types are probably a different species, Hyoscyamus album.
Dioscorides wrote that both yellow and black henbane can cause delirium and sleep, but he considered it best to avoid black henbane because of its stronger effects.
He also described the use of henbane seeds, taken in juice for pain relief or to treat mucus and uterine disorders. The leaves could be applied to the body to relieve pain or taken in a liquid to reduce fever. If cooked, the leaves were said to irritate the senses.
Pliny the Elder described four types of hen in his book Naturalis Historia, including one with black seeds and purple flowers that could cause insanity and insanity.
The white variety that grew near the coast had several medicinal uses, including juice from the crushed leaves and stems as a cough remedy. Smoke from the burnt plant was used for joint ailments, inflamed tendons and gout. The toothache could be treated by chewing henbane root with vinegar, and the root was applied in an ointment to relieve abdominal pain.
Fenugreek and anise seeds were taken with donkey’s milk in honey wine to prevent shortness of breath and flatulence. The seed oil was used to soothe the skin or poured into the ear to treat earache.
Wine infused with four or more leaves could reduce fever, but Pliny warned of the dangers of the drug and mentioned remedies for those who had imbibed the wine, declaring that the henbane was both poison and medicine.
As with all medications, the dose determines the effects. Interestingly, the compounds found in henbane, hyoscyamine and scopolamine, are used in prescription medications today to treat nausea and vomiting resulting from motion sickness or after surgery, and in the treatment of muscle spasms.
This article from The Conversation is republished under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Sarah Edwards does not work for, consult with, or own shares in, or receive funding from, any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and she has disclosed no relevant relationships beyond her academic appointment.
