This is an amusing story.
I have been doing some research into Near & Middle East history of 1000 to 2000 years before Christianity. As a result, I have become sensitive to any article about that time and space in our planet’s past. So I was attracted to the article about how the ancient city of Lagash (in today’s southern Iraq) had a tavern for the common man about 5000 years ago (See below, if interested). I must say, the article’s sub-title, «the Sumerians truly lived the good life» is befitting. Archelogists found troves of furniture (including a refrigerator), bowls and cups, and a cuneiform tablet containing the recipe for a ‘beer’! I guess the tavern was also the local brewer.
Now you understand, why the other day, my attention went for yet another article (also referenced below) talking about the discovery, through the analysis of human hair, that bronze age people from Menorca (in today’s Spain), used hallucinogenic plants on a regular basis! Now before you tell me that these were possibly used for pain relief, because there were no medicinal drugs for that in bronze age, I tell you right away, according to the researchers, these plants did not alleviate pain. So they were truly used for their ‘druggy’ effects!
Imagine that!!! Our ancestors were no different from us: to have fun and escape their life’s hardships, they went drinking in pubs, and some took drugs to hallucinate. Actually they were ahead of us, because we use much chemical drugs and all sorts of extreme additives to alcohol- both of which are potentially lethal - whereas our ancestors used only organic drugs and alcohol. The one thing I have not found out yet, is if our ancestors allowed women to join in the fun or not?
https://interestingengineering.com/culture/5000-year-old-beer-recipe
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/apr/07/bronze-age-people-hallucinogenic-drugs-menorca-study
Paris, April 17, 2023
Zeejay