• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

A Cave In North Africa Holds 15,000-Year-Old Evidence Of Drug Use

November 7, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

At this cave in North Africa some 15,000 years ago, a human was buried alongside an “unusual and special” medicinal plant: Ephedra, a humble shrub that’s still used today in some traditional medicines. It’s the earliest known evidence of humans using this plant, and it holds the potential to cast light on the mysteries of funerary practices and prehistoric medicine.

The discovery was made in La Grotte des Pigeons (The Cave of Pigeons), known locally as Taforalt, near the city of Berkane in northeastern Morroco. Between 2005 and 2015, archaeologists discovered the skeletons of several adults and infants placed in a seated or reclining position right at the back of the cave.

Advertisement

One of the skeletons, an adult male aged 19 to 20 years old named Individual 14, was found to be buried alongside a wealth of rare and special goods, including animal bones, stones, and ochre-colored objects.

Among his bones and burial goods, researchers led by a team at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria have recently identified hundreds of charred remains belonging to seven different plant species.

Most interesting of all was the discovery of Ephedra, a well-known medicinal plant that’s been used in the traditional medicines of India and China for thousands of years.

Illustration of Individual 14 (in blue) along with his Barbary sheep horn core (in grey), stone with ochre (in dark grey and red), animal bones (in yellow), and Ephedra plant bits (as red spots).

Illustration of Individual 14 (in blue) along with his Barbary sheep horn core (in grey), stone with ochre (in dark grey and red), animal bones (in yellow), and Ephedra plant bits (as red spots).

The plant has many purported health benefits – many of which have not been scientifically proven – such as treating colds and respiratory illnesses. It’s also touted for its ability to boost energy and aid weight loss.

Advertisement

One of its main active ingredients is ephedrine, a stimulant that’s often used to prevent low blood pressure during anesthesia, as well to treat as asthma, narcolepsy, and obesity.

Given the wide range of potential uses, the researchers behind this latest discovery in Morocco aren’t totally certain why the man was buried with charred remains of the plant, although they have some ideas.

“Ephedra may have been a ‘medicinal food’ that was consumed for both its nutritional and therapeutic properties, and it could have been exploited to provide several benefits simultaneously such as to mitigate hunger and maintain health,” the study authors write.

“Evidence of successful recovery from operations, such as tooth evulsion and cranial trephination, performed by Iberomaurusian occupants of Grotte des Pigeons suggests that Ephedra could have been used for medicinal purposes. Ephedra is a vasoconstrictor, and it could have been employed to reduce the amount of blood loss during these surgical procedures and as an aid to recovery,” they added.

Advertisement

The researchers acknowledge that we can never totally understand the intentions of people who lived 15,000 years ago. However, they emphasize that it is clear this “unusual and special” plant was consumed in a funerary context, suggesting they understood its significance and strange properties.

“The consumption of special foods and the placement of food debris in highly symbolic contexts, such as burial places, have been interpreted in other archaeological contexts as clear evidence of feasting, and potential sharing of food items with the deceased. Here we suggest that at Grotte des Pigeons, people were using or consuming unusual and special foods as part of a [15,000-year-old] human burial and that Ephedra had a significant place among them,” conclude the researchers.

The study is published in the journal Scientific Reports.

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. No ‘magic wand’ to fix Lebanon crisis, new prime minister says
  2. The Talpiot Tomb: When James Cameron Claimed To Have Found Jesus’s Bones
  3. Citizen Scientists Have Spotted A Close Approaching Asteroid Professionals Might Have Missed
  4. We’re About To Witness A Stellar Event Potentially First Recorded In A Medieval Manuscript

Source Link: A Cave In North Africa Holds 15,000-Year-Old Evidence Of Drug Use

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • Hippos Hung Around In Europe 80,000 Years Later Than We Thought
  • Officially Gone: Slender-Billed Curlew, Once-Widespread Migratory Bird, Declared Extinct By IUCN
  • Watch: Rare Footage Captures Freaky Faceless Cusk Eels Lurking On The Deep-Sea Floor
  • Watch This Funky Sea Pig Dancing Its Way Through The Deep Sea, Over 2,300 Meters Below The Surface
  • NASA Lets YouTuber Steve Mould Test His “Weird Chain Theory” In Space
  • The Oldest Stalagmite Ever Dated Was Found In Oklahoma Rocks, Dating Back 289 Million Years
  • 2024’s Great American Eclipse Made Some Birds Behave In Surprising Ways, But Not All Were Fooled
  • “Carter Catastrophe”: The Math Equation That Predicts The End Of Humanity
  • Why Is There No Nobel Prize For Mathematics?
  • These Are The Only Animals Known To Incubate Eggs In Their Stomachs And Give “Birth” Out Their Mouths
  • Constipated? This One Fruit Could Help, Says First-Ever Evidence-Led Diet Guidance
  • NGC 2775: This Galaxy Breaks The Rules Of “Galactic Evolution” And Baffles Astronomers
  • Meet The “Four-Eyed” Hirola, The World’s Most Endangered Antelope With Fewer Than 500 Left
  • The Bizarre 1997 Experiment That Made A Frog Levitate
  • There’s A Very Good Reason Why October 1582 On Your Phone Is Missing 10 Days
  • Skynet-1A: Military Spacecraft Launched 56 Years Ago Has Been Moved By Persons Unknown
  • There’s A Simple Solution To Helping Avoid Erectile Dysfunction (But You’re Not Going To Like It)
  • Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS May Be 10 Billion Years Old, This Rare Spider Is Half-Female, Half-Male Split Down The Middle, And Much More This Week
  • Why Do Trains Not Have Seatbelts? It’s Probably Not What You Think
  • World’s Driest Hot Desert Just Burst Into A Rare And Fleeting Desert Bloom
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version