Earliest use of psychoactive and medicinal plant ‘harmal’ identified in Iron Age Arabia

 Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology

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One of the ancient fumigation devices used in the inhalation of harmal

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Credit: Hans Sell

New research published in Communications Biology has uncovered the earliest known use of the medicinal and psychoactive plant Peganum harmala, commonly known as Syrian rue or harmal, in fumigation practices and inhaled as smoke. The findings offer unprecedented insight into early Arabian therapeutic and sensorial practices, revealing that native plants were already being deliberately used for their bioactive and psychoactive properties nearly 2,700 years ago.

Led by Dr. Barbara Huber (Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology) and Professor Marta Luciani (University of Vienna), in collaboration with the Heritage Commission of the Saudi Ministry of Culture, the study applied advanced metabolic profiling techniques to analyze organic residues preserved inside Iron Age fumigation devices. The devices were excavated at the oasis settlement of Qurayyah in northwestern Saudi Arabia, a locale known in antiquity for its decorated ceramic vessels, today called Qurayyah Painted Ware.

“Our findings represent chemical evidence for the earliest known burning of harmal, not just in Arabia, but globally,” says Barbara Huber, lead author of the study. “Our discovery sheds light on how ancient communities drew on traditional plant knowledge and their local pharmacopeia to care for their health, purify spaces, and potentially trigger psychoactive effects.”

The study employed high-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HPLC-MS/MS), a powerful analytical technique that enables the detection of characteristic harmala alkaloids even in tiny, degraded samples.

“The integration of biomolecular analysis with archaeology has allowed us to identify not just what kind of plants people were using, but also where, how, and why,” says Prof. Marta Luciani, excavation director at Qurayyah and archaeologist at the University of Vienna. “We’re gaining access to plant-based practices that were central to daily life but are rarely preserved in the archaeological record.”

Known for its antibacterial, psychoactive, and therapeutic properties, Peganum harmala is still used in traditional medicine and household fumigation practices today in the region. The new findings underscore its long-standing cultural and medicinal significance.  

“This discovery shows the deep historical roots of traditional healing and fumigation practices in Arabia,” adds Ahmed M. Abualhassan, Heritage Commission co-director of the Qurayyah project. “We’re preserving not only objects, but the intangible cultural heritage of ancient knowledge that still holds relevance in local communities today.”

The study’s implications stretch beyond archaeology into fields such as ethnobotany, medical anthropology, heritage studies, and pharmacognosy – all concerned with the long-term relationship between humans, medicinal plants and natural resources.

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Journal

Communications Biology

DOI

10.1038/s42003-025-08096-7 

The Roman massacre that never happened: new study of an iconic archaeological site

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Two of the skeletons excavated by Mortimer Wheeler in the 1930s, dating from the 1st century AD. Both these individuals exhibit bladed weapon injuries, whilst one has a spear head lodged in his spine, previously interpreted (wrongly) as a Roman ballista bolt.

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Credit: Martin Smith

A new study by archaeologists at Bournemouth University has revealed that bodies recovered from a ‘war-cemetery’, previously attributed to the Roman Conquest of Britain at Maiden Castle Iron Age hillfort in Dorset, did not die in a single dramatic event. 

A re-analysis of the burials, including a new programme of radiocarbon dating, has revealed that, rather than dying in a single, catastrophic event, individuals fell in periods of lethal violence spanning multiple generations, spread across the late first century BC to the early first century AD. This is suggestive of episodic periods of bloodshed, possibly the result of localised turmoil, executions or dynastic infighting during the decades leading up to the Roman Conquest of Britain.  

BU’s Dr Martin Smith, Associate Professor in Forensic and Biological Anthropology, who analysed the bodies said: “The find of dozens of human skeletons displaying lethal weapon injuries was never in doubt, however, by undertaking a systematic programme of radiocarbon dating we have been able to establish that these individuals died over a period of decades, rather than a single terrible event”. 

The ‘war-cemetery’ of Maiden Castle Iron Age hillfort in Dorset is one of Britain’s most famous archaeological discoveries. Discovered in 1936, many of the skeletons unearthed had clear evidence of trauma to the head and upper body. Dig director at the time, Sir Mortimer Wheeler suggested, were “the marks of battle”, caused during a furious but ultimately futile defence of the hillfort against an all-conquering Roman legion. Wheeler’s colourful account of an attack on the native hillfort and the massacre of its defenders by invading Romans, was accepted as fact, becoming an iconic event in popular narratives of Britain’s ‘Island Story’. 

Principal Academic in Prehistoric and Roman Archaeology at BU, and the study’s Dig Director, Dr Miles Russell said: “Since the 1930s, the story of Britons fighting Romans at one of the largest hillforts in the country has become a fixture in historical literature. With the Second World War fast approaching, no one was really prepared to question the results. The tale of innocent men and women of the local Durotriges tribe being slaughtered by Rome is powerful and poignant. It features in countless articles, books and TV documentaries. It has become a defining moment in British history, marking the sudden and violent end of the Iron Age.” 

Dr Russell added: “The trouble is it doesn’t appear to have actually happened. Unfortunately, the archaeological evidence now points to it being untrue. This was a case of Britons killing Britons, the dead being buried in a long-abandoned fortification. The Roman army committed many atrocities, but this does not appear to be one of them.” 

The study has also raised further questions as to what may still lie undiscovered at Maiden Castle. BU’s Visiting Fellow, Paul Cheetham commented that “Here we interpret this as either a number of distinct cultures living and dying together, or we can understand this as burial rights that were determined by complex social rules or hierarchical divisions within this Iron Age society. Whilst Wheeler’s excavation was excellent, he was only able to investigate a fraction of the site. It is likely that a larger number of burials remain undiscovered around the immense ramparts.” 

The work at Maiden Castle also brings into question how other archaeological cemeteries across the UK have been interpreted, as Paul Cheetham continued: “The intermingling of differing cultural burial practices contemporaneously shows that simplistic approaches to interpreting archaeological cemeteries must now be questioned."  

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Journal

Oxford Journal of Archaeology

DOI

10.1111/ojoa.12324 

Archaeologist sailing like a Viking makes unexpected discoveries

 

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Lund University

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During his research project, Greer Jarrett has sailed over 2500 nautical miles. 

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Credit: Greer Jarrett

WATCH VIDEO STORY: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Os9nS4jstXw 

Archaeologist Greer Jarrett at Lund University in Sweden has been sailing in the footsteps of Vikings for three years. He can now show that the Vikings sailed farther away from Scandinavia, and took routes farther from land, than was previously believed to have been possible. In his latest study, he has found evidence of a decentralised network of ports, located on islands and peninsulas, which probably played a central role in trade and travel in the Viking era.  

The sailing boat – an open, square-rigged clinker boat similar to the boats used during the Viking Age (800-1050 AD) – travelled from Trondheim up to the Arctic Circle and back in 2022. Since then, Greer Jarrett and his team have sailed over 5,000 kilometres along Viking trade routes (see map). His research shows that the likely routes of the Vikings took them farther from land than previously thought. 

“I can show that this type of boat sails well on open water, in tough conditions. But navigating close to land and in the fjords sometimes presents challenges that are just as great, but not as obvious. Underwater currents and katabatic winds blowing down from mountain slopes, for example,” says Greer Jarrett, a doctoral student in archaeology at Lund University.

Jarrett's research trips have not been without risks. When the yard holding up the mainsail snapped off the coast of Norway, the crew were forced to improvise to save themselves from distress. 

“The cold in the Lofoten Islands was a challenge. Our hands really suffered. At that point I realised just how crucial it is to have a good crew,” says Greer Jarrett.

Has interviewed Norwegian seafarers

Jarrett has also tested the boat's capabilities on the open sea, sailing both the Kattegat and the Baltic Sea. Despite the lack of a deep-draught keel, Jarrett says the boats are surprisingly stable.  

In a previously published paper, Jarrett and his colleagues have shown that in the Middle Ages it was possible for Greenlanders to travel to remote parts of the Arctic in search of walrus tusks using this type of boat.    

To identify specific Viking routes, Jarrett also interviewed sailors and fishermen about the routes traditionally used in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when sailing boats without engines were still common in Norway. 

“I used the experience of my own journeys and the sailors’ traditional knowledge to reconstruct possible Viking Age sailing routes.”

Stories helped Vikings to navigate

The Vikings did not navigate by map, compass or sextant. Instead, they used “mental maps” where memories and experiences played a crucial role. They also used myths linked to various coastal landmarks. 

“Examples include Viking stories about the islands  Torghatten, Hestmona and Skrova off the Norwegian coast. The stories serve to remind sailors of the dangers surrounding these places, or of their importance as navigation marks.” 

These preserved myths are the last remnants of what must once have been a landscape steeped in stories. Jarrett calls this a “Maritime Cultural Mindscape”. Small islets, skerries and reefs were all part of a web of stories that helped the Vikings navigate through the landscape; and that were passed down through generations of seafarers. 

Possible Viking harbours identified

Through a combination of direct experience of the characteristics of the boats, and digital reconstruction of what the landscape looked like in the Viking Age, Jarrett has identified four possible Viking harbours along the Norwegian coast in his latest publication. (See image)

The locations of these ports (Jarret calls them “havens”) are farther out to sea than the major ports and hubs, known to date.

“With this type of boat, it has to be easy to get in and out of the harbour in all possible wind conditions. There must be several routes in and out. Shallow bays are not an issue because of the shallow draft of the boats. Getting far up the narrow fjords, however, is tricky. They are difficult to sail upwind with a square rig, and the boats are sensitive to katabatic winds.”

Jarrett's hypothesis is that during the Viking Age, such small, easily accessible harbours abounded. Places where sailors could pause, rest, and meet other seafarers. 

“A lot of the time, we only know about the starting and ending points of the trade that took place during the Viking Age. Major ports, such as Bergen and Trondheim in Norway, Ribe in Denmark, and Dublin in Ireland. The thing I am interested in is what happened on the journeys between these major trading centres. My hypothesis is that this decentralised network of ports, located on small islands and peninsulas, was central to making trade efficient during the Viking Age.”  

Mast fixed with oars 

Jarrett's research trips have faced a few challenges. On their way back from Lofoten in May 2022, the yard (mast spar) holding up the mainsail broke as they sailed through the middle of Vestfjorden. The accident happened with the vessel 25 kilometres out to sea.

“We had to lash two oars together to hold the sail, and hope that it would hold. We made it back to the harbour safely, but then we had to spend several days repairing the boat before we could sail again.” 

“On another trip, a minke whale suddenly surfaced and flapped its huge tail fin just metres from the boat.”

Jarret's adventures have also highlighted how important relationships must have been during the Viking voyages. 

“You need a boat that can withstand all kinds of weather conditions. But if you don't have a crew that can cooperate and put up with each other for long periods, these journeys would probably be impossible,” Jarrett concludes.

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Journal

Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory

DOI

10.1007/s10816-025-09708-6 

Shedding light on the treatment of individuals with disabilities in the late Middle Ages

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The femoral fracture in grave 2399 with the tibia repositioned to show the 45-degrees angulation.

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Credit: Photo: Nelly Hercberg, Cultural Museum in Lund.

The skeleton of a man with a severe dislocated fracture of the knee, found in a cemetery in Lund, southern Sweden, is helping to unravel the complexities of social attitudes towards individuals with disabilities in the late medieval period. The research combines traditional osteological methods and 3D modelling - a cutting-edge technique for viewing and studying traumatic injury and related skeletal changes - with contextual information from historical texts and digitized excavation records to build a more nuanced understanding of disability and care in the past.

The study, conducted by Blair Nolan of Lund University, Sweden and colleagues, and published in De Gruyter Brill’s Open Archaeology, is the first to apply this approach to medieval remains in the Nordic region.

The skeleton, referred to as individual 2399, belonged to a man of about 30 years of age who lived in the late Middle Ages (1300–1536 CE). At some point in his twenties, his left femur (thigh bone) was badly broken at the knee joint, leaving him unable to walk unaided until his death. The injury could have been caused by a kick from a horse or a heavy object falling on the knee, such as stone while working on a building. For the remainder of his life, he required a mobility aid to get around, such as crutches or a leg stand.

Contextual analysis of his skeleton revealed that the man received considerable short- and long-term care. Following his injury, he was likely given forms of pain relief available at the time, such as ointments made of lavender oil, opium and alcohol, and would have required help to clean and dress the wound. He also required regular treatment for inflammation of the bone marrow - osteomyelitis - which probably included opening the wound to drain the pus.

When the researchers analyzed historical records to deduce the social impacts of individual 2399’s disability, they uncovered a very complex picture.

Religious views of physical disability at the time were complicated: it could be considered both a punishment from God and a divine test requiring penance. Nevertheless, the Church promoted and took part in collecting and distributing alms for the disabled, and monasteries were the main providers of institutionalized medical care.

Other cultural attitudes can be deduced from the legal codes of the time. For example, penal punishments could include removal of body parts such as hands, feet, eyes, nose or ears, leading to an association of disability with criminality in some cases. Also, the severity of a disability was defined not just by how much the individual was impaired but also by its visibility. An injury that could be concealed by hair or clothing was considered less severe.

Despite these negative cultural views of disability, individual 2399’s social status was still high enough to afford him both long-term medical care and a prominent burial place in the cemetery. Individuals of higher socioeconomic status, such as members of the burgher class, strove to be buried as close to the church as possible, and individual 2399 was buried on top of the foundation stones at the base of a church tower. Thus, his higher social status may have outweighed the fact that he had a disability.

Nolan said: “Deducing social norms regarding physical impairment and disability from religious and legal texts is difficult because it presents an idealized perspective. We can enrich our understanding of disability and identity through detailed osteological and archaeological analysis.”

The paper can be found here: https://doi.org/10.1515/opar-2025-0043 

Large study traces prehistoric human expansion into South America, where genomic studies have been lacking

A large-scale genomic study of over 1,500 individuals from 139 underrepresented Indigenous groups across northern Eurasia and the Americas sheds new light on the ancient migrations that shaped the genetic landscape of North and South America. The results reveal distinct ancestry patterns and early diversification of Indigenous South American populations. The late Pleistocene saw the migration of humans from North Asia into North and South America beginning by at least 23,000 years ago, according to archaeological evidence. This expansion was rapid – genetic evidence suggests northern and southern Native American groups began diverging between 17,500 and 14,600 years ago, with human presence in southernmost South America confirmed by 14,500 years ago. However, many questions remain about this expansion and its impact on the genetic architecture of human populations across the continents, especially in South America, where high-resolution genomic studies are still lacking.

 

To address this knowledge gap, Elena Gusareva and colleagues developed a comprehensive, high-resolution genomic dataset comprising over 1,500 individuals from 139 ethnic groups – many previously unstudied. This dataset, containing more than 50 million high-quality genetic variants, was analyzed alongside ancient and modern DNA from Native American populations. This helped the authors investigate deep patterns of population history, migration, and adaptation. Gusareva et al. found that Siberian populations trace their ancestry to six ancient lineages, with West Siberian heritage broadly shared across the region. A notable population decline around 10,000 years ago may have been driven by climate change and the loss of megafauna. Moreover, genetic and archaeological evidence suggests that Native Americans diverged from North Eurasians between 26,800 and 19,300 years ago, with west Beringian groups like the Inuit, Koryaks, and Luoravetlans being their closest living relatives. In South America, four distinct Indigenous lineages – Amazonians, Andeans, Chaco Amerindians, and Patagonians – rapidly emerged from a common Mesoamerican origin between 13,900 and 10,000 years ago. The four lineages largely reflect distinct geographical and environmental regions, such as the Andes Mountains, the arid lowlands of the Dry Chaco, the humid tropical rainforests of the Amazon Basin, and the frigid polar climate of Patagonia. According to the authors, rapid geographic isolation of these groups likely reduced genetic diversity, particularly in immune-related HLA genes, which may influence susceptibility to infectious diseases.

Asians made humanity’s longest prehistoric migration and shaped the genetic landscape in the Americas

An international genomics study led by scientists from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU Singapore) at the Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE) and Asian School of the Environment (ASE) has shown that early Asians made humanity’s longest prehistoric migration.

These prehistoric humans, roaming the earth over a hundred thousand years ago, would have traversed more than 20,000 kilometres on foot from North Asia to the southernmost tip of South America.

This journey would have taken multiple generations of humans, taking thousands of years. In the past, land masses were also different, with ice bridging certain portions that made the route possible.

Supported by the GenomeAsia100K consortium [1], the study was published this week in Science, which analyses DNA sequence data from 1,537 individuals representing 139 diverse ethnic groups.

The study involved 48 authors from 22 institutions across Asia, Europe and the Americas.

The researchers traced an ancient migratory journey that began in Africa, proceeded through North Asia and ended at Tierra del Fuego in modern-day Argentina, which is considered the final boundary of human migration on Earth.

By comparing patterns of shared ancestry and genetic variations that accumulate over time, the team was able to trace how groups split, moved, and adapted to new environments.

These patterns allowed the team to reconstruct ancient migration routes and estimate when different populations diverged.

The reconstructed routes gave a detailed picture of how early humans reached the far edge of the Americas, and the findings suggested that this pioneering group overcame extreme environmental challenges to complete their journey across millennia.

A key insight was that these early migrants arrived at the northwestern tip of South America, where modern-day Panama meets Colombia, approximately 14,000 years ago.

From this critical point of entry, the population diverged into four major groups: one remained in the Amazon basin, while the others moved eastward to the Dry Chaco region and southward to Patagonia’s ice fields, navigating the valleys of the Andes Mountains, the highest mountain range outside of Asia.

By analysing the genetic profiles of indigenous populations in Eurasia and South America, researchers from the GenomeAsia100K project have, for the first time, mapped the unexpectedly large genetic diversity of Asia.

Understanding migration and genetic resilience

The study also sheds light on the evolutionary consequences of such a vast migration.

Associate Professor Kim Hie Lim from NTU’s Asian School of the Environment, the study’s corresponding author, explained that the arduous journey over thousands of years had reduced the genetic diversity of the migrant population.

“Those migrants carried only a subset of the gene pool in their ancestral populations through their long journey. Thus, the reduced genetic diversity also caused a reduced diversity in immune-related genes, which can limit a population’s flexibility to fight various infectious diseases,” explained Assoc Prof Kim, a Principal Investigator at SCELSE and Vice-Director of GenomeAsia100K.

“This could explain why some Indigenous communities were more susceptible to illnesses or diseases introduced by later immigrants, such as European colonists.  Understanding how past dynamics have shaped the genetic structure of today’s current population can yield deeper insights into human genetic resilience.”

SCELSE Senior Research Fellow Dr Elena Gusareva, the study’s first author, said that these early groups settled into new ecological niches, and over hundreds of generations, their bodies and lifestyles evolved in response to the unique challenges of each region.

“Our findings highlight the extraordinary adaptability of early, diverse indigenous groups who successfully settled in vastly different environments. Using high-resolution whole-genome sequencing technology at SCELSE, we can now uncover the deep history of human migration and the genetic footprints left behind by the early settlers.”      

Importance of Asian representation in genetic studies

NTU Professor Stephan Schuster, the study’s senior author of the paper and the Scientific Director of the GenomeAsia100K consortium, said: “Our study shows that a greater diversity of human genomes is found in Asian populations, not European ones, as has long been assumed due to sampling bias in large-scale genome sequencing projects.”

“This reshapes our understanding of historical population movements and lays a stronger foundation for future research into human evolution. Our new insights underscore the importance of increasing the representation of Asian populations in genetic studies, especially as genomics plays a critical role in personalised medicine, public health, and the understanding of human evolution,” added Prof Schuster, who is the President’s Chair in Genomics at NTU’s School of Biological Sciences, and the Deputy Centre Director at SCELSE.

By tracing the impact of migration and isolation on genetic characteristics, the study offers insights into how different populations respond to diseases and how their immune systems have evolved.

The findings also help scientists better understand the genetic makeup of Native American populations and help policymakers to better protect and conserve native communities.

It also demonstrates how advanced genomic tools and global collaboration can deepen humanity’s understanding of human evolution and inform future medical and scientific breakthroughs.

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[1] GenomeAsia100K is a non-profit consortium focused on sequencing and analysing 100,000 Asian genomes to drive population-specific medical advancements and precision medicine. See website for more information.

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Journal

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.adk5081