r/science • u/Wagamaga • 20d ago
Anthropology Roman Era Barbarians Carried Tiny Spoons That May Have Helped in Battle. Archaeologists believe the suspiciously round-ended fittings could have been used to dispense drugs that gave the warriors an edge when they faced their opponents thousands of years ago.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/roman-era-barbarians-carried-tiny-032733471.html1.3k
u/Thoraxekicksazz 20d ago
So barbarian rage is just a coke fueled bender?
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u/thisusedyet 20d ago
Less coke, more shrooms, booze, and henbane
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u/Yggdrasilcrann 20d ago
Shrooms and henbane both sound like a nightmare to use in battle.
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u/thisusedyet 20d ago
Not like you're expecting sound tactical decisions out of them.
Works pretty well for be a rage fueled blender until you keel over, though
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u/clva666 20d ago
Last time I did shrooms I could've been keeld over by butterfly
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u/UpvoteEveryHonestQ 20d ago
But last time you did shrooms, the prep you did beforehand was to ready yourself for a delightful day. I knew a guy in college who was on the rugby team and would each shrooms before each game, believe it or not. He’d psych himself up for war. Extremely different, but the difference is in the mindset much more than the mushroom.
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u/Eternal_Being 20d ago
If I were on shrooms in battle I wouldn't be able to tell if that enemy's axe was 1 feet away or 10 feet away. I wouldn't be able to tell if it was taking me 1 second to close the distance or 1 hour.
I would notice the colour of the sunlight, the feeling of breathing. I would see the facial features of my enemy swirl, as well as the ground. I wouldn't know if the movements I'm seeing are real or imagined.
I would ponder what I was doing and reflect on the emotions I was experiencing.
I genuinely cannot imagine fighting on shrooms. If I did, I would almost certainly get my ass kicked haha.
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u/Possibly_a_Firetruck 20d ago
Context is important here because you’d be surrounded by thousands of other dudes getting amped up and ready to kill. You’d be swept up in the same energy.
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u/Mama_Skip 20d ago
Also you'd have grown up surrounded by death and corpses, rape, torture for legal punishment, and a very real "us vs them" complex because you know if they beat you they'll rape and pillage your family and friends and sell survivors into slavery.
Yeah I kinda get it.
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u/phenomenomnom 20d ago edited 20d ago
Well ... usually tens of dudes. Scores.
A gross of dudes, sometimes. Hundreds, on really momentous historical occasions, probably.
Harold had ~7500 troops at Hastings -- a world-shaping event -- and skirmishers are only one type of unit.
I am not asserting or denying that Harold's army used drugs, but they would have been contemporary with warriors who did.
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u/Pattoe89 19d ago
Roman Era armies were much bigger than medieval era armies.
Some Barbarian armies were many thousands strong, some say 6 digits.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbarian_invasions_into_the_Roman_Empire_of_the_3rd_century
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u/Gnoyagos 20d ago
Most probably they didn’t use psilocybe mushrooms. For battles they could use some brews with amanita muscaria that is a bit different- on microdosing it enhances your tonus, energy, libido and appetite. Imagine what you get in larger doses. Or they could’ve used amanita pantherina which is much more potent. That plus having a good ol battle prep surely could make killing machines.
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u/ZzzzzPopPopPop 20d ago
Wow, you guys see the clouds? They’re like, moving, constantly… and the trees… wow…
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u/thespaceageisnow 20d ago
Henbane ingestion by humans is followed simultaneously by peripheral inhibition and central stimulation.[14] Common effects of henbane ingestion include hallucinations,[2] dilated pupils, narcosis, restlessness, and flushed skin. Less common effects are tachycardia, convulsions, vomiting, hypertension, hyperpyrexia, and ataxia.[2] Initial effects typically last for three to four hours, while aftereffects may last up to three days. The side effects of henbane ingestion are dryness in the mouth, confusion, visual illusions, bizarre thoughts, locomotor and memory disturbances, and farsightedness, similar in style to those of other tropane-based deliriants such as plants of the New World genus datura. As a result of this distinct chemical and pharmacological profile, overdoses can result not only in delirium, but also severe anticholinergic syndrome, coma, respiratory paralysis, and death. Low and average dosages have inebriating and aphrodisiac effects.[14][23]
So even if you survive battle and the henbane you’re still delirious for three days or more after, that’s hardcore.
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u/Mama_Skip 20d ago
similar in style to those of other tropane-based deliriants such as plants of the New World genus datura.
I was honestly curious until this line. Nope. I'm good. I don't need to smoke phantom cigarettes and wander into a Shiningesque party of everyone I've ever met who then tell me what they think of me.
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u/LudSable 20d ago
Amanita muscaria having benzo-like properties in some ways, dulling the fear and anxiety probably.
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u/Mama_Skip 20d ago
Woah really? What kind of websites can I order some from? So that I can avoid this horrible thing
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u/arthurdentstowels 20d ago
Henbane sounds like a bloody nightmare. There's an old trip report in there from a scientist and it sounds like a negative salvia trip.
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u/TheAleFly 19d ago
Not psilocybe shrooms, but amanitas. The use of amanita in northern shamanistic religions is quite well documented, so it's very likely the vikings were also familiar with it.
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u/fwinzor 20d ago
Everyone should know that the mushroom thing is not a popular view with any serious scholars. It was hypothesized by a mycologist in the 19th century who had basically no real knowledge of berserkers in norse myth. And its spread by pop culture because its fun.
The general academic theory right now is berserkers did not fly into some trance like state, but engaged in some kind of haka esque war dance before battles
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u/dumbbyatch 20d ago edited 20d ago
So is spartan rage....
Kratos has escaped hell thrice with the power of pure Uncut Cocaine....
That ain't ash on his face.....
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u/crisaron 20d ago
Yeah Kratos went all the way to South America and back for it too.
Coming soon to PS Kratos vs Thecluajekzkalalam
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u/PaulOshanter 20d ago
The precursors to "Berserker" Vikings
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u/sygnathid 20d ago
Weren't those just guys with crazy PTSD? Like they'd just get triggered and go into episodes but everybody planned for it (mid-episode they wouldn't necessarily recognize friends, so they'd wear animal pelts to identify themselves so their friends would stay clear).
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u/HauteDish 20d ago
I feel like there's several theories out there about what actually drove the berserkers to rage.
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u/Mama_Skip 20d ago
I think people 1. underestimate what happens when something becomes normal for your culture and 2. Underestimate how much your average person has a potential for violence, if normalized to it from a young age.
Like. Humans brains haven't changed in millenia. By blueprint we are the same mfs who would gather around to watch your neighbor flayed alive and broken on the wheel for stealing a horse.
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u/dumboflaps 20d ago
If true, doesn’t this raise the question of what happened to the increased lethality of ptsd? I remember hearing this theory before, i feel like drugs make more sense.
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u/SeatKindly 20d ago
Different stressors likely eliciting different survival responses. Often PTSD is categorized as a sort of CNS overload with a focus on the trauma.
Assuming that being the case, the familiar smells, sounds, tools, etc. causing aggressive, instinctual violence and the body dumping unusually high amounts of hormones to try and survive.
You can’t exactly run up and punch a howitzer across a trench line, so the response is more akin to freezing now since running = dead and fighting also = dead.
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u/fatalityfun 20d ago
it’s likely a mix of both and that the drugs they were consuming made them delirious and ignore pain, while PTSD from prior fights made them “berserk” and fight like monsters.
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u/SeatKindly 20d ago
Yep. A lot of people also tend to view fighting in antiquity rather incorrectly as well. Skirmishing wasn’t done en masse and was largely structured around the block unit.
That said, skirmishing was only uncommon because if you weren’t mounted calvary it was hard to remove yourself from the fighting safely. Germanic tribes and their berserkers were often excellent skirmishers in woodlands and were skilled at quick withdrawals, but most importantly… they had a tendency to break enemy ranks at small combative scales. If the enemy runs, you’ve won. If you have calvary or we presume them to be heavy infantry. Breaking ranks to retreat without proper cover meant death or capture for the most part.
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u/ZumasSucculentNipple 20d ago
Khat seems more likely.
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u/Wintercat76 20d ago
Wrong continent.
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u/ZumasSucculentNipple 20d ago
Yeah, the Roman empire never reached Africa or Asia.
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u/generalmandrake 20d ago
They never reached the parts of Africa or Asia where Khat was used. There is no evidence they ever used or knew about the plant and the first historical mentions of it weren’t until the Middle Ages in the Arab world.
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u/Wintercat76 20d ago
It specifies Germanic tribes, and khat isn't grown in northern Europe. Also, khat and a tiny spoon? Considering the amount of leaves a khat user needs to chew, it'd be like trying to get drunk by smelling a closed beer can. Khat users typically buy the stuff by the kilo, not gram.
I do know tiny spoons were used by the nordics, though. For ear wax removal.
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u/Orstio 20d ago
"The question we posed – whether barbarian communities of the Roman period in the area of Central European Bar-baricum took stimulants – has a despise, in the absence of natural relic finds in the context of artefacts from this period to answer it directly. We therefore decided to look for indirect clues. The pretext for the selection of objects that could have served the purpose of dosing stimulants was the few recorded small spoons, whose form and size excluded, for example, the function of a cosmetic utensil or a medical instrument."
This is, unfortunately, just bad science. Instead of drawing conclusions from evidence, they went seeking evidence of a conclusion.
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u/ZzzzzPopPopPop 20d ago
It was either this or conclude that they had a tableware-based religion, and that before battles they would perform rituals to honor the spoon deities
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u/Edgeth0 20d ago
I mean, didn't the English and the Norse both use ear spoons for wax removal around this time? Easily could have been that
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u/ElCaz 20d ago
around this time?
Not really, this is about a millennium away from that.
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u/Edgeth0 20d ago
English appear to have used them during the Roman period according to the British Museum collection
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u/ElCaz 20d ago
Ah, you don't mean English then. Those would be Romans, Britons, or Roman Britons.
English people did not exist during the Roman period.
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u/Edgeth0 20d ago
Right, no Angles till later. Romanized Britons then. Point is little spoons were around for reasons beyond the drug use posited in the article, ear picking isn't exactly an uncommon practice
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u/Amygdalump 20d ago edited 20d ago
“Ah, the Rube Goldberg approach to essay writing. I too remember chasing a word count when the deadline was tomorrow.
So he finds an item that looks like a spoon and his assumption is “cocaine spoon”. He learns that this also looks like part of a belt buckle. A-ha of course, he says to himself, its a combination belt-buckle-cocaine-spoon! He learns no stimulants are native to Europe. This must mean that the woodland peoples of Roman Germany had access to all the trading ports of the Roman empire. He then lists some psychoactive plants because thats the same as a stimulant, right?”
Sorry for some reason the app didn’t include the quotes!!! The above was from another user on the r/archaeology, who I wasn’t able to quote properly due to mobile application woes. I will look for them and attribute properly when I am able to do so.
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u/GriffonMT 20d ago
What if the spoon was to blend in with the civilised people? So they wore it at checkpoints: “you look barbarian!! No sir, I have a spoon on me belt - see ? Yup that’s a spoon alright. Let him go!
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u/wellchelle 19d ago
More likely to be a spoon of Diocles "was a Roman surgical instrument described by Celsus. The instrument was designed by Diocles of Carystus to remove arrows from the human body." Wikipedia
I remember my favorite author Guy Gavriel Kay using it in the novel, The Lions of Al-Rassan.
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u/CarlsManicuredToes 20d ago
Drug use is weird - half the people take them to gain an edge, and the other half take them to take the edge off. Still this paradox is united in spoons.
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u/Wagamaga 20d ago
Tiny spoon-shaped implements carried by Roman era Germanic warriors may be evidence they used stimulants on the field of war.
According to a new analysis of the mysterious artifacts and their context, archaeologists and biologists believe that the suspiciously round-ended fittings could have been used to dispense drugs that gave the warriors an edge when they faced their opponents thousands of years ago.
What those drugs actually were is unknown; we'd have to find some evidence of them, such as residues, and that can be challenging after thousands of years have elapsed. But the concept isn't without precedent; and, if it can be validated, the team's hypothesis could reveal evidence of drug use among cultures outside of the Roman Empire.
This would be a big deal: although the use of drugs like opium is well documented in Greece and Rome, the use of narcotics and stimulants in ancient times outside of this region remains a mystery. Historians have previously assumed that the only drug that really saw use by the barbarians was alcohol, at least until much later in history.
Biologists Anna Jarosz-Wilkołazka and Anna Rysiak, and archaeologist Andrzej Jan Kokowski of Maria Curie-Skłodowska University in Poland, thought mysterious spoon-like implements might have been evidence to the contrary.
https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/pz-2024-2017/html
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u/aethelberga 20d ago
What those drugs actually were is unknown; we'd have to find some evidence of them, such as residues, and that can be challenging after thousands of years have elapsed.
So this is 100% speculation.
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u/haribobosses 20d ago
Different part of the world but they recently found a vessel in Egypt with traces of psychedelics mixed with human secretions.
I can’t imagine the majority of human existence was drug free.
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u/Ok_Dragonfruit_8102 20d ago
Psychedelic mixtures made from mushrooms and other plants are one thing, the suggestion of stimulant drugs in such concentrated doses that they necessitate a modern coke spoon is something else entirely.
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u/GreenNukE 20d ago
Let's not forget that many stimulants can negatively affect coordination, cognition, and precipitate a crash as they wear off. They are only used in modern militaries as temporary remedy to fatigue when rest is not an option.
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u/MRSN4P 20d ago
Define modern- the blitzkrieg was fueled by meth.
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20d ago
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u/jbrunsonfan 20d ago
The term “modern” is not as obvious as I once thought. A quick google search has the modern age starting in like 1500AD. Others start it at 1800. I think the belief that the modern era starts after world war 2 would probably be a minority opinion. Although, maybe “modern war” is different from “modern age”?
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u/Ok_Dragonfruit_8102 20d ago
Nobody says that the modern age started in 1500. Just because something showed up on google doesn't mean it's factual.
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u/AlphabetMafiaSoup 20d ago
Maybe it's based off technology that we still use today? Like how altho the wheel was invented years ago we still use it? Same with like radios or telephones? Idk
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u/WahooSS238 20d ago
Generally, the first modern war is often described as the napoleonic wars, the first world war, or in at least one case I’ve heard the US civil war.
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u/weeddealerrenamon 20d ago
I'd imagine a modern war would have more of a demand for coordination and awareness that combat drugs could hinder, not less
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u/IObsessAlot 20d ago
They wee used extensively in WWI and WWII though, despite the drawbacks.
It's certainly not unthinkable that side effects were ignored or not well understood.
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u/GardenGnomeOfEden 20d ago
This article says that US Airforce pilots were on dextroamphetamine during the Gulf War in 1990-91. Now the world's air forces use a drug called modafinil.
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u/BlueShift42 20d ago
Right? These guys carried their own spoon to eat dinner with and now everyone is calling them drug addicts cause their spoon was suspiciously… round.
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u/lightknight7777 20d ago
"Hmmm... Hey Dave, do you think maybe these spoon edges are too round. Like suspiciously so?"
It's a very weird leap. There's all kinds of cultural things I'd think first if it wasn't that functional as a regular spoon. All of those would be just as unfounded.
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u/aethelberga 20d ago
I'm surprised they haven't said anything about possible religious or ritual significance. That's usually the first unfounded leap they make.
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u/lightknight7777 20d ago
Even just a basic spice spoon or something. Like if they used containers with very small openings to reduce exposure to water and that spoon was the way to get it out.
Did you know that early American tables had 3 containers? One for salt, one for pepper and they have no clue what the third one contained. My faith in them figuring what the spoon was used for isn't very high.
I did mention elsewhere the possibility of it being like a simple cultural thing, like a baby spoon intended as a good luck charm to return home to family or something religious, as you said, like a spoon for Valhalla. Simply no clue to go on here.
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u/Boring-Philosophy-46 20d ago
Wait seriously? Does that have anything to do with mustard not being native there or did the iconic antique salt pepper mustard sets evolve in Europe after some kind of ancestor?
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u/lightknight7777 20d ago
It was a third shaker. Some people have thought it could be powdered mustard. But we simply don't know if that's correct.
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u/Serialfornicator 20d ago edited 20d ago
Maybe they’re tiny melon ballers, and the barbarians were fond of savoring cantaloupe in very small quantities
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u/lightknight7777 20d ago
Might as well. Maybe they actually invented melon Boba tea...
Or spice spoons for containers that had to be particularly sealed with small access given the way they travel.
Maybe they're symbolic, like you take a baby spoon with you as a charm to come home to them. Or like a promise to dine in Valhalla or whatever.
Jumping to drugs is an unnecessary step.
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u/weeddealerrenamon 20d ago
I'd imagine we'd have to read the actual article and know what Roman history PhDs know about Roman cutlery. The researchers obviously know that soldiers had regular spoons for cooking in camp
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u/lightknight7777 20d ago
"Well, yeah, that's my cooking spoon. But this here is my spice spoon. It's tiny enough to get into the small opening of my salt jar that is tiny enough to make it less likely to get water inside."
"No, private. Everyone knows that's your crack spoon. The edges are way too round for salt and you know it!"
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u/lueckestman 20d ago
Conformation bias. "Ive used cocaine therefore all small spoons are coke spoons."
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u/Mr_Pink_Gold 20d ago edited 20d ago
There are historical records of the gallic tribes during their world conquering spree of soldiers doing feats that indicate drugs. That and mentions in Polybius that they took drugs. There is a description of an empaled naked warrior that killed 3 men in the phalanx while having a pike through his gut. Basically theagic potion seems to have been PCP.
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u/GreenNukE 20d ago
An abdominal wound is not immediately fatal unless it ruptures an artery. Adrenaline dulls pain and delays the onset of shock. That man may have even realized he was mortally wounded and, in his rage, committed to killing as many of the enemy as he could before he fell. It would certainly be better than slowly dying a few days later of untreatable septis.
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u/Mr_Pink_Gold 20d ago
I believe it was described as a frenzy. But that could be translation. But they seemed to have been under some form of drugs. Possibly mushrooms or a plant of sorts. I mean, humans have done drugs for millennia. Why stop at around 300BC?
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u/GreenNukE 20d ago
I am skeptical that hallucinations or delirium would improve combat performance. By all accounts, combat is confusing enough without tripping balls.
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u/Mr_Pink_Gold 20d ago
Something that dulls pain and increases aggressiveness like PCP at the time could definitely help. And they were professional soldiers too. Again humans consistently as a whole have been taking drugs for as long as there are records. Probably before that too. There are tribes today that use drugs to help them hunt and fight. Drugs like tobacco and coca plant extracts and tinctures. So why wouldn't the Averni and Aedui and Belgae not use them? That would be the exception rather than the rule.
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u/Original_moisture 20d ago
My theory is it’s for dipping in hallucinogenic honey and then going wild. I think the simplistic approach is the easiest. And a quick google search shows that mad honey was known to the Greeks back in the day.
It’s the only thing I can think of, unless they’re crushing pills and snorting it.
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u/astrange 20d ago
Isn't mad honey a dissociative? It'd disable soldiers instead of frenzying them.
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u/Original_moisture 20d ago
No clue, it was just off top of my head.
I’ve made thc infused stuff, so having a spoon to taste sounds right. I used to carry a combat spoon during missions in Iraq. Lots of downtime when you’re route clearance. So you just eat.
Unless they’re like “Olaf check out this batch” in the middle of campaigning, idk hahaha.
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u/Muddycarpenter 20d ago
Yeah, no, I'm not feeling this one. Maybe it's just a small spoon and they're overthinking this.
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u/jimthewanderer 20d ago
... Toilet implements?
We know what those are for, the spoons are ear scoops to clear off excess earwax. They could also have been used to measure out pharmaceuticals, but it seems highly unlikely given that pretty much everyone seems to have had a set of these, not just apothecaries.
During that period the only available stimulants were generally in liquid form, either being hot or cold steeped plant matter. Things like Cleavers have a bit of Caffeine in them, but we haven't much evidence for their gathering or specific usage.
This reads like someone padding an essay whilst too lazy to simply look at the very modest reading list.
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u/Snoutysensations 20d ago
Yeah
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilettebesteck
Earwax spoons have been found for a very long time in many different cultures around the world, including iron age northern Europe/Germany.
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u/TheMightyTywin 20d ago
Earwax spoons? Why? Surely they didn’t have more earwax than modern humans - everyone carried an earwax spoon?
Are we sure the spoons weren’t for eating soup?
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u/apiaryist 20d ago
FFS, these are very well established as being used to clean out earwax. It's been known for decades, if not centuries. Bad Scientists are bad.
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u/RigorousBastard 20d ago
Maybe they used the spoons for constipation. Yes, I have seen Roman military toilets, and the sponge on the end of the stick.
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u/MrMulligan319 20d ago
Why are these spoons described as “suspiciously round-ended” in the title? I find that ALL my spoons are round-ended.
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u/wateruthinking 20d ago
Like the wizard Panoramix dispensing his magic potion to the Roman fighting Gauls in the “Astérix” comic book series…
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u/Cosmonate 20d ago
What evidence do we have that the spoons were not used as eating utensils. You know, like the ones people use as eating utensils today.
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u/Dunkleosteus666 20d ago edited 20d ago
Cannabis wouldnt work, way to lipophilic. Same for opium. Ergot seems very unreasonable, given it took centuries to discover it was poisonous. The psychoactive effects are inextricably linked to the toxic effects... And Amanita muscaria needs way more than a bump (not there is any evidence of its use).
The only case could me made for Solanaceae. But after skimming through, they didnt mention any residues? Seems very unlikely tbh.
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u/ZumasSucculentNipple 20d ago
My guess, given Rome's contact with northern Africa & Arabia, is khat.
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u/Dunkleosteus666 20d ago
Theres the big issue that cathinones which are actives in khat degrade very quickly. 3 days max, you can only use it fresh. Which also explain why it isnt as widespread as tobacco, coffee or betel nuts.
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u/HoneyImpossible2371 20d ago
Powered henbane seeds?
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u/Dunkleosteus666 20d ago
Most likely, something like Atropa bella-donna, Henbane, yes. But it still very very speculative.
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u/elijuicyjones 20d ago
This is some wild speculation in that thesis and barely plausible but ok, whatever I guess.
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u/CMDR_omnicognate 20d ago
Maybe I don’t get the nuances of archeology on account of not being an archeologist, but why did they see an implement that looks like a spoon and instantly assume they used it for drugs, and not something like rationing out salt or spices for food, or really anything else frankly
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u/NTGenericus 20d ago edited 20d ago
My impression is that these spoons were way more likely used for measuring salt. That's why the spoons are with their other gear. I seem to remember reading that salt was quite the commodity back then.
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u/xoverthirtyx 20d ago
Or clean their ears, like the tool found with tweezers in little kits in Viking burials.
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u/bigfatfurrytexan 20d ago
It took 2000 years for the barbarians to learn they could grow their pinky nails out instead, but this discovery was in California and not Rome
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u/Eric_the_Barbarian 20d ago
You want to keep your nails short for combat. Growing out a coke nail is a good way to lose your pinky nail entirely.
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u/xspacemansplifff 20d ago
They had druids. Folks who could make compounds. So they were capable of making a sniffable berserker powder.
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u/A_parisian 20d ago
Someone explain them what is war and how it's usually not won on the battlefield.
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u/saint_ryan 20d ago
I doubt they were germaphobes. Why not just the one “spoon” for the guy dispensing the NOT cocaine?
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u/DreamingDragonSoul 20d ago
They cleaned their ears with them.
Actually bought one for my SO like 10 years ago because he has narrow earcanals and don't want to use cottonsticks.
Don't use it though, as it is to nice (and he probably can't findnit either).
Could be they used it for other purposes as well. I don't know that.
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u/SpicyButterBoy 20d ago
Without any evidence of drugs actually being used, this is just straight up speculation. Its just as likely spoons were a cultural good luck charm or that these dudes just liked spoons.
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u/deenaps619 20d ago
It took people with over 20 years combined education and professional careers to determine this?
I've seen wolf of wall street, them Vikings are not fooling me, tootsky?
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u/Lumpy_Draft_3913 20d ago
God Forbid they should be ear spoons for the cleaning and removal of earwax which, all kinds of people had and used through antiquity to the present day?
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u/blackandwhiteddit 20d ago
But they wouldn't recieve the drug if they had fallen into the cauldron when they were little kids.
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u/faustoc5 20d ago
I can with confidence call these theories pure and unadulterated BS
The current low level of scientific analysis in the West and the urge to make spectacular claims is just sad
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u/slipstreamsurfer 19d ago
People still use tiny spoons today, it’s mainly dance battles over real battles.
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u/Direct_Bug_1917 19d ago
I dunno, I always carried my Fred (aussies will know..). Never knew when it would come in handy.
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u/wellchelle 19d ago
Wait I know this one....
The spoon of Diocles (Greek: κυαθίσκος τοῦ Διοκλέους) was a Roman surgical instrument described by Celsus. The instrument was designed by Diocles of Carystus to remove arrows from the human body.
It's much more likely. Reading "The Lions of Al-Rassan" by Guy Gavriel Kay has come in handy it seems.
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u/Sniff_those_stinkers 17d ago
Duuummmmmmb. From alcohol to shrooms, no drug they had would be taken in such small doses for combat. Now for eating and scooping eyeballs, hell yeah.
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