Ancient World Review

Were The Viking Berserkers High On Something?

"In the Old Norse written corpus, berserkers ... were warriors who purportedly fought in a trance-like fury, a characteristic which later gave rise to the modern English word 'berserk' ... Berserkers are attested to in numerous Old Norse sources, with their name literally rendered as 'bear-coats', along with úlfhéðnar ('wolf-coats')." Source: Wikipedia.

"...It is proposed by some authors that the northern warrior tradition originated in hunting magic. Three main animal cults appeared: the bear, the wolf, and the wild boar."

The legend of the werewolf may be related to these ancient stories:

"Old Norse had the cognate varúlfur, but because of the high importance of werewolves in Norse mythology, there were alternative terms such as ulfhéðinn ('one in wolf-skin', referring still to the totemistic or cultic adoption of wolf-nature rather than the superstitious belief in actual shape-shifting). In modern Scandinavian also kveldulf ('evening-wolf'), presumably after the name of Kveldulf Bjalfason, a historical berserker of the 9th century who figures in the Icelandic sagas." (Wikipedia)

Berserkers, like Shieldmaidens, may be completely mythological. According to the National Museum of Denmark, there is little to no archaeological evidence that they ever existed. Assuming that they were real, however, and that the stories about their ultraviolent frenzies are accurate, what could account for their deranged behavior?

The Viking berserkers, we are told, went into battle in a trance-like rage and were supposed to be almost uncontrollable killing machines. Dressed in wolf and bear pelts, they would attack friend and foe alike and their homicidal madness sounds a lot like a drug-induced frenzy of some kind:

"This fury, which was called berserkergang, occurred not only in the heat of battle, but also during laborious work. Men who were thus seized performed things which otherwise seemed impossible for human power. This condition is said to have begun with shivering, chattering of the teeth, and chill in the body, and then the face swelled and changed its colour. With this was connected a great hot-headedness, which at last gave over into a great rage, under which they howled as wild animals, bit the edge of their shields, and cut down everything they met without discriminating between friend or foe. When this condition ceased, a great dulling of the mind and feebleness followed, which could last for one or several days." -- Fabing, Howard D. (1956). "On Going Berserk: A Neurochemical Inquiry. (Subscription-access only)

Note: A detailed commentary on berserkers in general and Fabing's paper can be found here.)

The legends suggest that the berserkers might have taken some kind of drug that caused these fits of berserkergang. Whatever it was, it came on with a rush of "shivering, chattering of the teeth and chill in the body," caused a spike in blood-pressure ("the face swelled and changed its color") and body temperature ("a great hot-headedness") and ended with a hangover with could last for days. No one really knows if the berserkers were high on something, but various candidates have been suggested:

"While some researchers believe the Berserkers simply worked themselves up into a self-induced hysteria before fighting, others maintain that it was sorcery, the consumption of drugs or alcohol, or even mental illness, that accounted for their behaviour. Some botanists have claimed that berserker behaviour could have been caused by the ingestion of the plant known as bog myrtle, one of the main spices in Scandinavian alcoholic beverages." Source: Ancient Origins.

The problem with the bog-myrtle theory is that the plant was commonly used to make beer back then and doesn't appear to produce this kind of dramatic effect on people. Maybe I missed something, but I couldn't find any mention of it in The Vaults of Erowid, a site which covers psychotropic plants and herbs in exhaustive detail.

Bog Myrtle (Myrica Gale) is a natural insect repellent, among other things. It was used (along with other herbs) to flavor beer in the middle ages until "hops supplanted gruit herbs for political and economic reasons." (Wikipedia). Bog Myrtle itself isn't psychedelic, as far as I can tell, but various mixtures of gruit herbs could act as euphorics and some of them had hallucinogenic or deliriant properties, so the idea that the Berserkers were stoned on some kind of herbal drink when they went into battle isn't all that outlandish.

"Helpful for enhancing lucid dreaming and astral work generally, bog myrtle was a flavoring for a type of European beer known as gruit up until the introduction of hops. The other components of gruit (1) were yarrow and wild rosemary. Some say this brew was behind the Berserkers [sic]. In northern Europe, bog myrtle and yarrow have been ingredients in fermented drinks made from grain, honey, or fruit since the Iron Age, and it is still used in Scandinavia to make a liqueur called 'snaps.'" Source: Alchemy Works.

(1) Medieval brewers used a wide variety of gruit herbs in their beer.

If the berserkers were high on something, the most likely candidate is gruit beer, but if they were that drunk it's hard to see how they could function very effectively. Some sources I've found speculate that they were tripping on the psychedelic amanita muscaria mushroom, but the psychoactive ingredient in the mushroom is muscimol, which is described as a "sedative-hypnotic," i.e., a tranquilizer -- just the opposite of what you would expect. Also, I've never heard of a psychedelic that consistently produces outbursts of violent rage. If the berserkers were taking a drug, it sounds like it was a medieval form of PCP.

Were the berserkers mentally ill? Again, it doesn't sound like it. Their furies seem to have been situation-specific, only occurring during battles or perhaps when they were working in their villages. If they were crazy they would've been prone to go berserk for no reason at all, but none of the sources I've found describe them flipping out at random. So, unless they were elite warriors who ate some plant that drove them into a homicidal rage the most plausible explanation for their reported behavior is that the berserkers are simply characters from Old Norse mythology. In other words, maybe they never actually existed.

Related:

Norse Power: A Brief Look At Berserker Rage

Did The Vikings Get A Bad Rap?

Founders Of Western Civilization Were Prehistoric Pot Dealers?

"It must have been something in the air. During a short time window at the end of the last ice age, Stone Age humans in Europe and Asia independently began using a new plant: cannabis." Source: New Scientist (2016).

"That’s the conclusion of a review of cannabis archaeology, which also links an intensification of cannabis use in East Asia with the rise of transcontinental trade at the dawn of the Bronze Age, some 5000 years ago."

Note: According to this theory, cannabis may have been introduced into Eurasia by the Yamnaya or Yamna people who are "thought to be one of the three key tribes who founded European civilization." Also known as the Pit Grave Culture or Ochre Grave Culture (1), the Yanmaya culture was "a late Copper Age/early Bronze Age culture of the Southern Bug/Dniester/Ural region (the Pontic steppe), dating to 3,500 – 2,300 BCE," according to Wikipedia. "The Yamna culture is identified with the late Proto-Indo-Europeans, and is the strongest candidate for the Urheimat (homeland) of the Proto-Indo-European language."

(1) According to Eupedia, "The dead were inhumed in pit graves inside kurgans (burial mounds). Bodies were placed in a supine position with bent knees and covered in ochre. Wagons/carts and sacrificed animals (cattle, horse, sheep) were present in graves, a trait typical of later Indo-European cultures."

The migrations of the Yanmaya and other Eurasian cultures are a key feature of the Kurgan Hypothesis explaining the origin and spread of IndoEuropean languages. Note: the video below apparently spells "Yamnaya" as "Jamna." According to Eupedia, the Yamnaya culture was one of the first "to make regular use of ox-drawn wheeled carts. Metal artefacts (tools, axes, tanged daggers) were mostly made of copper, with some arsenical bronze. Domesticated horses [were] used as [a] pack animal and ridden to manage cattle herds."

It's also possible that they brought cannabis with them on their migrations.

The Mysterious Owner Of The Last Pyramid Of Giza

"Khentkaus I, also referred to as Khentkawes, was a royal woman who lived in ancient Egypt during both the Fourth Dynasty and the Fifth Dynasty. She may have been a daughter of king Menkaure, the wife of both king Shepseskaf and king Userkaf (the founder of the Fifth Dynasty), the mother of king Sahure. Some suggest that she was the regent for one of her sons. Perhaps, in her own right, she may have been the king of Upper and Lower Egypt, which aspects of her burial suggests. Her mastaba at Giza – tomb LG100 – is located very close to Menkaure's pyramid complex. This close connection may point to a family relationship. Although the relationship is not clear, the proximity of the pyramid complex of Khentkaus to that of king Menkaure has led to the conjecture that she may have been his daughter." (Wikipedia)

Note: The excellent Ancient Architects channel posted a video about Khentkaus's tomb back in 2018. Since the top video, posted a few days ago (2021), is also an older video there may be some duplicate material here.

It's unclear if Khentkaus I was an Old Kingdom pharaoh in her own right. There have been various theories about who she was and the "Khentkaus Problem" dates back to the 1930s, according to Wikipedia.

Romanian Authorities Recover "Unique" Viking Helmet

"Romanian police specialising in heritage crimes on February 7 recovered a medieval helmet 'of Viking origin' that disappeared a decade ago, and which they called “unique in Romania” and very rare in the rest of Europe in an announcement issued on Friday." Source: Archaeology News Network.

"A Romanian expert in historical illustration, Radu Oltean, said the helmet dated from the 11th century. It was first discovered in 2010 during refurbishment work on the river Siret, in northeast Romania, but it was never handed over to the state preservation services and the authorities lost track of it."

CT Scans Of Mummy Reveal New Details About Violent Death Of Pivotal Egyptian Pharaoh

"Modern medical technology is helping scholars tell a more nuanced story about the fate of an ancient king whose violent death indirectly led to the reunification of Egypt in the 16th century BC. The research was published in Frontiers in Medicine." Source: Archaeology News Network.

"Pharaoh Seqenenre-Taa-II, the Brave, briefly ruled over Southern Egypt during the country's occupation by the Hyksos, a foreign dynasty that held power across the kingdom for about a century (c. 1650-1550 BCE). In his attempt to oust the Hyskos, Seqenenre-Taa-II was killed. Scholars have debated the exact nature of the pharaoh's death since his mummy was first discovered and studied in the 1880s."

It sounds like the Hyksos either killed the pharaoh in battle or took him prisoner and viciously executed him. According to researchers at the Cairo University, "The mummies deformed hands suggest that the King was likely imprisoned with his hands tied. CT images provided detailed analysis of Seqenenre's previously reported injuries to the forehead, right supra-orbital, nose-right orbit, left chick, and skull base. This study revealed additional craniofacial fractures in the right lateral side of the skull that had been concealed by the embalmers beneath layers of material. Analysis of the morphology of the injuries enabled a better understanding of the mechanism of trauma, possible number of the attackers, and their relative position to the King. The size and shape of the fractures correlated well with the studied Hyksos weapons. The lethal attack was aimed at the King's face, likely in an attempt to disgrace him."

According to Wikipedia, "Two or three men, whether assassins or soldiers, must have surrounded and dispatched him before help was available. A blow from an axe must have severed part of his left cheek, exposed the teeth, fractured the jaw, and sent him senseless to the ground; another blow must have seriously injured the skull, and a dagger or javelin has cut open the forehead on the right side, a little above the eye. His body must have remained lying where it fell for some time: when found, decomposition had set in, and the embalming had to be hastily performed as best it might."

Neolithic Graves Discovered At Stonehenge Tunnel Site

Computerized voices are an abomination. Closed captions useful.

"A Neolithic burial site, a mysterious Bronze Age C-shaped enclosure and ancient tools and pottery have been found by archaeologists carrying out work at the proposed new road tunnel at Stonehenge." Source: Archaeology News Network.

"Wessex Archaeology’s investigations uncovered evidence of human activity dating back more than 7,000 years at the planned A303 Amesbury to Berwick Down Scheme sites."

Note: Stonehenge is thought to have been constructed sometime between 3000 and 2000 BC. If the date ranges for these burials are correct, that suggests that Salisbury Plain was used as a burial ground long before the megalith was built on the site.

Mummified Chinchorro People May Have Died From Arsenic Poisoning

Video from 2018.

"Since the early 1900s, almost 300 human mummies have been uncovered along the coast of southern Peru and northern Chile, including adults, children, infants, and miscarried foetuses." Source: Science Alert (2018).

"With some dated to as far back as 5050 BC, these are the oldest mummies discovered in the world to date.

"They were made by a group of hunter-gatherers known as the Chinchorro people, who were mummifying their dead roughly 2,000 years before the ancient Egyptians began mummifying their pharaohs."

It's possible that many of these mummies were people who died from arsenic poisoning. According to one researcher, "... contaminated drinking water in the area from nearby volcanoes could have initiated the practice of mummification, because researchers have found arsenic in the mummies' tissues.

"'Arsenic poisoning can lead to a high rate of miscarriages, and infant mortality, and the sorrow over these deaths may have led this community to start preserving the little bodies,' he said. 

"Mummification could have started with the foetuses and grown to include adults. The oldest mummies we have found are of children.'"

The mummies have been deteriorating rapidly due to bacterial infections which are turning the remains into "black ooze" [next video] and scientists are apparently still trying to figure out how to stop the degradation.

Fuel For Earliest Life Forms: Organic Molecules Found In 3.5 Billion-Year-Old Rocks

The Dresser Formation. Video from 2014.

"For the first time, biologically-relevant organic molecules have been detected in Archaean fluid inclusions, which most likely served as nutrients for early life on Earth." Source: Science Daily.

"... Specifically, the scientists examined about 3.5 billion-year-old barites [a type of mineral] from the Dresser Formation in Western Australia. The barite thus dates from a time when early life developed on Earth. 'In the field, the barites are directly associated with fossilized microbial mats, and they smell like rotten eggs when freshly scratched. Thus, we suspected that they contained organic material that might have served as nutrients for early microbial life,'"  according to one of the researchers.

Note: There's a lot of informed speculation involved here. "...the team identified organic compounds such as acetic acid and methanethiol, in addition to gases such as carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. These compounds may have been important substrates for metabolic processes of early microbial life. Furthermore, they are discussed as putative key agents in the origin of life on Earth." (Emphasis added) In other words, their findings are still inconclusive to a certain extent.

The Archean is a really ancient period and not much is known about it. According to current models of the Archean environment, there wasn't a lot of free oxygen in the atmosphere back then and the Earth was about the same temperature as it is today despite the fact that the sun's power output was around 70 percent less intense (the Faint Young Sun Paradox). Researchers believe that life appeared in the early Archean or late Hadean, the geological eon which started with the formation of the planet around 4.6 billion years ago. The emergence of microorganisms so early is pretty remarkable since the Earth hadn't even cooled enough to support life until around 3.8 billion years ago. Most of this early history is still hypothetical, but there's no doubt that life first emerged that long ago. 

This isn't the first time that evidence of microbial mats has been discovered in Archean deposits. Colonies of simple microorganisms definitely existed back then. The evolution of more complex life forms may have been a freak accident, but the most important question is how and why life appeared in the first place. We have hard evidence that organic life emerged from the inorganic environment of the very early planet -- the only other possibility that I can think of is that the first microorganisms drifted here from space. If we're talking about a strictly terrestrial phenomenon, however, then it would seem that life is just a runaway chemical reaction.

Related: Origin of Life: Did Darwinian Evolution Begin Before Life Itself?

Dogs In Greece And Rome

"Of the canine breeds mentioned by classical authors, the best known were the swift Laconian (Spartan) and the heavier Molossian, both of which were native to Greece and used by the Romans for hunting (canis venaticus) and to watch over the house and livestock (canis pastoralis). 'Never, with them on guard,' says Virgil, 'need you fear for your stalls a midnight thief, or onslaught of wolves, or Iberian brigands at your back' (Georgics, III.404ff). It is the tawny Spartan and the Molossian, says Horace, who are 'the shepherd's dangerous friends' (Epodes, VI)." Source: University of Chicago.

"Ice Age" Horse Discovered In Utah Turns Out To Be Only A Few Hundred Years Old

This 2018 report was completely inaccurate.

"The skeletal remains of a 'wild' female horse found buried in a big ancient lake in Utah and thought to date back 16,000 years to the last ice age are actually no older than 340 years old, a new study finds." Source: Live Science.

"The bones, unearthed by landscapers in a Lehi, Utah backyard in 2018, were initially dated to a period that ended roughly 11,700 years ago. But after analyzing the horse's remains, scientists realized that the hoofed beast was actually a domestic horse that lived much more recently."

Follow-up report from 2021. Closed-captions useful.

Comment:This is yet another example of why you shouldn't automatically take archaeology news stories at face value. Note how it took at least two years for the truth to come out. Who knows how many other discoveries won't live up to their initial headlines when somebody finally gets around to looking into them more closely?