We explore a Roman artifact that contained hundreds of Hyoscyamus niger seeds and some possible answers to why someone might have wanted to keep these specific seeds safe. In this post, you will find the YouTube video exploring these artifacts and a full video transcript (with relevant sources and links).

YouTube Video

YouTube Video Transcript

Here, you will find the complete transcript of the video in the previous section with hyperlinked references/citations.

Intro

Someone sealed this object shut. 

Then, sometime between 70 and 100 CE, it ended up in a water pit at what is now known as the Roman site of Houten-Castellum in the Netherlands. 

Around 2000 years later, archaeologists unearthed this artifact. As they were conserving it, they were surprised to find hundreds of seeds inside – all from the same plant – Hyoscyamus niger. This raised a lot of questions including – Why would someone want to collect a bunch of these seeds?

Hi! I’m Dr. Smiti Nathan, and I’m an archaeologist. In this video, we’re going to explore this artifact and some possible answers to why someone might have wanted to keep these specific seeds safe.

The Container

So let’s start off with the container itself. Someone intentionally hollowed-out this bone. It has a diameter of 9mm and the hollow chamber is 59 mm long. It’s made from the left femur, specifically the diaphysis, of either a sheep or goat. We say either sheep or goat because the bones of these two animals look very similar, especially when you only have fragments.

One end of this artifact was sealed with birch-bark tar. This material has been found in archaeological contexts dating as far as the Middle Paleolithic, and it even shows up at other sites during the Roman period. People used it in a variety of ways like for hafting stone tools, waterproofing ceramics, and decorating objects.

The other end of this artifact didn’t have anything on it. Now something could have been there and it just didn’t preserve, but we don’t know. 

The Seeds

So now let’s look inside the artifact.

Initially, researchers thought it was just another animal bone fragment covered in mud amongst the tens of thousands they needed to clean, identify, and conserve. But, as they were cleaning this artifact, the plug fell out, and a lot of tiny seeds spilled everywhere. Unfortunately, seeds were lost. However, they did manage to recover 382 of them. They think the original sample was around 1000 seeds and the container itself could possibly hold up to 4000 seeds. 

What’s notable here is that all the seeds were from the same plant, Hyoscyamus niger, commonly known as black henbane. 

Black henbane is a poisonous plant species that’s indigenous to Europe and Asia. Its seeds have often been found in archaeological contexts in northwestern Europe, so it’s not surprising that this plant was at this site.

However, figuring out what it was used for, especially in this context, is a bit trickier. 

One possibility is that it was simply a weed. The site Houten-Castellum has been interpreted as a self-sufficient agricultural community. A single black henbane plant can produce up to ½ a million seeds, so seeing them pop up in archaeological samples would make sense. 

However, collecting a relatively large amount of seeds and storing them does not seem to track with a sporadic weed hypothesis for this find. 

So what else could be going on? Well, another use of black henbane may have been for medicinal or psychoactive purposes. Multiple texts from the Greek and Roman world mention henbane as a medical remedy. Now if you’re thinking, “Didn’t you just say it’s poisonous?” You’re right. Folx in the Classical world were aware that black henbane was poisonous and a common noted side effect was impairing the mind in some way. The most common applications appear to be topical and for pain relief purposes, but there are mentions of ingesting and smoking it too.

Much like today, there was debate and inquiry about the efficacy and use of certain remedies and we see this reflected in various texts. Between classical texts and other archaeological finds, we have an idea of what parts of the black henbane plant were used, how they were prepared, and their possible medicinal uses. 

So what is going on with our artifact?

When it comes to uses, one of the researchers initially thought the bone container could have been a smoking pipe. However, there was no evidence of burning within the bone and amongst the seeds. There is the possibility that the bone could have been heated to release vapors for inhalation; however, the researchers feel that the container interpretation is the most likely. 

So what do they think it was used for? 

The artifact was found in a water-pit, and the researchers think it was intentionally put there as some sort of ritual offering. This doesn’t detract from the medicinal or psychoactive substance theory, as medicine and ritual can be intertwined. 

Outro

We can’t say for sure if the people in this community were using black henbane as medicine, for its psychoactive purposes, or for some other reason entirely. What we can say is that someone decided to collect a lot of black henbane seeds and store them in this bone container. 

And whatever they intended it for, they treated it as something worth keeping safe.

If you’re interested in learning about another plant that had medicinal and psychoactive uses, we actually have a video on cannabis, which we’ll link below. 

This video is part of our artifact of the day series, where we take a quick look at one intriguing object from the past. If you’re interested in watching another artifact of the day video, check out the video here.  

Credits

Brooke Norton: Series Lead, Co-Producer, Researcher, Scriptwriter

Noor Hanania: Lead Video Editor, Logo Designer

Anya Gruber: Peer Reviewer

Smiti Nathan: Director, Co-Producer, Support Video Editor, Researcher, Scriptwriter

Patreon Supporters

Thank you to our paid Patreon members for supporting the creation of this video:

Nancy Fulton, Giancarlo Annese, Thomas Martin, Stuart A. Griffin, Tagg, Ann Brookens, Diana Madden, Cole Guinn, Chris, GeometryGirl, John McGrath, Cris Nally, Mick Bradley

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