Deep Time of

the Cunning Women

Origins, Evolution, and Exploitation of
Ethnobotany in Europe and the
Mediterranean

Introduction: Conjectures and caveats

The earliest exploitation of plants for therapeutic purposes rerhains a mys­
tery. Reports of therapeutic plant use by nonhuman primates imply analogous
use by early hominids (Huffman 2001). A plausible argument for the use of
medicinal plants by the Neanderthals has been presented (Lietava 1992; Merlin
2003). Substantive evidence for plant gathering by humans is provided by late
Paleolithic or Neolithic rock art from western Spain, where women are de­
picted picking fruit (Pericot 1961) and wielding digging sticks (Beltran 1982),
and from analogous rock art in Algeria, where women are shown “gathering
grain” (Janick 2010). Paintings that depict women at (^^atalhoyiik (-7000 B.C.,
Turkey) appear to show them gathering plants (Hodder 2004). These exam­
ples from Spain, Algeria, and Turkey may pertain to culinary, not medicinal,
plants but they are firm evidence of the role of women in plant gathering.
Ethnographic evidence has repeatedly been presented as justification for as­
suming that women in Neolithic and other ancient societies were the primary
gatherers of food and/or medicinal plants in both the Old and New Worlds
(e.g., Haaland 1995, on middle Nile, Holocene; Roth 2006 for the American
Southwest).
There is certainly a body of evidence for use of medicinal plants in early
times, but there is probably an even greater body of inference. Such inferences
must be approached with a certain degree of caution. Behre (2008) pointed to
studies in which remains of plants with known medicinal uses were recovered
in archaeobotanical contexts, where accompanying evidence for actual me­
dicinal use at the excavated sites is often lacking. Redfern (2010) voiced similar
38 Hidden Histories and Ancient Mysteries of Witches, Plants, and Fungi

concerns with regard to Romano-British medicinal plants, and so paid spe­

cial attention to archaeobotanical findings “in direct association with known
centres of treatment.” Similar cautions pertain to inferences about the ritual
use of plants, including use of potentially consciousness-altering (includ­
ing hallucinogenic) substances. It is also necessary, but not necessarily easy,
to discriminate between purposefully constructed caches of plant materials,
and incidental accumulations of remains of those common weedy plants with
documented medicinal uses.
This review addresses higher plants. Analogous contexts involving fungi
(formerly considered plants, but phylogenetically distinct from them) are cov­
ered in Dugan (2008a, 2008b, 2011, and Shadows of Works and Days above).
Early exploitation of ethnobotanical knowledge by herbalists and others in
pre-modern Europe is well documented and concisely referenced herein, but
less widely known is the mining in pharmaceutical discovery of medieval and
Renaissance writings, also concisely sketched in this review. The essay con­
cludes with examples of available germplasm for plants for which ancient eth­
nobotanical uses are documented.

Archaeobotanical and archaeological evidence

Firm evidence for ethnobotanical uses over centuries or millennia (“deep
time”), including association of women with herbs or medicinal plants, in­
cludes grave goods. In spite of difficulties in deciding whether or not accumu­
lations of plant material in graves constitute purposeful deposition, a number
of instances clearly indicate such intent, whereas in other instances intent is
plausible but less certain. Some of the earliest indications of plant use strongly
indicate intent because plant remains are in association with what appear to
be manufactured grinding stones. Although grinding may also be used to pro­
cess animal materials or mineral pigments, the association of starch grains
or phytoliths with such implements strongly implies plant materials used for
food.
The number of deep time instances involving the use of grinding stones is
limited, which is unsurprising given the millennia separating us from the users.
However, several very early instances are instructive. At Ohalo, Israel, starch
grains from Hordeum sp. (wild barley) were recovered from a grinding stone
dated ca. 19,500 B.C. (Piperno et al. 2004; Weiss et al. 2008). At that same site,
Weiss et al. (2008) made some tentative suggestions regarding possible medici­
nal uses implied by concentrated remains of Silybum marianum (holy thistle)
and Malva parviflora (common mallow), but noted “medicinal uses by present
 Deep Time of the Cunning Women 39

or historic societies ...do not prove that prehistoric people used these plants
in the same way” (emphasis in the original). However, they point to remains
of an adult male who, “in addition to suffering from a disabled hand ... [had]
a penetrating wound to the rib cage.... survival of such a disabled and heavily
wounded individual is strong evidence of medicinal care” (Weiss et al. 2008).
In the Bilancino site of northern Italy (ca. 23,000 B.C.), starch grains charac­
teristic of Typha (cattail) were found on a grindstone and grinder (Aranguren
et al. 2007: Revedin et al. 2010). Cattails were also the most probable plants
responsible for starch grains on a pestle grinder at Pavlov (Southern Moravia,
Czech Republic, ~ 29,000 B.C.) (Revedin et al. 2010). In the Kostenki site (Pok­
rovsky Valley, Russia, -31,000-30,000 B.C.) identity of starch grains on the
surface of a pestle was ambiguous, but “tentatively attributed to Botrychium”
(moonwort, a fern with starchy roots) (Revedin et al. 2010). The review of
Tyldesley and Bahn (1983) of the European Paleolithic noted earlier recoveries
of grind stones from Paleolithic sites, but the grinding of plant materials (as
opposed to animal products or minerals) was apparently not substantiated;
they emphasized use of wood and to lesser degree fiber (chiefly grasses, as bed­
ding) by Paleolithic humans. Their appendices on putative portrayal of plants
on Palaeolithic artifacts, and of possible uses (including medicinal) for various
plant parts, are interesting but more suggestive than conclusive.
However, for times subsequent to the Paleolithic, archaeobotanical and
other forms of evidence for plant use become increasingly available. Such evi­
dence is sufficiently abundant that it can be organized into various (not nec­
essarily mutually exclusive) categories according to usage and/or taxonomic
association.
Medicinal and other plants deposited as grave goods. Achillea millefolium
(yarrow) has a long history of medicinal use. The generic epithet refers to the
legend that Achilles used it to heal wounds in the Trojan War, although the
actual identity of the herb referenced in myth is not known (Chandler et al.
1982, whose review also comprises references to yarrow in Dioscorides, in old
herbals, etc.). Ritual deposits of A. millefolium and other plants in Bronze Age
burials are concisely reviewed by Lageras (2000). Achillea remains were also re­
corded from the Shanidar Neanderthal grave (Applequist and Moerman 2011).
Therefore, there are implications that use of this herb may be very ancient, but
see Merlin’s (2003) summary of objections to this hypothesis (primarily that
such plant remains could be introduced by burrowing rodents). Of far greater
certitude is the report of the Egtved Girl (Danish Bronze Age, Fig. 11), whose
coffin contained flowering yarrow “laid with care by her left knee” (Glob 1970).
Glob implied the yarrow was of medicinal significance, and provided a capsule
/' 4% , Hidden Histories and Ancient Mysteries of Witches, Plants, and Fungi

history of its use in ancient times. Pollen of Achillea, included in “pollen of

many medicinal herbs” (Plantago, Polygonum, and Tilia, etc.), was found in
a basket from a Bronze Age burial mound on the Bedeni Plateau, Georgia
(Kvavadze et al. 2010). In a separate find from a later era, large quantities and
clumps of Achillea pollen imply “special cultural or ritual significance for the
deceased” (Kvavadze et al. 2008, in reference to an early medieval grave at
Tsitsamuri, Georgia, fourth-sixth century A.D.). Remains of Plantago species
are sometimes so abundant in graves that the plant is assumed to be of special
status, e.g., for a Bronze Age cemetery in the Orkney Islands (Bunting and
Tipping 2001). Plantago and Polygonum, like Achillea, have an extended record
of medicinal uses in classical and medieval writings (Riddle 1981). Tilia species
(lime, linden) are trees with deep roots in European folklore, and have long
histories of use for fiber, shade, lumber, and bee forage; and the flowers are still
widely used for herbal tea, often reported as having medicinal attributes (Bell
et al. 2008).
It is especially interesting when plant remains have been processed prior
to deposition. Remains of ointment produced from common gromwell, Litho-
spermum officinale, were discovered in a woman s Bronze Age, Mierzanowice
culture grave (-1750-1600 B.C.) in southern Poland (Baczynska and Lityriska-

Fig. 11. Clothing of the Egtved Girl (Danish

Bronze Age), whose grave contained yarrow, the
remnants of a fermented beverage made ivith
wheat, honey, and bog myrtle, and remains of a
“serving-girl” who was “a sacrifice [who] followed
her mistress to death” (Glob 1970). Apparently
the sacrifice caused less controversy than the
scantiness of the costume, especially the corded
skirt, in 1930s Germany whose public wished
their putative progenitors dressed more modestly
(Glob 1970). (Images Danish National Museum
and Wikipedia Commons)
 Deep Time of the Cunning Women 41

Zaj^c 2005)/® Lithospermum officinale was also recovered from kurgan graves
of the northwest Caspian Steppe, -1750-1850 B.C. (Shishlina et al. 2007).
Pustovoytov et al. (2004) reported Lithospermum fruits excavated from a Bronze
Age settlement in Jordan and concisely reviewed other reports of Lithosper­
mum in archaeobotanical context in the Mediterranean and Near East. Spe­
cies of Lithospermum, especially L. officinale, are well documented as medicinal
plants (see ancient and medieval literature, below) and such uses persist, e.g.,
L. purpureo-coeruleum against kidney stones in Greece (Brussell 2004).
Pollen remains of Anemone nemorosa were located in a Neolithic burial cist
from southern Sweden (-2300-1700 B.C.) (Lageras 2000). Ancient medicinal
use of A. nemorosa is more speculative than that for A. millefolium or some
other plants. According to Bartlett (1940), Otto Brunfels (died 1534) was the
first to publish a record of A. nemorosa, but given his interest in “sifting of
current folk botany” and “genuine folk science” there was likely folk use of the
plant well prior to his investigation. Modern research reveals A. nemorosa used
as a medicinal or aromatic herb in Estonia and the Balkans (Kathe et al. 2003;
Imbrea et al. 2007; Soukand and Kalle 2011).
Large deposits of pollen of Filipendula, closely associated with pollen of Ach­
illea, Tilia, and other “medicinal” plants, have been recovered from a Bronze
Age burial mound in Republic of Georgia; the grave was probably decorated
with Filipendula flowers (Kvavadze and Kakhiani 2010). Analogous deposits of
Filipendula have been recovered from Bronze Age cairns in Scotland (Tipping
1994). Bronze Age graves in Scotland (Fife and Berwickshire) contained large
amounts of Filipendula pollen. These instances “have been interpreted as the
result of floral offerings included in the burial ... its [Filipendula s] frequent
occurrence has been used to suggest that it had a symbolic status in the Bronze
Age” (Bunting and Tipping 2001, citing sources). This genus was also used in
flavoring fermented beverages (below).
Some of the more intriguing discoveries relate directly to the medieval and
premodern European traditions of ‘wise women’ and witches. Herb remains
were found in ‘thread boxes’ and ‘work boxes’ in sixth and seventh century A.D.

Batora (2000) noted problems with chronology of this culture, and the possibility of an
earlier date. Radzilowski (2007) accepts, without attribution, an earlier date and sup­
plies a concise description of a massive hill fort assigned to the Mierzanowice culture.
According to Makarowicz (2009), barrows were not a feature of Mierzanowice culture,
and so the culture was likely of “Old Europe,” i.e., pre-Indo-European—see Mallory and
Adams (2006) on the “kurgan hypothesis.”
42 Hidden Histories and Ancient Mysteries of Witches, Plants, and Fungi

graves of Anglo-Saxon ‘cunning women’ (Dickinson 1999; Geake 1997, and

references therein). The Oseberg Ship burial (~8oo A.D.) contained a cache of
Cannabis seed associated with apparel of a Viking volva (wise-woman, witch,
pi. vdlur) (Price 2004). Another Viking woman’s grave from tenth-century
Fyrkat contained henbane {Hyoscyamus niger) seed associated with volva-
like paraphernalia (Fuglesang 1989; Price 2004), and use of henbane may be
quite ancient. Remains of henbane, as well as common mallow (Malva sylves-
tris) and poison hemlock (Conium maculatum) were recovered from collec­
tive stone graves of the linear pottery culture (LBK, -3570-2910 B.C.) in the
Sachsen-Anhalt region of the Harz Mountains in Germany (Hellmund 2008).
(Note that M. sylvestris has widespread medicinal usage; see e.g., “one of the
most important medicinal species in the southern Italian folk pharmacopoeia”
in Quave et al. 2008). In addition, henbane seeds were found in an excavated
Neolithic structure from northwestern Bulgaria (Marinova 2009), attesting to
its use from earliest European agriculture. Medicinal use, or use as a ritual
hallucinogen, has been inferred from such discoveries, but Long et al. (2000)
urged caution, especially in regard to a specific find from a Neolithic site in
Scotland (Balfarg, Fife, containing remnants of a stone circle monument). For
that site, because of a paucity of original materials and failure to confirm origi­
nal findings in subsequent, independent analyses, “interpretations are severely
limited” (Long et al. 2000).
Candidates for Soma: Cannabis, Papaver, and Ephedra spp. Archaeo-
botanical evidence of Cannabis, Papaver, and Ephedra spp. has been associ­
ated with the Tarim mummies, putatively Indo-European peoples migrating
eastward into central Asia ca. 1900 B.C. to 200 A.D., and each of these plants
is a candidate for the soma plant of ancient Indo-European (especially Vedic)
ritual, e.g., the Beauty of Xiaohe” (—1800-1500 B.C.) was buried with pouches
of Ephedra (Mallory and Mair 2000). Dugan (2008a, 2011) examines various
hypotheses regarding species of fungi as candidates for soma. The literature
on candidates for soma is extensive. See Merlin (2003) for an expert summary.
Whether or not Cannabis species and poppy {Papaver somniferum) were ever
the soma of Vedic usage, they were, like Ephedra spp., psychoactive plants
important in ancient medicine. As noted by the Greek historian Herodotus,
Scythians made use of Cannabis fumes, and archaeological evidence from the
Ukraine and elsewhere supports those assertions (Merlin 2003). The use of
Cannabis as hemp fiber or a narcotic can be documented in archaeobotanical
contexts for the Neolithic, Bronze, and Iron Ages, and early medieval times in
various European and ancient Near Eastern locations (Merlin 2003), with the
implication that use of the plant was widespread from early times. Likewise,
 Deep Time of the Cunning Women 43

archaeobotanical evidence or artifacts convincingly depicting poppy capsules

point to the use of poppy in numerous European and Mediterranean locales,
including Italy from the Neolithic onwards, Neolithic and Bronze Age central
Europe, and numerous Bronze Age and later sites in the Eastern Mediterra­
nean (Boekhoud 2003; Merlin 2003).
The physical evidence for the antiquity of Cannabis sativa was reviewed
by Flemming and Clarke (1998), who classified the evidence by type (pollen,
seed, seed imprint, fibers, textiles, carbonized remains, and extracted canna-
binoids). A useful map, indicating geographic locations in Europe, the Medi­
terranean, and the Near East, was provided, with each location associated with
an estimated date, including several from the Bronze Age. Cannabis was re­
covered from a woman’s Bronze Age kurgan grave in the Caspian steppe, and
Ephedra was recovered from graves of both sexes in the same locale (Shishlina
et al. 2007). Creighton (2004) cited references for opium poppy (first millen­
nium B.C.) and hemp (Bronze Age) in Britain, as well as noting “traces of can­
nabis ... in one of the Hallstat [central Europe, early Iron Age] burials.”
Solanaceous plants. These have a long history as poisons and medicinal
plants and are frequently referenced as having been in the botanical arsenals
of witches (Lee 2006a, 2006b, 2007). Of these, the most common in archaeo­
botanical contexts is probably henbane, already referenced above. “Henbane
has been found occasionally in archaeological contexts from the Neolithic on­
wards ... in Britain, it was found in large quantities in the Late Iron Age and
Roman levels at Farmoor” (Crieghton 2004, citing sources). Solanum nigrum
(black nightshade) was putatively known to Pliny as a medicinal plant and re­
mains were found in a drug “factory” near Pompeii (Ciaraldi 2000). Remains
of deadly nightshade {Atropa belladonna) have been recovered from an Iron
Age Romano-British site (van der Veen 1996) and from medieval sites in Brit­
ain (Grieg 1996), although it is possible that the recoveries represent weeds
not necessarily used medicinally. Muller-Wille et al. (1988) recovered henbane
(and common mallow) from Viking Age settlements in Denmark. “Seeds of
the possible medicinal plants Atropa bella-donna (deadly nightshade) and
Hyoscyamus niger (henbane) are often found in urban archaeological depos­
its. The difficulty is that both of these could easily have grown wild on waste
ground in towns, and it is almost impossible to find any real evidence that ei­
ther was actually used as medicine” (Grieg 1996). Both are, however, repeatedly
referenced in medieval literature (below).
That solanaceous plants, including those whose medicinal properties were
referenced in herbals, are recovered in archaeobotanical contexts is interest­
ing. As stated above, such recoveries do not necessarily imply medicinal use.
44 Hidden Histories and Ancient Mysteries of Witches, Plants, and Fungi

This applies to “medicinal” plants in general, as .. there are relatively few

cases where fossil remains seem actually and incontrovertibly to have been
used for this purpose” (Hall 2003). For example, Solanum nigrum and Hyoscy-
amus niger, as well as the nonsolanaceous Urtica dioica, Papaver somniferum,
Mentha sp., and Cannabis sativa are documented as among the most abundant
recoveries for the Anglo-Saxon period. But only P. somniferum and C. sativa
are coded as “likely to have been used by occupants of sites”—the others are
coded as “commonly occurring weed” in Hall (2003). However, that some such
plants early became weedy associates of crops increased the opportunities for
humans to experiment with their properties. Solanum nigrum, for example,
became a weed in Neolithic Dutch wetlands, and S. dulcamara (woody night­
shade) was also recovered (Out 2012).
Cuisine, fiber, and other miscellaneous and medicinal uses in archaeo-
botanical contexts. The history of use of Mentha spp. (mint) is somewhat con­
jectural. ‘Mint’ is attested in Pre-Greek (below) and was certainly used for cu­
linary purposes in Etruscan, Roman, and Greek cuisine (Andrews 1958). Mint
was used as an additive to ancient Egyptian wines (McGovern et al. 2009).
Although it seems that Mentha spp. grew wild in Britain, the plants were ap­
parently not widely used there for culinary/medicinal purposes until Roman
times (van der Veen et al. 2008). Seeds of Mentha arvensis and M. aquatica
have been documented in considerable numbers along with other plants of po­
tential medicinal utility in Neolithic (-3330-3110 B.C.) Slovenia, but the use is
conjectural (Tolar et al. 2011). Mentha spp. were by medieval times established
as garden plants in Britain (below).
Archaeobotanical finds of stinging nettle (Urtica dioica) have been inter­
preted as implying its use as food as early as the late Mesolithic in Denmark
(Kubiak-Martens 1999). Similar inferences were made for Eneolithic (Copper
Age) Slovenia (Jeraj et al. 2009). By Roman times, nettle was used medicinally
for a number of purposes and was found, along with remains of Cannabis
and Papaver, in an archaeological site near Pompei, consistent with possible
preparation of medicinal drugs (Ciaraldi 2000, also relaying Pliny’s observa­
tions on nettle). Zvelebil (2008) cited evidence for production of cordage from
nettle and hemp in the Baltic Mesolithic. Nettle has a history of usage well
documented in literature and folklore (below). Fiber, of course, was sometimes
dyed. Bog myrtle, used for flavoring beverages (below), was also used for dye­
ing, as were other “medicinal” plants like Agrimonia eupatoria (agrimony) and
Humulus lupulus (hops) (Hall 1996, on British archaeobotanical research per­
tinent to history of dyeing and mordanting).
 Deep Time of the Cunning Women 45

Seeds of Hypericum sp. (possibly H. perforatum, St. John’s wort) as well as

seeds of Urtica spp. (nettle), Pistacia terebinthus (terebinth), solanaceous, and
other plants from a late Neolithic site in Makriyalos, Greece, may imply me­
dicinal use, as seeds of these and other weedy plants were otherwise scarce in
the excavations (Valamoti 2011). Hypericum has a long history in classical and
medieval herbals (below).
Other significant archaeobotanical reports include Salih et al. (2009) for
ancient nigella (black cumin, Nigella sativa) seeds from Boyal Hoyuk in north-
central Turkey (Hittite). Redfern (2010) reported mugwort and wormwood
(probably Artemisia vulgaris and other Artemisia spp.), chamomile (probably
Matricaria spp.), willow (Salix), and opium poppy as important medicinal
plants in Roman Britain based on archaeobotanical finds in association with
graves, some containing “doctor’s” surgical equipment. Viola arvensis was oc­
casional to common in the intestines of Grauballe and Tollund Iron Age bog
bodies, respectively (Behre 2008). Behre (2008) focused on the food value of
other plants in intestines of bog bodies, but V. arvensis is documented both as
a medicinal plant (Zukauska 2004) and a food plant (Luczaj 2010).
Valamoti et al. (2011) reviewed archaeobotanical evidence indicating that
persons in Neolithic Greece processed certain legumes to remove toxins. Le­
gumes were sometimes consumed as food, sometimes understood as contain­
ing toxins, and sometimes used as medicines, as documented in numerous
ancient writings (below). The extensive archaeobotanical record for legumes
in Greece and the Balkans is reviewed in Shadows of Works and Days above.
Until the present era, medicine was not strictly separated from magic; that
legumes were used for ritual burnt offerings is archaeologically attested for
ancient Greece (Megaloudi 2005).
As seen above, archaeobotanical findings sometimes document medicinal
plants in association with women. Given the widespread ethnographic docu­
mentation linking women and plants, one might hypothesize that the rela­
tionship would leave other traces in the archaeological record. Peterson (2002)
used musculoskeletal indicators from Natufian burials to attempt discrimina­
tion between male and female in repetitive, putatively gender-specific tasks,
but although the indicators arrayed individuals into categories, the association
with gender was not straightforward.
Paleolithic, Neolithic, and Bronze Age art. However, rock art and other
archaeological pictorial evidence provide indications of gender-related roles,
such as the plant gathering by women that is depicted by late Paleolithic or
Neolithic art as referenced in the Introduction. Minoan frescos depict women
46 Hidden Histories and Ancient Mysteries of Witches, Plants, and Fungi

gathering plants and presenting floral offerings to goddesses (Chapin 1997).

The plants themselves are often only dubiously identified to genus or species,
but include with some certainty lilies, vetch, papyrus, plus crocus and com­
mon mallow (Chapin 1997). The last plant, as noted elsewhere here, is asso­
ciated with medicinal properties, and crocus was the source of saffron. The
collection of saffron by women is well documented in Minoan frescos and its
medicinal uses are referenced in Assyrian and Old Babylonian traditions as
well as the Minoan (Arnott 1996, 2004; Ferrence and Bendersky 2004). “As
early as the Early Minoan III period (c. 2300-2000 B.C.) there has been found
evidence of early medical practice in an apsidal building at Chrysokamino
in Eastern Crete, through organic residue analysis of a series of compounds
which include saffron, rosemary, safflower, sage, rue, fennel, cumin and anis”
(Arnott 2004). It is speculated that arsenic poisoning from the regionally
mined copper ores may have been the malady against which herbal use was
directed (Arnott 2004).
Plants as flavorings for meads and ales. Evidence for early production of
alcoholic substances from plants, honey, and milk has been reviewed for Indo-
European antiquity (Dugan 2009, citing a host of studies and reviews), but here
it can be mentioned that what are often regarded as medicinal plants were also
used to add flavor or therapeutic properties to mead or ale. Evidence of mead
(or alternatively, ale sweetened with honey) has been found in Bronze Age and
Iron Age graves, sometimes in conjunction with drinking horns or cauldrons,
e.g., the famous Vix krater, or a Greek cauldron in the grave at Hochdorf, fifth
to sixth centuries B.C., Germany, in which the grave was decorated with flow­
ers and the cauldron had a capacity of -400 liters (Biel 2006). Dickson (1978)
presented arguments that Bronze Age mead could be detected in cist burials
at Ashgrove, Fife (Scotland). Tilia cordata (small-leaved lime) and Filipendula
(meadowsweet, medesweete, medewurt = ‘mead herb’) were foremost of the
putative additives. Analogies were drawn with the find from Egtved (Den­
mark) in which a birch bucket was said to contain residues of mead, with evi­
dence of Myricagale (bog myrtle, sweet gale) and berries of Vaccinium species
used for flavoring (Dickson 1978, citing sources, and presenting a capsule his­
tory of the use of meadowsweet for flavoring mead). Behre (1999). in a review
devoted largely to Humulus lupulus (hops) and Myrica gale, noted that many
plants were used to flavor beers in medieval or premodern Europe, including
species of Mentha, St. John’s wort {Hypericum perforatum), and “even Atropa
belladonna L., Datura stramonium and fly agaric. Amanita muscaria L. ex Fr.”
(Behr 1999). Behre (1999) cited only one source, an eighteenth-century manu­
script, for this information, and stated, “beers with poisonous ingredients like
 Deep Time of the Cunning Women 47

the ones above were the so-called berserker beers which were given to the lans­
quenets [German mercenaries of the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries] to in­
crease their rage against the enemy.”

Linguistic evidence
How deeply can we discern ancient vocabulary for medicinal plants or prac­
titioners of herbal magic or medicine? For European languages, reconstructed
Proto-Indo-European (PIE) covers a period up to approximately 2500 B.C.
(Anthony 2007).^® Several reconstructed words in PIE bear scrutiny.
“The vocabulary of the wide variety of non-arboreal [plant] taxa of the
Proto-Indo-European world has barely survived except for those plants spe­
cifically associated with agriculture” (Mallory and Adams 2006). Although
there are abundant terms for domesticated cereals, other terms for plants other
than trees refer only generically to plant forms: ‘flower, ‘reed’, ‘rush’, and a few
others. However, there are “regionally confined” terms. Although the terms
are regional, it is a logical assumption that each set of related terms must have
been preceded in time by a more ancient common ancestor (ancient, but not
necessarily as old as 2500 B.C.). The reconstructed forms (denoted by an aster­
isk) include words for ‘henbane’ {*bhel-, from third to first century B.C. Gaul­
ish, 800-1150 A.D. Old English, 1050 A.D.- Russian), hellebore {*kemeros-, from
750-1050 A.D. Old High German and 1050-1600 A.D. Old Russian) and poppy
{*mehak-, from 750-1050 A.D. Old High German, sixteenth to eighteenth cen­
tury Old Prussian, 1050 A.D.- Russian, and eighth century B.C.- Greek). ‘Net­
tle’ is represented by *ned- (e.g. 900-1200 A.D. Middle Irish nenaid ‘nettle’,
1500 A.D.- New English nettle, eighth century B.C.- Greek adike ‘nettle’, eigh­
teenth century- Lithuanian notere ‘nettle’, sixteenth century- Slovenian ndt
nettle). Possibly also, *kwendhr/no- ‘angelica’ (e.g., from Latin for ‘aromatic
plant and thirteenth century Scots Gaelic contran ‘wild angelica’, 1150-1500
A.D. Old Norse hvonn 'Angelica sylvestris)—see Angelica under Medicinal
plants in ancient, medieval, and pre-modern writings and Medicinal plants in
folklore below.

Readers are encouraged to explore Mallory and Adams (2006) for the relevance of paleo-
linguistics to agricultural prehistory and paleoethnobiology. Anthony (2007) provided
capsule descriptions of Ferdinand de Saussure’s laryngeal, its discovery in Hittite texts,
and other instances in archaeology furnishing support for the predictive value of recon­
structed paleolanguages.
48 Hidden Histories and Ancient Mysteries of Witches, Plants, and Fungi

The suffix (r^oq) of the classical Greek word for hemp, Kocvvajioq, denotes
that word as belonging to a class of words, including several plant names, held
to be atypical of classical Greek and putatively borrowed from a linguistic sub­
stratum preceding it (Sturtevant 1910). And “kanaphis or kannabis ‘hemp’”
was considered by Mann (1943) to be of non-IE origin (but imported into IE
at an early date) and is found in “Greek, Albanian, Germanic and Slavonic.”
Mallory and Adams (2006) list “?*kannabis ‘hemp’ (both Lat cannibis and NE
hemp)” among regional terms.
Even nonfoodies are aware of the devotion accorded garlic and of its reputed
health benefits. Roots here may also be ancient. “There is *kremhxus ‘(wild)
garlic’ (e.g. Mir crem ‘wild garlic’, Grk krem(m)uon ~ krdm(m)uon ‘onion’, a
derivative gives us, e.g., dialectical NE ramsom ‘(bulb of the) broad-leaved gar­
lic’, Lith kremuse ‘wild garlic’, Rus ceremsd ‘wild garlic’)” (Mallory and Adams
2006).
Renfrew (1998), delivering opinions on the putative Minoan contribution to
Greek language, listed “‘Aegean’ (i.e., non-Indo-European) words... compiled
by D.A. Hestor” including (iiv0a ‘mint’, vapKiaaoc ‘narcissus’, and udKiv0oq
‘hyacinth’, all medicinal plants known in the ancient (Greco-Roman) world
(below, on literature). Renfrew (1998) holds the unorthodox opinion that these
words, usually considered as “pre-Greek” are actually more accurately attrib­
uted to Minoan (contemporary with Mycenean Greek). In either case, all are
ancient. A curious reader might wonder if the Pre-Greek or Minoan dKav0oq
‘prickly plant’ (Renfrew 1998) referred to nettle. See Shadows of Works and
Days above for further relevance of Pre-Greek to paleoethnobotany.
So, we have supporting evidence that European peoples were acquainted
with some important medicinal plants from very early times. What about
words for categories of persons who might be associated with ethnobotani-
cal lore? Can analogous antiquity (PIE or contemporary with it) be demon­
strated for ‘witch’ or ‘midwife’ or other words that might link herbal lore to a
practitioner, male or female? In spite of the opinions of Alinei (n.d., below) on
the antiquity of PIE (“Upper Palaeolithic”!), probably not. However, there are
more “recent” vocabularies that still qualify as ancient in the sense of Iron Age,
classical, or early medieval, and words for relevant activities are found in PIE.
Reconstructed Proto-Indo-European words corresponding to midwife or
witch are lacking in Mallory and Adams (2006), as is a specific word in PIE
for medicine, but NW *soito/eha- is ‘sorcery’ and WC *keudes- is ‘magic force’.
Reconstructed words *med-, WC *bher-, and WC *yak{k)- denote ‘cure’ or
‘heal’. (NW and WC denote regionality—Northwest and West-Central Indo-
European languages.)
 Deep Time of the Cunning Women

Ancient Near Eastern languages contain such words, e.g., for ‘midwife’ and
‘female magical operative’ in Akkadian and Hittite (the latter, Indo-European)
according to Puhvel (1991,1992), but the etymology of these words is uncertain
and they are not traced beyond Hittite (eighteenth to twelfth century B.C. Ana­
tolia) with any certainty. The etymology of the word ‘witch’ can be putatively,
ultimately derived from PIE ‘bend’ or ‘twist’ finally connoting ‘conjure’
and other terms allied with sorcery and divination, but these latter mean­
ings are not demonstratively acquired until Anglo-Saxon, Low German, Old
English, Old Norse, etc., i.e., medieval times (Bonewits 2000). A direct line of
etymological descent justifying association of Vys- to ‘wicca’ with an ancient
word for ‘wise one’ is suspect and improbable (Bonewits 2000). Nonetheless,
intriguing etymologies for ‘bewitch’ and ‘witch’ encompass roots (none allied
to wicca’) from sufficiently diverse allied languages that time depth prior to
medieval times (and possibly even back to the Iron Age) is implied.
One might not accept that they represent “an IE [Indo-European] word,
which could be dated to the Upper Paleolithic” (Alinei n.d.), but Russian
iarovdty bewitch, charm’, Slovenian cdra and Serbo-Croatian car ‘witchcraft’,
Lithuanian (Balto-Slavic) keras ‘magic’, and similar terms from Slavic lan­
guages, all collectively imply an old and linguistically united entity pertain­
ing to witchery. Corresponding terms like Russian baha, Ukraninan;a/id, Old
Czech jeze, Czech jezinka, and similar Slavic words denote witches of one sort
or another, very often specifically female. The opinions of Alinei (n.d.) on PIE
homeland (central and western Europe) and antiquity of PIE (Palaeo- and Me­
solithic) are quite unorthodox. Most opinion denotes Anatolia or the Russian
Steppes as a homeland (or designates the latter as a secondary area of radia­
tion of peoples and languages), and at times well subsequent to the Paleolithic.
But the etymologies for ‘bewitch’ and ‘witch’ are interesting, considering how
closely such terms were linked with plant lore in classical and medieval times.
Note also Paliga (2006), in which appears moa§a, ‘midwife’ derived from
ancient Thracian mo§ ‘old man’. Ancient Thracian encompasses roots of deep
antiquity. However, the meaning of‘midwife’ in modern Romanian is “a quite
recent specialization (Paliga 2006). Probably less relevant to Europe, but
potentially interesting, would be corresponding words in ancient Egypt, but
“... there is no definite [ancient] Egyptian word for midwife and no account of
their work (Nunn 1996). Note the Akkadian and Hittite examples just above,
however. It may also be that the “flower garden” in “parts of the palace thought
to have been the women’s section” and interpreted as relevant to the origin of
“kitchen gardening” (Leach 1982) represents another connection of women to
the world of plants.
50 Hidden Histories and Ancient Mysteries of Witches, Plants, and Fungi

On the whole, it seems that words for medicinal plants cannot be defini­
tively traced to PIE (-2500 B.C.), but can be strongly tied to more “recent”
Indo-European terms from late Bronze Age, the Iron Age, and to Pre-Greek.
Words for practitioners of herbal lore (‘witches’ and ‘midwives’) are formu­
lated from roots whose meanings were unknown, different, or more general
until the Late Bronze Age (in the case of Hittite), or the Iron Age or medieval
times. Note however, “‘Fair-haired Agamede was the best known herbalist of
her day (Illiad XI, 739)” (quoted in Warren 1970). We can conclude that words
for medicinal plants and the healers using them were present in very ancient
vocabularies.
There were “probably both male and female” healers outside the palaces
in Mycenean and Minoan times, including rural “wise women.” The “wise
woman” clearly played a role in Hittite medicine (Arnott 2004). The “Old
Woman” noted in a tablet from the Old Kingdom of the Hittites performed a
variety of healing rituals (Arnott 2004). Arnott (1996) notes, “It may even be
possible to identify a midwife in the Linear B tablets [Mycenaean]... among a
list of women.” Apparently the word was first speculatively identified as ‘nurse’
by M. Ventris and J. Chadwick on the basis of some resemblance to the word
for ‘midwife’ used by Hippocrates.
The world of trees. Although nonarboreal taxa are probably the most rele­
vant to a review centered on medicinal plants, mention must be made of the
antiquity of names for trees, larger shrubs, and mistletoe. Some plants such
as yew trees and mistletoe have long had medicinal or medicinal/ritual uses.
Mallory and Adams (2006) provide a list of two dozen species or genera of
trees (or larger shrubs) whose names, or the names of their fruits, are suffi­
ciently widely distributed in Indo-European to allow for reconstructed names
in Proto-Indo-European: ‘acorn’, ‘alder’, ‘apple’, ‘ash’, ‘aspen, poplar’, ‘birch’,
‘elm’, ‘fir’, ‘pine, conifer’, ‘hawthorn’, ‘maple’, ‘blackberry’, ‘willow’, and ‘yew’.
Readers wishing to inspect the reconstructed words and their derivation
are urged to consult Mallory and Adams (2006). However, because of the me­
dicinal importance of yew and the ritual importance of mistletoe, the follow­
ing is provided here: “The primary word for ‘yew’ {*hieiwos) is restricted to
naming the tree” but a second set of words “has shifted in meaning to ‘bow’
not surprising, given the well-known excellence of yew-wood for the manufac­
ture of bows.” Reconstructed *hieiwos is derived from Old Irish eo ‘yew’. Old
Prussian iuwis ‘yew’, Hittite eyain)- ‘±yew’, and others. ‘Mistletoe’ (including
‘birdlime’—a gooey extract of mistletoe used to trap small birds) is *wikso-,
from Latin viscum ‘birdlime’, Greek iksds ‘mistletoe’, and others.
 Deep Time of the Cunning Women

There are also regional terms for ‘beech’, ‘cherry’, ‘hornbeam’, ‘juniper,
cedar’, ‘linden’, and ‘oak’, plus many general terms such as ‘sap’ and ‘pitch’,
‘nut’, ‘bark’, and others. Familiarity with trees and their products is obvi­
ously ancient, as the last period for Proto-Indo-European was ca. 2500 B.C.
(Anthony 2007), by which time ethnobotanical knowledge addressed multiple
aboreal taxa. Leschber (2012) presented evidence that some tree names may
represent borrowings into PIE from an even more ancient European language
substratum.

Was ethnobotanical lore transferred

by patrilocal exogamy?
Patrilocal exogamy (wherein a son remains with the parental household
and his new wife migrates) was the normal kinship pattern of the Proto-
Indo-Europeans (Anthony 2007; Friedrich 1966). Recent detailed Bayesian-
phylogenetic analyses of cross-cultural data attain very similar conclusions,
with matrilocality (the new couple taking residence with the maternal kin)
largely excluded (Fortunate 2011). Patrilocality also characterized the Ger­
manic tribes of the migration era (Barnish and Marazzi 2007). In view of the
general acceptance of the view that Indo-European peoples constituted invad­
ing (or at least migrating) and dominant cultures (Mallory and Adams 2006),
and in view of the widely known barbarian (chiefly Germanic) invasions of
western Europe and the Roman Empire, consequences of patrilocal exogamy
are worthy of serious consideration, although most conclusions are inherently
speculative.
Bogaard (2004) remarked that “Ethnographic evidence points to the cen­
tral role of women in plant foraging and in horticulture” and “In the LBK
[Linear Band Keramik—ca. 5500-4500 B.C. in central Europe], the association
between women and cultivation is reinforced by the likelihood that intensively
managed plots were located near home.”

The small size of LBK communities suggests that many were not de-
mographically viable, with the implication that there must have been
considerable intermarriage between communities. Recent strontium
isotope work on human remains from LBK cemeteries in the Rhine
Valley appears to provide evidence for female migration and patri­
locality [Bogaard cites sources]. One possibility is that non-local fe­
males came from forager communities in the surrounding uplands.
Hidden Histories and Ancient Mysteries of Witches, Plants, and Fungi

Hiere is accompanying discussion on transfer, via women within and be­

tween communities, of foraging and horticultural skills.
If patrilocal exogamy was common, or if invasive and dominant cultures
appropriated women from subjected peoples, we can assume corresponding
transfer of womens ethnobotanical knowledge. This is important, given the
Indo-European “invasions” of the Bronze Age and the barbarian migrations of
the Roman period. Women appropriated or exchanged as wives, concubines,
or slaves would have transferred ethnobotanical skills between locales and
peoples. Such transfers would be of considerable importance because similar­
appearing plants and fungi from different geographic locales sometimes pos­
sess differing properties. Although the practices undoubtedly had devastating
impacts on the females uprooted from friends and families, the transfer of
plant lore to new societal associates probably had positive impacts on nutrition
and health.

Medicinal plants in ancient, medieval,

and premodern writings
The literature addressing ancient, medieval, and Renaissance botanical
knowledge is quite extensive, encompassing much beyond the discussion here,
but it is essential to recognize its extent and utility. An entertaining, well illus­
trated, and comprehensive treatment is available (Pavord 2005). The reliance of
early herbalists, especially in pre-modern Europe, on ethnobotanical knowl­
edge, has been repeatedly documented (Arber 1912; Dugan 2008a; Wear 2000).
There are several comprehensive reviews of specific eras or cultures: Scurlock
and Andersen (2005) list Assyrian and Babylonian sources. Works for classi­
cal through Renaissance traditions are provided by De Vos (2010) and Keezer
(1963); for Biblical and Rabbinic traditions by Jacob and Jacob (1993); for Byz­
antine works by Lardos et al. (2011); for Matthioli’s De Materia Medica (1568)
but also concisely addressing literature on much earlier Sumerian, Babylonian,
Assyrian, Egyptian, plus Hippocratic and other classical traditions and other
texts of the Renaissance by Leonti et al. (2010). Riddle (1981) compiled refer­
ences to medicinal plants from Pseudo-Dioscorides (based on Dioscorides, but
probably about sixth century A.D.) and subsequent medieval and later authors.
Lev (2002) addressed literature on materia medica in the medieval and Otto­
man Levant. For a summary of classical works referencing plant lore of the
Etruscans, see Harrison and Turfa (2010). See Mining the herbals for drug dis­
covery below. Women are sometimes explicitly depicted (Fig. 12).
 Deep Time of the Cunning Women 53

Individual plants and plant families in older literature. As documented

in the above section on grave goods, Achillea millefolium (yarrow) can be
regarded as a plant with plausibly ancient medicinal applications, and is
of continued medicinal relevance today (Applequist and Moerman 2011).
Rauchensteiner et al. (2004) noted that the ancient authors Dioscorides and
Pliny the Elder, authors of pertinent Old English texts (“ca. 950-1000 C.E.”),
and pre-modern herbalists (“Bock, Fuchs, Tabernaemontanus and ... their
successors”) all wrote about yarrow. Both Applequist and Moerman (2011)
and Rauchensteiner et al. (2004) have also elaborated on known ethnobotani-
cal uses. Several modern authors who have analyzed the treatment of yarrow
in early herbals are referenced by Chandler et al. (1982).
As for solanaceous plants, there can be little doubt of the antiquity of
the medicinal use of henbane. In addition to the archaeobotanical evidence
above, there are the writings of the Anglo-Saxons, who -1050 A.D. wrote of
and distinguished what we now know as Hyoscyamus reticulatus (hennebell)
of Mediterranean origin, but also H. niger (henbane), growing in England by
Anglo-Saxon times (Voigts 1979). Henbane was used in rituals conducted by
eleventh-century Hessian cunning women’ for rain-making. The rituals, in­
volving nudity of virgins, were not viewed with any favor by Church authori­
ties (Filotas 2005). Solanum dulcamara (woody nightshade) was putatively the
‘elleborus’ (although ‘elleborus’ was identified
with other solanaceous plants, too) used in Anglo-
Saxon medicine (Cameron 1993). Other solana­
ceous plants referenced in period manuscripts are
Atropa belladonna (deadly nightshade), and Man-
dragora officinalum (‘mandrake’—referenced in
Genesis 30:14-26 as exchanged between women,
and in Greco-Roman and medieval literature)
(Lee 2006a, 2006b). Mandrake also appears in an
Egyptian fresco (-1550-1350 B.C.), with text indi­
cating its use for “purification of nostrils” (Merlin
2003, with additional references on mandrake in
Egypt). As with other plants, archaeological con­
text does not always indicate usage.
Other solanaceous plants are highly problem­ Fig. 12. A 13th-century manuscript of Pseudo-Apuleius’s
Herbarium, depicting a pregnant woman with another
atic. Note the remarks of Prioresch (1998) on the
woman; the latter holds some pennyroyal herb and pre­
problem of identification of medicinal or poi­ pares a potion using mortar and pestle. Pennyroyal was
sonous solanaceous plants, termed trychnos or historically used as an abortifacient.
54 Hidden Histories and Ancient Mysteries of Witches, Plants, and Fungi

strychnos. These terms appear in Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and Pliny; the

term in the first two authors “probably included, according to the descriptions
of Pliny, wintercherry [possibly Solanum pseudocapsicum], black nightshade
[S. nigrum], thornapple [Datura spp.], deadly nightshade [Atropa belladonna],
and Physalis somnifera [Withania somnifera, also called ‘winter cherry’].” The
presence of thorn-apple in the Old World prior to the “discovery” of the Amer­
icas by European explorers is controversial (Geeta and Gharaibeh 2007, who
present evidence, largely text-based, for very early occurrence in Asia and the
Mediterranean). The impact of New World plants on the folklore of Europe
and some other portions of the Old World is reviewed in Mare’s Eggs and
Thorn-Apples, below. It should be noted that eggplant (Solanum melogena) is
an Old World plant, well established in European culinary traditions, but was
not known to the Greeks or Romans, and only entered Mediterranean coun­
tries in the seventh and eighth centuries via Muslim expansions of that era
(Daunay and Janick 2007).
Pulses also had culinary, medicinal, and ritual uses in ancient Mediterra­
nean cultures, and some were also toxic (Flint-Hamilton 1999). Arnott (2004)
summarizes a remedy for constipation from the Papyrus Ebers (Egyptian,
-1550 B.C.) using an herb “like beans from the Keftin land [Crete]” i.e., a pulse,
which might be Vida faba (broadbean) or Vigna unguiculata (cowpea), but
not Phaseolus (a New World bean). From ancient literary sources, pulses were
documented in a variety of ancient Greek rituals, e.g., in the Thargelia and the
Pyanopsia festivals in Attica, which “are probably earlier than the time of the
Bronze Age kings” (Simon 1983). Moreover, “the pulse [‘beans’ nuava], which
was offered at both festivals, is known as an extremely ancient offering, older
than the invention of bread-baking [in Greece]” (Simon 1983). Andrews (1949)
provided synopses of what is known from literary sources on the “Attic wor­
ship of a bean-god Cyamites, and taboos on beans associated with the Orphic
mysteries and the Eleusinian mysteries,” along with analogous information on
taboos and rituals involving beans in Roman custom and religion. Harrison
(1922), who delved as deeply as anyone could (at least prior to decipherment of
Linear B) into Greek religion, alludes to Cyamites as possessing meaning in the
rites at Eleusis and the sayings of Orpheus. Neither Harrison nor the concepts
of totem and taboo are as much in vogue among anthropologists as formerly,
but Andrews (1949) assembled an abundance of historical and anthropological
data, including rites “conducted in honor of the bean goddess Fabola or Fab-
ula.” What is interesting in these sources is the prominence of legumes in ritu­
als in which females played major roles, either as officiating persons or as the
goddesses invoked. Lupines (Lupinus spp., most probably especially L. albus)
 Deep Time of the Cunning Women

were used against epilepsy in Anglo-Saxon times, and may have been effective
because of their relatively high manganese content (Dendle 2001). Classical
authors however, familiar with lupine, did not remark on the use of lupine
against seizures. Note that pulses were not a major part of agronomic practice
in the Steppes homeland of the Indo-European peoples migrating into Europe
-2500 B.C., but within Europe were an inheritance from Balkan and Mediter­
ranean sources (Shadows of Works and Days, above).
Other plants deserving of mention because of their inclusion in classical,
medieval or premodern writings include mint species, nettles, St. John’s wort,
crocus, and gromwells. Mints (Mentha spp.) were grown in gardens in (or
about) the eleventh century as revealed in a manuscript on medicinal herbs,
e.g., M. spicata (Harvey 1987), and the same plant later appears in the me­
dieval gardens of Westminster Abbey (Harvey 1992b) and Mentha spp. were
noted for gardens in Moorish Spain (Harvey 1992a). Also, by the medieval and
premodern periods, nettles (Urtica spp.) were referenced in pharmacological
manuscripts (Jaric et al. 2011), as they had been in classical times (e.g., Pliny).
Keezer (1963) provided discussions of medicinal uses of St. John’s wort
(Hypericum perforatum) in classical and medieval times (including as phil­
tres concocted by witches, but also as “truth serum” administered to witches),
of mandrake (including references in Shakespeare), and of aconite (Aconitum
napellus, wolfsbane, monkshood, a highly toxic plant). Leonti (2011) used writ­
ings on St. John’s wort to illustrate how putative medicinal applications are not
necessarily consistent over time; although the plant itself is referenced in writ­
ings of Galen and Dioscorides, applications against depression appear only in
the eighteenth century. Riddle (1985) drew his readers’ attention to Dioscorides’
anti-tumor drug made from Crocus autumnale, and to present day Greek
folk medicine using the same species against cancer. Riddle (1985) also noted
Dioscorides’ remedies using narcissus against skin diseases, and hyacinth was
recognized as medicinal by the same author (Riddle 1981). And Lithosper-
mum species have a long history of medicinal uses. Dioscorides recommended
Lithospermum officinale (gromwell) against problems of the urogenital tract
(Touwaide et al. 1997) and it was used medicinally in the medieval and Otto­
man Levant (Lev 2002). Gromwell was a medicinal plant in thirteenth-century
England (Hunt 1990). It is therefore especially interesting that archaeobotani-
cal contexts suggest usage extending back to the Bronze Age (above).
The extent to which written texts impact folk knowledge, even in cultures
in which literacy is restricted, is subject to debate. Regarding the Geoponika,
a text on plant protection from Byzantine times. Rose (1933) noted that a good
deal of that text “can be paralleled from modern rustic ideas. It is one more
 56 Hidden Histories and Ancient Mysteries of Witches, Plants, and Fungi

proof that a vast proportion of what we call folklore is not really from the folk,
but has filtered down ... from men of greater learning if not greater sense.” Le­
onti et al. (2010) made a similar case for Campanian “traditional” plant knowl­
edge and Renaissance herbals (especially the herbal of Pietro Matthioli) and,
"even stronger may be the influence of more recent books and media.” Leonti
(2011) explored these themes, and their implications, in a wider context. “Not
only do biomedicine and folk medicine exist alongside one another... but they
also influence each other (Leonti 2011). Similar debates permeate studies of
folk and fairy tales, and the degree to which “traditional” knowledge of mod-
ern “wise-women” has been orally transmitted or has been
acquired through books or even online sources.
Conversely, even myth may impact scientific opinion.
An interesting, and probably extreme, example of the accep­
tance of the historicity of myth is the opinion of Gagnidze et
al. (2009) on Medea’s garden. The phrasing strongly implies
an acceptance of the reality of a historical Medea (Fig. 13),
as well as of her garden of medicinal plants. References are
made to literature analyzing the botanical composition of the
garden, nomenclature and biogeography of its constituent
flora, and implications for history and travels of ancient peo­
ples, including Argonaut-like voyages and mass migrations.
Nonetheless, as seen above, evidence indicates great an­
tiquity for ethnobotanical lore as indicated by Neolithic
rock art, ancient grave goods, and paleolinguistics. At what
point in classical or premodern times there began to be sig­
nificant exchange of botanical information between literate
and nonliterate sources is difficult to judge, but throughout
the Neolithic and most of Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe
such exchange was probably nonexistent. Significant ex­
changes probably began in Greco-Roman times, continued
in the medieval era, escalated with the advent of printing in
premodern Europe, and have no doubt continued unabated
Fig. 13. Medea at her cauldron, which con­ to the present.
tained herbs with the power of rejuvenation.
According to myth, Medea (second from
left) restored a dismembered ram to life. In Medicinal plants in folklore and folkways
this tale of betrayal and revenge, King Pelias
(far left) suffered a different fate when his Ethnobotanists have long concluded that, in general,
daughters (right) attempted the same (illus­ women have been the predominant gender worldwide with
tration from Pime 1879). regard to knowledge pertinent to foraging for plants (Szab6
 Deep Time of the Cunning Women 57

2003) (Fig. 14). For how long have women been the predominant source of
ethnobotanical expertise? Estimation of time depth of ethnobotanical lore
of “wise-women” in Europe is difficult, but some charms, such as the Anglo-
Saxon Nine Herbs Charm “invoke both Christ and Woden”, i.e., pagan origins
are implicit (Grendon 1909; Weston 1995). This is understandable in a histori­
cal context, and reinforced by archaeological context: The plants associated
with women in the Oseberg Ship burial and in the grave in Viking Fyrkat, and
the remains of herbs in graves of Anglo-Saxon “cunning women” mentioned
earlier. In the Hanes Taliesin, a medieval Welsh text with connotations of sha­
manism and sometimes considered part of the Welsh epic the Mabinogion, the
female witch Caridwen “boils a cauldron of herbs, the Cauldron of Inspiration
and Knowledge” (Hares-Stryker 1993).^° Women s plant knowledge seems very
plausibly implied in the context of pagan (pre-Christian) practice. Women’s
knowledge of many specific plants in medieval times has also sometimes been
documented in a Christian context, e.g., Hildegard of Bingen (born ca. 1108)
(Strehlow and Hertzka 1987).
One can find numerous references in European folktales
for gender roles. Women are associated with plant knowledge
in fairy tales or folktales from diverse areas of Europe. In the
well-known tale of Rapunzel and in a tale from Calvino (1980),
a witch or old woman punishes people who steal plants from
her garden. Fata Padouri is alternatively a witch or a lovely
girl, and possesses a garden of healing herbs; she, too, pun­
ishes those who raid her garden (Summers 1972). Old women
may be depicted as benign, e.g., the “wise woman” who “dealt
in potions and herbs and spells” in A Pottle O’ Brains (Jacobs
1894), the “old woman in the woods” who gives healing herbs
to the heroine named Goldilocks {not of Three Bears fame)
Fig. 14. Collecting plants from the wild
(Segerstedt 1891), or an old woman who provided “magic
remains an essential survival skill. A
herbs” to the hero in Waters of Youth, Life, and Death (Curtin
woman gathers herbs on a hillside near
1903). The “wise woman” in the Danish tale The Princess in the Bosphorus, 2012. (Courtesy of Ann
the Chest (Lang 1897) informs the queen how to find a plant. Marie Mershon, amershon.edublogs.org)

For the premodern and modern public, cauldrons were seen as standard equipment for
witches, and indeed they occur in stories of Caridwen (who is often portrayed with her
cauldron in nineteenth- and twentieth-century art) and of Medea. They were certainly
used for brewing of ritually consumed beverages in the myth and practice of Iron Age
Europe, and sometimes for sacrificial meals. However, the practice of seidur (a kind of
Norse magic) did not involve a cauldron, so it would be a mistake to perceive cauldrons
as ubiquitous witch paraphernalia (Bjarnadottir 2002).
58 Hidden Histories and Ancient Mysteries of Witches, Plants, and Fungi

which when ingested will guarantee pregnancy. The good Countess Helen uses
healing herbs to cure the suffering elf queen (The Three Goblets, Fryer 1908).
But the “Dark Daughter of the Norse King” knew and practiced black arts, and
“there was not a leaf on tree, bush or shrub, with whose properties she was
not acquainted” (Campbell 1895). In a twist, it is a wizard who has the magic
plant, but an old woman (who knows the plant s properties) and the hero ride
witchlike through the air on her poker to steal it, and restore the hero’s sweet­
heart to life (The Old Man’s Son in Byrde 2000). In Frankish society, plant
knowledge of women was well regarded, but if circumstances implied this
knowledge was allied to malignant charms, the woman incurred risk (Harper
2011; Wemple 1981). The “white witch” with knowledge of healing herbs was a
well-known fixture of society in premodern England (Wear 2000). The famous
Jacob Grimm (1983a, 1983b) had much to say regarding the plant wisdom of
herb wives and the injustice of their persecution.
From these and other examples from folklore, plant-lore among women has
a plausible time depth of at least hundreds of years. Greater time depth is im­
plied by folklore from classical antiquity, e.g., Virgil’s Georgies 3.282f, in which
“malevolent stepmothers ... mix in herbs and not unharmful spells”—a pos­
sible bit of folklore referring to love magic (Watson 1995). This sort of evidence
for the dominant role of women overlaps and reinforces that derived from the
studies of medieval folklore and witchcraft. Males, though not dominant, are
not excluded, e.g., the Sicilian tale of Uncle Peppi the herb-gatherer, or the Irish
tale of Lushmore, a man with “great knowledge of herbs” (Thompson 1968;
Zipes and Russo 2008). Most performers of seidur (Viking shamanism) other
than Odin himself, were women, but “a small group of men” were involved
(Price 2004). A detailed synopsis and numerous references for plants in fairy
tales, including references on witches and herbs, is Meinel (2000). Theoretical
aspects of the role of folk narrative in human evolution, especially as pertinent
to transmittal of knowledge on food and foraging by women, were presented
in Sugiyama (2001a, 2001b).
As in the section on literature, some plants in folklore are worthy of spe­
cial mention. As noted above, there is a word for ‘wild garlic’ in PIE, and gar­
lic itself, as well as onion, has its place in folklore as a deterrent to vampires.
However, “our current vampire image has its origin in the folklore and writ­
ings of eastern European countries beginning in the early 1700s” (Hampl and
Hampl 1997)51-c., its roots are seemingly not deep. However, long prior to the
eighteenth century, garlic probably was used in warding off evil. “An apotro-
paic function of the allium species is suggested by ... runic inscriptions ... of
 Deep Time of the Cunning Women 59

the Migration period from Denmark” (Fuglesang 1989, citing several sources).
Onions and leeks also had;

a magical function ... intimately related to, and probably derived

from, the plants’ use in Classical and Medieval medicine... However,
critical modern studies contradict interpretations of allium as an in­
gredient in a phallic cult, since the only reference for such usage is the
very late and novelistic story of the volsa, a horse phallus,... in the
late 14th century. (Fuglesang 1989, citing several sources)

But Shenk (2002, citing sources) documented instances wherein Viking

housewives wrapped severed horse penises “in onions and herbs” as a fertility
charm. Both humans and horses (especially stallions) can be grateful that this
latter folkloric rite did not persist.
Plants of the Angelica genus are referenced repeatedly in folklore. Although
it is hard to trace such lore to earlier than medieval times, Bhat et al. (2011)
commented, “Even though this herb is named in honor of a Christian angel
many Angelica Festivals are held in Livonia, East Prussia, and Pomerania, and
celebrated in a pagan manner, with dance and chanting of ancient ditties in
languages no longer understood.” This accords with the linguistic evidence
of ancient (early northwest Indo-European) recognition of the plant. Angel­
ica archangelica var. majorum was used as a vegetable by Vikings in upland
Scandinavia (Lundquist 2004). Whatever the earliest ethnobotanical contexts,
by medieval times Angelica species were used against “evil spirits and witch­
craft ... spells and enchantment” (Mathias 1994). “The folklore of all North
European countries depicts a common belief in their merits as a protection
against contagion, for purifying the blood, and for curing every conceivable
ailment” (Sarker and Nahar 2004). It was used against plague in the Middle
Ages (Mallory and Adams 1997). All parts of the plant were (and still are) used
for food or medicine, e.g., colds, flu, arthritis, headaches, etc. (Larsson and
Lundquist 2010; Sarker and Nahar 2004).
Nettles are also worthy of special mention. Nettles were one of the primary
medicinal plants in Scottish medieval folk medicine, conducted by “either a
man (‘cunning man’), but more usually a woman (‘cunning woman’), with a
practical knowledge of medicinal herbs” and were employed against insomnia,
diarrhea, and dropsy (MacLennan 2002). The plant was used not just for fiber
and medicine, but also for curdling milk for cheese, in beer and soup, and was
celebrated in verse (Pollington 2000).
Hidden Histories and Ancient Mysteries of Witches, Plants, and Fungi

Much of folklore on plants is not specifically directed to medicinal, culi­

nary, or other “practical” uses, but includes associations with the supernatu­
ral, with magic, or with romance (not mutually exclusive in the premodern
folk mind). Folkard (1884) and Thistleton-Dyer (1889) are comprehensive, if
somewhat dated, reviews of plant folklore, including much pertinent material
on trees. Hooke’s (2010) treatise, restricted to trees of Anglo-Saxon England,
is comprehensive for that place and period (embracing folklore, archaeologi­
cal, and literary aspects), and addresses the work of Graves (notably The White
Goddess, 1948, with several reprintings), whose work on trees and mistletoe
straddled folklore, mythology, and literature. Graves’ literary excavations
purportedly exposed hidden meanings of Druidic and pre-Druidic beliefs by
analysis of remnants of Druidic tree lore. If true, even in part (but which
part?), conclusions would pertain to ethnobotanical deep time. Although
Graves has more than once been hailed as a genius, with respect to The White
Goddess, “Linguists, paleographers and anthropologists have quarreled with
nearly every aspect of it” (Steiner i960).
Nonetheless, it is certainly true that plants were in the distant past viewed as
more than items of utility (culinary, medicinal, etc.) but were part of a wider
nature imbued with magic and power. Thorough description of this state of
mind and associated practices would far exceed the bounds of this review, but
readers should know that folklorists, anthropologists, and others have long
explored this aspect. An early and still very informative treatment is that of
Jacob Grimm, who documented many religious and folkloristic beliefs and
practices regarding trees, most especially oak, ash, rowan, hazel, elder, juni­
per, and alder, but also the mythological “world tree” Yggdrasil, and sacred
groves of trees (Grimm 1883b). Herbs were likewise connected to the world
of magic and supernatural beings. “Many herbs and flowers are named after
gods ... The god produced the plant, or he uses it, he loves it, [or] he loathes it”
(Grimm 1883c, emphasis in the original). Plants singled out for special mention
include Artemisia, Aconitum (wolf bane), mandrake and henbane of course,
and mistletoe, included among the herbs. Detailed were special practices for
picking of herbs (using the left hand, being unshod, avoiding touching the root
with iron, etc.) and other customs (Grimm 1883c). A catalog of some fifteen
pages provided from literature listed healing plants associated with saints,
deities and mythological beings, and gave names of the relevant saints and
mythological figures, names of whom was healed, and other information from
myth and legend (Grimm 1888).
There is in Grimm (1888) brief discussion of “the sacred bough” from Virgil’s
Aeneid. This most famous of all references to magical plants was subsequently
 Deep Time of the Cunning Women 61

used as Frazer’s (1955) title, The Golden Bough, a multivolume work document­
ing more extensively than any other single work, before or since, folk cus­
tom and belief worldwide, including magic and superstition involving plants.
Frazer’s work is so monumental (and, from the standpoint of anthropological
theory, dated) that no attempt is made to further address it here, but see Ves­
tiges of Vanished Gods below. Frazer’s own single-volume abridgement is still
in print and readily available.
Extensive use of herbs was much a part of European paganism, so it is
no surprise that early ecclesiastics, in their attempts to convert pagan popu­
lations, repeatedly documented herbal magic. However, “Pastoral authors
concentrated on suspect practices associated with herbs rather than on the
herbs themselves... condemning] only the observances and spells with which
medicinal herbs were gathered, insisting that only the Creed and the Lord’s
Prayer were acceptable” (Filotas 2005). Indeed, the words and spells (charms)
accompanying gathering of plants mattered greatly to clergy and laity alike.
The literature on the topic is extensive. As an example, readers are encouraged
to examine Pollington (2000) on the role of plants in European traditions of
“Magico-Medicine” as well as Pollington’s (2000) translations of old English
texts and their catalogs of plants. Indeed, some of these texts remain of interest
for what they might convey about pharmaceutical uses.

Mining the herbals for drug discovery

It is generally argued that in the last 20-30 years no new drugs were
developed from ethnobotanical leads ... and that important findings
are hardly to be expected because ... low-hanging fruits have already
been picked ... This is, however, not entirely true since the alkaloid
galanthamin, first isolated from Galanthus spp. (Amaryllidaceae)
was launched as an Alzheimer Disease treatment in 1996 under the
name Nivalin®. (Leonti 2011)

Notwithstanding this and maybe with the golden days of ethnophar-

macology in mind, ethnobotanists from Europe and elsewhere often
indiscriminately and overoptimistically ... keep alive the romantic
tale alluding to the relevance for drug discovery ... Also, political
issues like intellectual property rights and the convention on biologi­
cal diversity (CBD) deter entities from bio prospecting and screen­
ing of terrestrial sources. It has, however, been suggested, that the
62 Hidden Histories and Ancient Mysteries of Witches, Plants, and Fungi

evaluation of drugs and diets described in ancient texts with modern

biomedical methods and targets could be a promising approach for
the discovery of new drugs and biochemical tools [several sources
cited]. (Leonti 2011)

That successful mining of herbals should often be proprietary is not sur­

prising, but some early success stories are found in literature, e.g., “the isola­
tion of salicin and the eventual synthesis of‘A Spirea n’ or aspirin” from John
Gerards description of the medicinal properties oi Filipendula (Spirea) (Cox
1998). Since publication of the Herball, 18 different pharmaceuticals have been
derived from plants Gerard described” (Cox 1998). “Studying careful compila­
tions of folk knowledge such as Gerard s Herball, screening of medicinal plant
extracts against specific bioassays ... and bioassay-guided fractionation and
isolation of pure compounds remains a very powerful approach” (Cox 1998).
Watkins et al. (2011), in a review of the Anglo-Saxon pharmacopoeia, note the
effectiveness of matricin from Achillea millefolium, with an activity “similar to
that of ibuprofen.” The medical effectiveness of chemicals derived from Anglo-
Saxon plants in the Lamiaceae (mint family), the Solanaceae, and others are
noted, with the conclusion that “the texts could therefore provide further in­
sights into additional pharmacological compounds from native British plants”
(Watkins et al. 2011).
Although one might anticipate that most medicinal plants in old herbals
would by modern times have been thoroughly investigated, this is not neces­
sarily so. Highly detailed comparison of the “present day herbal pharmaco­
poeia according to the NIH [National Institutes of Health]” with more an­
cient materia medica of the Dioscoridean tradition” revealed that “the most
prominent simples [single plant remedies] in the European/Mediterranean
medical tradition can provide clues to further bioactive compounds that have
as of yet not been fully exploited for their potential, but were clearly of great
use in the past (De Vos 2010). The medicinal use of plant resins and gums as
documented in iatrosophia texts (medical handbooks of Byzantine origin) was
analyzed by Lardos et al. (2011) who concluded that “where relevant scientific
data are available, we generally found a confirmation ... [of] rational use of
the associated remedies and that “the iatrosophia are a valuable resource for
ethnopharmacological and natural product research.” Several such gums and
resins were those encountered in very ancient times, e.g., terebinth resin. The
latter was a common additive to ancient wine (Dugan 2009), but McGovern
et al. (2010) concentrated on the anticancer potential of other wine additives.
 Deep Time of the Cunning Women 63

based on plants such as Artemisa (wormwood, mugwort), Salvia (sage), and

Thymus (thyme), all from the Egyptian tradition, ca. 3150 B.C.
Buenz et al. (2004), viewed old herbals as valuable alternatives “as genera­
tional losses of traditional knowledge accrue.” The authors described methods
for systematically exploiting this older literature via subjecting digitized text
to certain automated algorithms, enabling systematic conversion of
old names to modern scientific names, linkage of names with dis­
orders, symptoms and current literature, and specification of plant
taxa warranting further investigation. Centuries of evolution in bo­
tanical and medical terminology necessitate the use of semantic li­
braries. Results generate candidates for high-throughput screening.
Probably the most famous (and early) instance of “mining” me­ Ailitev
dieval and premodern writings for drug discovery is the case of
ergot (Fig. 15). Wellcome (1908) tells the story admirably. There are
many intriguing references to midwives in relation to ergot. That
premodern midwives were familiar with the properties of ergot
in relation to both abortion and promotion of contractions in the
birth process is well documented (e.g.. Riddle 1997; Wellcome 1908).
This familiarity may be ancient in some instances. “In Syria, ergot
appears to have been employed in folk-medicine from a period of
antiquity, and was known by the curious but suggestive name of
‘Daughter of Blood’” (Wellcome 1908).^*

Available germplasm
Several plants for which there is ample evidence of medicinal
use from the most ancient times are available, and are currently free
of charge to bona fide researchers from the National Plant Germ-
plasm System (NPGS) via the Germplasm Resources Information
Network (GRIN) www.ars-grin.gov/npgs (Table 1). Plants produc­
ing illegal narcotics or functioning as highly invasive species are
not routinely available via NPGS. Some bulb-forming plants, such
as crocus, hyacinth, and narcissus, are omitted from the list due to
their ready availability in retail outlets.
Fig. 15. An early representation of
ergot, from 1578 (from Wellcome
1908). The sclerotia are depicted as
According to Youngken (1947), in addition to tenth-century Arab references, being of the same length as the awns,
there are references “at an early date” in China to midwives using ergot. but thicker.
Hidden Histories and Ancient Mysteries of Witches, Plants, and Fungi
Table 1. Selected taxa documented as medicinal
and available via NPGS.
Angelica spp.
Black cumin {Nigella sativa)
Common mallow
{Malm sylvestris)
Ephedra {Ephedra spp.)
Filipendula
Cromwell {Lithospermum spp.)
Henbane {Hyamoscyamus niger)
Mint {Mentha spp.)
Nettle {Urtica dioica)
St. John’s Wort
{Hypericum perforatum)
Wild garlic {Allium spp.)
Yarrow {Achillea millefolium)
GRIN has accessions of 28 species,
including A. archangelica (medicinal)
Twenty-nine accessions in GRIN
(medicinal)
Twelve accessions in GRIN (mostly
European)
Eight taxa available in GRIN (Old World
+ American, medicinal)
GRIN has a small number of accessions
for three species (medicinal, ornamental)
Four taxa available in GRIN (ornamental
and medicinal)
Available in GRIN (13 accessions from
the US and Europe)
GRIN has accessions in 37 species
(culinary, medicinal, ornamental)
GRIN has three accessions (Georgia and
United States)
GRIN has over 75 accessions (medicinal)
GRIN has numerous accessions
(culinary, medicinal, ornamental)
GRIN has over 30 accessions, mostly
from the US (medicinal)
 Hidden Histories and
Ancient Mysteries of
Witches, Plants, and Fungi

Frank Matthews Dugan

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service
Western Regional Plant Introduction Station
Washington State University, Pullman

The American Phytopathological Society

St. Paul, Minnesota

UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO

Table of Contents

Precis ............................................................................................................... vii

Shadows of Works and Days:

A revised history of cereals, legumes, and their pathogens
from Neolithic through premodern Europe..................................... 1
Introduction: Beyond Hesiod .......................................................................... 1
Nemesis: Plant pathogenic fungi in medieval and premodern Europe.......... 2
Vexing vetch: Pulses, poisons, and language ................................................. 12
What is Pre-Greek for ‘lentil’ and why should we care? ............................... 20
Famine, foraging, and foragers ........................................................................ 30
Conclusions....................................................................................................... 34

Deep Time of the Cunning Women:

Origins, evolution, and exploitation of ethnobotany
in Europe and the Mediterranean...................................................... 37
Introduction: Conjectures and caveats............................................................. 37
Archaeobotanical and archeological evidence................................................. 38
Linguistic evidence............................................................................................ 47
Was ethnobotanical lore transferred by patrilocalexogamy? ......................... 51
Medicinal plants in ancient, medieval and premodern writings.................... 52
Medicinal plants in folklore and folkways....................................................... 56
Mining the herbals for drug discovery............................................................. 61
Available germplasm.......................................................................................... 63

Mare’s Eggs and Thorn-Apples:

Potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, maize, and other American
plants in European folktales and other folkways ........................... 65
Introduction: Tale types and motifs ................................................................. 65
Tobacco ............................................................................................................. 66
The potato ......................................................................................................... 70
The tomato..........................................................................................................74
VI Table of Contents

Capsicum peppers.............................................................................................. 75
Maize ..................................................................................................................77
Common bean {Phaseolus vulgaris) ................................................................. 81
Squash and pumpkin ........................................................................................ 83
Thorn-apple........................................................................................................ 85
DifFusionist controversies ................................................................................ 86
Conclusions........................................................................................................ 96

Kitchen Witches:
Facts, folklore and fakelore on the transfiguration
of the herb-women...............................................................................101
Introduction: Roots of tradition and seeds of commerce........................... 101
Women and the garden ................................................................................. 102
Literacy: A gate leading to plant resources................................................... 103
But another gate closes: Enclosure and deforestation................................. 105
Seeds and seedsmen........................................................................................ 109
Herbs bottled,people pilled, hokum swilled ................................................. Ill
Herbal traditions: Exploring the past or inventing it? ..................................113
Herbal Renaissance: A new cyber synthesis................................................... 118

Vestiges of Vanished Gods:

Plants and agriculture in the calendars and customs
of Northwest Europe .......................................................................... 123
Introduction: How pagan is our plant lore?................................................... 123
Crops, cattle, and combustion: The fire festivals ........................................... 124
Leaves and trees: Offerings traditional and forbidden ..................................133
Other customs: Living relics in a modern world?....................................... 135
Higher leaves and deeper roots....................................................................... 136
Vrizer's hte: The Gold-Plated Bough?............................................................. 138

Postscript....................................................................................................... 141

Literature Cited .......................................................................................... 143

Index 175