With that pic, do you think that the makers of Damascus influenced the psychedelic movement of the 1960's?
This time you may actually be on to something...I read years ago ...When a meteor shower in Northern Canada (c1960) triggered an ergot blight on the winter rye/wheat crops, the Canadian government bailed out the Farmers that were hit hardest. Shortly afterwards, a MIT researcher was plotting where and when the Earth's rotation was positioned as it traveled through the very same asteroid field in decades and centuries past, when people were forced to eat the crops anyway. This led new understandings of the Salem witch trials. Now I hear researchers have linked ergot poisoning to the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition as well. Many historians scoffed at the concept until autopsies of medieval corpses showed the theory to be correct in a few cases.
Then only about 4 years ago, I also read that a naturally occurring hallucinogenic compound in the gaseous state (not known to chemists) was discovered leaking from cracks in the rock floor of the dungeon that held the Oracle(s) of Delphi for over 1000 years.
We are just beginning to understand the role of ergot poisoning and human history...if it turns out that mingled or watered steel is someday connected, I won't be suprised, but I will remember that Raimey suggested it first
PS ...ergot mold is where LSD was first derived from
