The Vikings had an outstanding knowledge of which plants could be utilized for what, some could be used to cure diseases and alleviate pain, whilst others were intoxicants, like cannabis.
In 1904, a Viking grave was uncovered with the bodies of 2 older women in the ship. One of the women was buried with a leather satchel and inside the satchel was cannabis. It is purely speculative, but researchers suggest that either the elderly woman was in extreme pain from illness and used cannabis for relief, or was a spiritual leader and used cannabis for religious rituals. Either way, the discovery of cannabis dating back to 834 AD shows that ancient civilizations used marijuana as part of their everyday life. End prohibition and let us have our healing plant.
The Oseberg mound dates back to 834 AD, and is the richest Viking burial ground that has ever been discovered. It was dug up in the year of 1904, and consisted of a Viking ship with two women in it, a young person around 50 years old, and an elderly person between the ages of 70 and 80. They brought with them seven beds, several woven tapestries, a richly decorated chariot, and four horse sleighs. There were also animal bones discovered from 14 or 15 horses, four dogs, a cow, a bull, a red-breasted merganser, and a Eurasian woodcock. The objects were very well preserved bearing in mind how long they had been buried.
The older woman was holding a leather sack that has received a lot of attention because of its contents. She would have suffered from a lot of pain because of her illness, and it is speculated that the cannabis that was discovered in her sack was used as a painkiller. Given her possible status as a religious leader, it may have had spiritual connotations and been used in rituals.
The Vikings had an outstanding knowledge of which plants could be utilized for what, some could be used to cure diseases and alleviate pain, whilst others were intoxicants, like cannabis.
There is another possible explanation for the cannabis discovered within the Oseberg ship; in the Viking Age people used hemp to create rope and clothes, it might have been intended for the women to use the cannabis in the afterlife as a building material.
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