What’s going on out on the land?
Materia Magica for Mullein (Verbascum thapsus)
What is a Materia Magica you ask? I guess it is bit of a cultural history of diverse not-so-physical uses of a plant. You’ve likely heard of a Materia Medica, you know, the notes describing the medicinal uses over time of a specific plant? This is like that, but less mundane. This one is all about Mullein.
More from Star Carr
Star Carr is a Mesolithic/middle stone age archeological site found in what is now North Yorkshire in England. The site was likely inhabited a few centuries after the end of the last major ice age of the Pleistocene, at the beginning of the warmer, post-glacial Holocene 11,500 yrs ago, around 9300-8500 BCE (about 800 years of occupation at the site), when Britain still attached to rest Europe by a landbridge (folks would have been able to walk from Star Carr to Denmark, or Northern Germany until about 6,200 BCE).
I wrote previously a short piece about the skull and antler pieces found at Star Carr and since have been so intrigued I wanted to learn more. So I am writing this post just to help organize what I know so far.