ABSTRACT
Magical potions have been present in human culture ever since humans started to brew herbs and animal skins, taste fermented drinks or cook mushroom, rotten wheat or worms. In the Neolithic burial chamber Barclodiad y Gawres (c. 2000 bc) in north-western Wales, the following brew has been identi ed:
e central area contained the remains of a re onto which had been poured ‘a strange stew consisting of wrasse, eel, frog, toad, grass-snake, mouse, shrew & hare’, then covered with limpet shells and pebbles. e signi cance of this ceremony is unknown.1
