I hope that what I have reported here will encourage scholars to consider the wider interpretative spectra of plant remains such as darnel and coriander that are encountered in textual and archaeological contexts of the ancient Near Eastern and Mediterranean world . The same applies to the analysis of fruits such as pomegranates in the material and iconographic record as well. The study of human relationships with these plants is all too often limited to their culinary, organoleptic (as in perfumes) or medicinal purposes and fails to consider their potential use as intoxicants. For example, the recipes for "perfumed oils," as studied by Cynthia Shelmerdine (1985), could have been taken orally, and not only applied to bodies, clothes and statues: a possibility that to my knowledge has not been proposed so far. The answer to this question is complex and involves a critical re-examination of the current concepts of "perfume", "perfume oils", "unguents", "perfume containers," etc., which are often used to label large groups of material and literary findings, an undertaking that would benefit from close collaboration between archaeologists and ethnobotanists. Evidence of the use of psychoactive plants in ancient times tends to evoke associations with modern drug abuse in urban societies. But the modern use of psychoactive substances by traditional societies, as known from ethnographic and anthropological studies, offers a better parallel to ancient drug consumption. Intoxicating plants continue to be used in ritual contexts by various ethnic groups today for reasons that are anything but profane; namely, for purposes of spiritual experience, healing, initiation, instruction and divination (Samorini 2012). In these societies , psychoactive plants tend to be seen as a sacred gift from the gods that enables people to communicate with creator beings. This gift is all the more precious because of the belief that such plants constitute the food of the gods. Thus, who ever partakes of this food participates in the divine essence in some way, be it furious, peaceful or ecstatic, depending on the divinity involved, but also on the type of intoxicant (Samorini 2016b).