Johannesburg - Clay pipe fragments excavated from William Shakespeare's Stratford-upon-Avon home, and of the 17th century period, show conclusively that cocaine and myristic acid - a hallucinogenic derived from plants, including nutmeg - were smoked in Shakespeare's England.
The findings, published in the latest issue of the South African Journal of Science, also show hints of residues of cannabis or marijuana, but this has not been proven.
"The cocaine was found in two of the 24 pipe fragments examined, which is really quite remarkable," Dr Francis Thackeray, a palaeontologist at the Transvaal Museum in Pretoria who co-wrote the article, said.