Psychedelics Chapter 2 - Global History of Psychedelics

Alcohol in the Levant (where)

• The earliest archaeological evidence of intentional alcohol fermentation and brewing dates back 15,000 to 11,500 years ago in the ancient Levant (an eastern Mediterranean region encompassing modern-day Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Palestine [West Bank and Gaza Strip], Cyprus, and Hatay Province in southern Turkey).

The 'Red Lady of El Mirón'

• Upper Paleolithic burial of a woman found in El Mirón Cave in Cantabria, northern Spain. Dental calculus (tartar) analysis revealed preserved mushroom spores trapped inside her teeth, indicating the direct ingestion of mushrooms by European hunter-gatherers during the late Magdalenian period.

Tassili n'Ajjer Cave Paintings (Algeria, North Africa,

• Mesolithic/Neolithic rock art located in the Sahara Desert depicting anthropomorphic figures with botanical imagery. Most famous is the 'bee-faced mushroom shaman' (rendered by Kat Harrison-McKenna), showing a figure holding mushrooms and surrounded by mushroom effigies sprouting from the body.

Maya Mushroom Stones

• Carved stone effigies standing approximately one foot tall discovered across Guatemala and southern Mesoamerica. Prominently discovered at the Maya ruins of Kaminaljuyu in Guatemala, dating back 2,500 years, where they were utilized in ceremonial contexts to prepare and consecrate mixtures of psychedelic mushrooms (Psilocybe spp.).

Soma (Rigveda, Ancient India,

• A divine ritual drink and deity revered in Vedic Sanskrit hymns. Prepared by pressing the stalks/juice of a sacred plant. Widely hypothesized by ethnomycologists (e.g., R. Gordon Wasson) to be derived from the fly-agaric mushroom (Amanita muscaria) or other psychoactive botanicals.

Ötzi the Iceman (Tyrol, Austria/Italy Alps

• A remarkably preserved natural mummy discovered in the Ötztal Alps. In his stomach and personal traveling gear, researchers discovered birch polypore mushrooms (Fomitopsis betulina / Piptoporus betulinus), known for medicinal, anti-parasitic (anti-whipworm), and laxative properties.

Peyote in the Shumla Caves (Texas, USA,

• Definitive archaeological discovery of manufactured peyote effigies/buttons found in the Shumla Caves along the lower Pecos River in Texas, radiocarbon-dated to 3780–3660 BCE. Chemical analysis confirmed the presence of active alkaloids containing approximately 2% mescaline, proving ceremonial North American peyote use spanned over five millennia.

DMT & Snuff Tubes in Peru

• Archaeological excavation of bone and wood snuff tubes dating to 1200 BCE in ancient Peru used for the insufflation of tobacco and vilca (hallucinogenic seeds from the Anadenanthera genus containing DMT and 5-MeO-DMT/bufotenine).

Iboga Ceremonial Roots (Gabon, Central Africa,

Kykeon & The Eleusinian Mysteries (Ancient Greece):

• The sacred psychoactive brew consumed by initiates at the secret Eleusinian Mysteries held in Eleusis to celebrate Demeter and Persephone. Classical scholars and ethnobotanists theorize the active entheogen was an ergot derivative (Claviceps paspali/purpurea containing water-soluble ergot alkaloids related to LSD), a psilocybin mushroom preparation, or a DMT compound.

The Florentine Codex (Mesoamerica, ~1529 CE)

• A comprehensive 12-volume encyclopedic ethnographic treatise compiled by Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún documenting Aztec society, culture, and religion in post-conquest Mexico. It explicitly details ceremonial indigenous use of teonanácatl ('flesh of the gods' / sacred psilocybin mushrooms), peyote, and sacred seeds.