The Oldest Evidence of Psychedelics in The Andes Predates The Inca
In the Peruvian Andes, thousands of years ago, humans were making liberal use of psychoactive drugs.
We know this for a fact: For the first time, direct chemical evidence of these drugs has been found, in residual traces left on the paraphernalia used for their consumption. It's the earliest known human use of psychoactive drugs in the Andes.
That use was by a culture known as the Chavín who inhabited the region during the Middle-Late Formative Period between around 1200 and 400 BCE, before the rise of the Incan Empire.
What's even more interesting is that it seems to have been a pastime of only the cultural elite, since the bone tubes used to imbibe the drugs were found in private chambers that only a few people could enter at a time.
"Taking psychoactives was not just about seeing visions," says anthropological archaeologist Daniel Contreras of the University of Florida. "It was part of a tightly controlled ritual, likely reserved for a select few, reinforcing the social hierarchy."
Human shenanigans are not a new phenomenon. We've been tattooing ourselves, modifying our bodies, and enjoying mind- and mood-altering substances for thousands of years. Nowadays, the use of psychoactive drugs is broadly frowned upon, but in eons past, very different cultural contexts were at play.
From various global archaeological sites around the world, scientists have found evidence of the use of psychoactive substances dating back thousands of years. In South America, these substances are hypothesized to have played an important role in rituals around the Middle-Late Formative Period, but evidence has been scarce.
Recently, at the ancient ceremonial site of Chavín de Huántar in the Andes, archaeologists found 23 artifacts – mostly bone tubes – that have been linked to the use of psychoactive substances elsewhere in the region. Led by archaeologist John Rick of Stanford University, a team of scientists set about investigating what they were.
They took samples from the 23 artifacts – 22 made of bone and one of mollusk shell – and subjected them to organic chemical residue analysis to try to identify what the substances were. On some of the artifacts were clear traces of wild tobacco (Nicotiana) and vilca (Anadenanthera colubrina var. cebil), which contains a hallucinogen related to DMT.
The team also identified damage to the starch grains recovered from the interiors of the tubes that was consistent with dry heat – suggesting that the nicotine roots and vilca beans were dried, roasted, and powdered as preparation for inhalation.
The context in which the tools were discovered is strongly suggestive of exclusivity, the researchers say. They were found in a rectangular chamber that was built early in the first millennium BCE, around 3,000 years ago, and was completely sealed in around 500 BCE. It remained undisturbed until recent excavations.
The chamber was pretty small, and would have had restricted access. It also contained artifacts, such as ceramic vessels, that could be associated with ceremonial activity. Other, similar chambers had similar artifacts, including a chamber that also contained bone tubes.
Put together, this evidence suggests that the use of psychoactive substances was an important part of ritual activity at Chavín de Huántar, and that access to the spaces wherein it was conducted was also restricted.
It's a discovery that helps researchers understand how Chavín de Huántar, a large, grand monument at high altitudes over 3,000 meters (10,000 feet) came to be built, and the role it played in the transition from more egalitarian societies that existed before to the rigidly hierarchical systems that came after.
"The supernatural world isn't necessarily friendly, but it's powerful. These rituals, often enhanced by psychoactives, were compelling, transformative experiences that reinforced belief systems and social structures," Contreras explains.
"One of the ways that inequality was justified or naturalized was through ideology – through the creation of impressive ceremonial experiences that made people believe this whole project was a good idea."
Times have changed, indeed.
The research has been published in PNAS.
Scientists Reveal What Happens in Your Brain When You Read
'Hugely Significant' Stone Circles in Scotland Suggest Early Human Arrival
Surprisingly Advanced Ancient Spear Tip Was Not Made by Modern Humans
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CNN
an hour ago
- CNN
AI analysis of ancient handwriting gives new age estimates for Dead Sea Scrolls
Many of the Dead Sea Scrolls, some of the most widely known archaeological finds of all time, may be older than once thought, according to a new study. The fresh analysis, which paired radiocarbon dating with artificial intelligence, determined some of the biblical manuscripts date to about 2,300 years ago, when their presumed authors lived, said Mladen Popović, lead author of the report published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One. Bedouin shepherds first spotted the scrolls by chance in the Judaean Desert, near the Dead Sea, in 1947. Archaeologists then recovered thousands of fragments belonging to hundreds of manuscripts from 11 caves, all near the site of Khirbat Qumran in what is now the West Bank. 'The Dead Sea Scrolls were extremely important when they were discovered, because they completely changed the way we think about ancient Judaism and early Christianity,' said Popović, who is also dean of the Faculty of Religion, Culture and Society at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. 'Out of around 1,000 manuscripts, a bit more than 200 are what we call biblical Old Testament, and they are the oldest copies we have of the Hebrew Bible. They gave us a lot of information about what the text looked like back then.' The scrolls are like a time machine, according to Popović, because they let scholars see what people were reading, writing and thinking at the time. 'They are physical, tangible evidence of a period of history that is crucial — whether you're Christian, Jewish or don't believe at all, because the Bible is one of the most influential books in the history of the world, so the scrolls allow us to study it as a form of cultural evolution,' he said. Almost none of the Dead Sea Scrolls — which were written mostly in Hebrew on parchment and papyrus — have dates on them. Based primarily on paleography, the study and deciphering of ancient writing and manuscripts, scholars have believed the manuscripts range from the third century BC to the second century AD. 'But now, with our project, we have to date some manuscripts already to the end of the fourth century BCE,' he said, meaning that the earliest scrolls could be up to 100 years older than previously thought. 'That's really exciting because it opens up new possibilities to think about how these texts were written and how they moved to other users and readers — outside of their original authors and their social circles,' Popović added. The findings will not only inspire further studies and affect historical reconstructions, according to the authors of the report, but will also unlock new prospects in the analysis of historical manuscripts. Earlier estimates of the manuscripts' age came from radiocarbon dating conducted in the 1990s. Chemist Willard Libby developed this method — used to ascertain the age of organic materials — in the late 1940s at the University of Chicago. Also known as carbon 14 dating, a chemical analysis of a sample, such as a fossil or manuscript, determines the quantity of carbon 14 atoms it contains. All living organisms absorb this element, but it starts to decay as soon as death occurs, so looking at how much is left can give a fairly accurate age of an organic specimen as old as about 60,000 years. Carbon dating has downsides, however. The analyzed sample is destroyed during the process, and some results can be misleading. 'The problem with earlier tests (on the scrolls) is that they didn't address the issue of castor oil,' Popović said. 'Castor oil is a modern invention, and it was used in the 1950s by the original scholars to make the text more legible. But it's a modern contaminant, and it skews the radiocarbon result to a much more modern date.' The study team first used new radiocarbon dating, applying more modern techniques, on 30 manuscripts, which revealed that most of them were older than previously thought. Only two were younger. The researchers then used high-resolution images of these newly dated documents to train an AI they developed, called Enoch after the Biblical figure who was the father of Methuselah. The scientists presented Enoch with more documents they had carbon-dated, but withheld the dating information, and the AI correctly guessed the age 85% of the time, according to Popović. 'In a number of cases, the AI even gave a narrower date range for the manuscripts than the carbon 14 did,' he said. Next, Popović and his colleagues fed Enoch more images from 135 different Dead Sea Scrolls that were not carbon-dated and asked the AI to estimate their age. The scientists rated the results as 'realistic' or 'unrealistic,' based on their own paleographic experience, and found that Enoch had given realistic results on 79% of the samples. Some of the manuscripts in the study were found to be 50 to 100 years older than formerly thought, Popović said. One sample from a scroll known to contain verse from the Book of Daniel was once believed to date to the second century BC. 'That was a generation after the original author,' Popović said, 'and now with the carbon 14, we securely move it (further back) to the time of the author.' Another manuscript, with verses from the Book of Ecclesiastes, also dates older, Popović added. 'The manuscript was previously dated on paleographic grounds to 175 to 125 BCE, but now Enoch suggests 300 to 240 BCE,' he said. Eventually, artificial intelligence could supplant carbon 14 as a method of dating manuscripts, Popović suggested. 'Carbon 14 is destructive,' he said, 'because you need to cut off a little piece of the Dead Sea Scroll, and then it's gone. It's only 7 milligrams, but it's still stuff that you lose. With Enoch, you don't have to do any of this. This a first step. There are all sorts of possibilities to improve Enoch further.' If the team pushes forward with Enoch's development, Popović believes it could be used to assess scripts such as Syriac, Arabic, Greek and Latin. Scholars who were not involved with the study were encouraged by the findings. Having both AI and an enhanced carbon 14 dating method allows a level of calibration across both methodologies that is helpful, according to Charlotte Hempel, a professor of Hebrew Bible and Second Temple Judaism at the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. 'The pronounced pattern seems to be that AI offers a narrower window within the Carbon 14 window,' she said via email. 'I wonder whether this suggests a higher level of precision, which would be extremely exciting.' The study represents a first attempt to harness AI technology to extend existing scientific knowledge from carbon 14 dating of certain manuscripts to other manuscripts, said Lawrence H. Schiffman, Global Distinguished Professor of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at New York University. 'To some extent, it is not yet clear whether or not the new method will provide us with reliable information on texts that have not yet been Carbon-14 dated,' he added via email. 'The interesting comments regarding revision of the dating of some manuscripts that may be expected through further development of this approach or new carbon-14 dating, while not new to this study, constitute a very important observation about the field of Dead Sea Scrolls in general.' Commenting on the computational aspects of the study, Brent Seales, the Alumni Professor of Computer Science at the University of Kentucky, said the approach taken by the authors seems rigorous even if the sample sizes are small. Using AI to completely replace carbon dating may be premature, however. '(AI) is a useful tool to incorporate into the broader picture, and to make estimates in the absence of Carbon-14 based on the witness of other similar fragments,' Seales wrote in an email. 'Like everything with machine learning, and like a fine wine, it should get better over time and with more samples. The dating of ancient manuscripts is an extremely difficult problem, with sparse data and heavy constraints on access and expertise. Bravo to the team for this data-driven contribution that takes a massive step forward.'
Gizmodo
2 days ago
- Gizmodo
Upcoming Telescope Predicted to Discover Millions of Hidden Solar System Objects
With 3.2 billion pixels and a decade-long search, the Rubin Observatory will reveal what's been hiding in plain sight. A new observatory perched high in the Chilean Andes is about to blow the lid off our solar system—and scientists say it's going to be like switching from a black-and-white TV to 4K color. The National Science Foundation and Department of Energy project, the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, is slated to begin operations later this year. Armed with the largest digital camera ever built for astronomy and a sweeping, ultra-sensitive telescope, the observatory is expected to discover millions of previously unknown asteroids, comets, and other planetary leftovers—some of which venture uncomfortably close to our own planet. Now, researchers led by Meg Schwamb at Queen's University Belfast have developed an open-source software program, Sorcha, that predicts the discoveries that Rubin may make. The papers describing the software and the associated predictions are available on the preprint server arXiv. The team estimates that Rubin will triple the number of known near-Earth objects (NEOs) from about 38,000 to 127,000, detect ten times more trans-Neptunian objects than currently cataloged, and provide colorful, detailed observations of over 5 million main-belt asteroids (up from about 1.4 million). 'With this data, we'll be able to update the textbooks of solar system formation and vastly improve our ability to spot—and potentially deflect—the asteroids that could threaten Earth,' said Mario Juric, a member of the team and an astronomer at the University of Washington, in a university release. Sorcha models the solar system's current structure, then projects what Rubin is likely to see, based on its planned observations. It's the first end-to-end simulator for Rubin, meaning that it models expectations from simulated photons of light from distant sources to the expected science to come from those findings. The Rubin Observatory's secret weapon is its 3.2-gigapixel LSST camera, which can scan an area roughly 45 times the area of the full Moon each night. In less than a week, the camera can survey the entire night sky, and over the next decade, it'll produce a cosmic time-lapse comprising 20 terabytes of nightly data. Rubin's data will help scientists piece together how our solar system formed and evolved. The predicted stats are staggering: 127,000 NEOs, 109,000 Jupiter Trojans, 37,000 distant Kuiper Belt objects, and more. Rubin will find them all in color and motion, revealing spin rates, surface types, and more. In turn, these observations will help space agencies and scientists land on their next observational targets. The Sorcha code, along with simulated sky maps and orbital animations, is available now at so researchers can prepare for the LSST data to come. The first public images from Rubin's 'First Look' event will be revealed on June 23.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Ancient DNA reveals how Mayan civilisation collapsed
Skeletons unearthed from the ruins of the ancient city of Copán in Honduras have yielded clues to the collapse of the Mayan civilisation. Copán, now a Unesco World Heritage site, thrived during the Classic Maya period between the third and 10th centuries AD. Previous research has shown that it was a major crossroads city for four centuries, connecting the lower Central America to South America. 'In 426 or 427CE, the city witnessed the establishment of a royal dynasty, which endured for about 400 years,' according to a new study published in the journal Current Biology. Excavations at the ruins have so far focused on a royal tomb where rulers were likely buried along with sacrificial victims. But the genetic origins of the people of ancient Copán have been unclear. The new genome study shows where this population most likely came from and reveals the city 'dramatically shrank' around 1,200 years ago. Researchers assessed genomes of seven human remains excavated at the Copán archaeological site, including a person who may have been the ancient city's ruler. The analysis also included DNA data from ancient Mayan sites in North, Central, and South America that have already been published in previous studies. It revealed, for the first time, the origins and dynamics of the ancient city's population during the Classic period, shedding more light on the civilisation's collapse. It found that the ancestral population of the Copan people interacted with northern regions, including those in Mexico and Belize. That the Maya people had connections with those in the central highlands of Mexico had only been theorised in the past. The analysis also pointed to a strong genomic connection of the people of the Copán ruins with modern Maya, including the contemporary populations in the Andes, Brazil, and Argentina. Another key finding from the study is that the population size of the Maya civilisation decreased vastly during the late Classic period. This result corresponds to the period when other Classic Maya cities were also abandoned, researchers said. 'A decline is also observable in the Andes at around the same time. Nevertheless, the population size in the Andes rebounded in later periods, possibly linked to the rise and expansion of the Inca civilisation,' they said. A decline in the population density led to the eventual collapse of the Classic Maya civilisation, they concluded. This was between the 9th and 11th centuries, a period marked by frequent severe droughts that contributed to civil conflict, societal instability, and eventual collapse. 'Estimates of effective population size suggest a decline at the end of the Classic period, when Classic Maya civilisation experienced widespread destabilisation and collapse,' the study noted.
