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Psychedelic beer used by ancient empire to win friends
New Atlas ^ | March 22, 2025 | Rich Haridy

Posted on 03/24/2025 7:19:19 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

A study published in the journal Antiquity [2022] suggested an ancient South American civilization spiked a beer-like drink with psychoactive drugs as a way of maintaining social cohesion and forging new bonds with surrounding communities. The findings offer some of the clearest archaeological evidence demonstrating how ancient civilizations used psychoactive substances for recreation and social cohesion...

The Wari civilization flourished in the Peruvian Andes... Excavations revealed evidence the Wari were brewing large quantities of a beer-like drink known as chicha. The alcoholic beverage is common to a number of ancient civilizations in the region, however, spiking it with a hallucinogenic substance is unusual.

Alongside evidence of the plants used to brew chicha, the excavations revealed traces of vilca seeds. These seeds are known to contain a psychoactive substance called bufotenine.

Traditional uses of vilca generally involve either smoking or inhaling the powdered seed. But curiously, no smoking or snuffing paraphernalia was found at the Quilcapampa site. Instead, the traces of vilca were detected near signs of chicha brewing. There are anecdotal accounts of vilca being added to beverages but this is the first archaeological evidence to indicate the hallucinogenic substance was consumed in an alcoholic drink...

The presence of the vilca-spiked beer, particularly at the Quilcapampa outpost, suggests it was used to forge strong social connections with outlying communities. Perhaps as a way to expand the Wari empire without military force, Biwer speculated.

(Excerpt) Read more at newatlas.com ...


TOPICS: History; Science; Travel
KEYWORDS: agriculture; andes; bufotenine; chicha; dietandcuisine; drugs; godsgravesglyphs; high; oenology; peru; precolumbian; quilcapampa; vilca; wari; zymurgy
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To: algore

probably not, but maybe andes.com... ;^)


21 posted on 03/24/2025 9:29:43 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
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To: Bob434

Never tried those, but there was a guy on my dorm floor (freshman year) who was trying to grow ‘shrooms in his room. Lot of characters, mostly other freshmen. I hung out with some real brainiacs, also some psychopaths. :^)

The mushroom farmer left a note on the dry erase board (many people had those) on the door of our resident ass’t, asking him for help with his ‘shroom efforts.

Anyway, the farmer didn’t complete that year, dropped out. No idea why. ;^) And I thought my grades were bad.

I’d imagine this Andean plant still gets smoked.


22 posted on 03/24/2025 9:35:47 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
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To: SunkenCiv

Back in my idiot years, a fella in town was a real off grid type, and we stopped over his cabin one day and he had just come back from collecting mushrooms- he offered us some, and like a dope I said “ok”, not realizing mushrooms could be deadly if the wrong type. The trip back home was interesting to say the least. Bought some a few times, and again, one has tk trust the seller thst they didn’t make a mistake. Not a good thing to mess with.


23 posted on 03/24/2025 9:54:28 PM PDT by Bob434 (Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana)
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To: SunkenCiv

“Is it laced?”

“I guess we’ll have to drink or smoke it to find out.”


24 posted on 03/25/2025 5:38:31 AM PDT by trebb (So many fools - so little time...)
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To: SunkenCiv

I’m hearing Inna-Gada-Da-Vida faintly in the background.


25 posted on 03/25/2025 6:06:30 AM PDT by dljordan
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To: trebb

As with cave art, the wheel, and the first watercraft, among other things, my view is that young boys hanging out and doing the double-dare thing resulted in most of our cultural foundation. They’d throw some stuff on the first to see what would happen, maybe it smelled nice, maybe it got the whole village high. Maybe that’s how humans got interested in fire in the first place. :^)


26 posted on 03/25/2025 6:11:39 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
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To: dljordan

[QMS, singing] “Have another hit...”


27 posted on 03/25/2025 6:14:56 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
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To: SunkenCiv

interesting


28 posted on 03/25/2025 4:59:46 PM PDT by redguyinabluestate
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To: redguyinabluestate

It was probably good to be a little wary of the Wari.

I sure hope no one used that before.


29 posted on 03/25/2025 5:13:49 PM PDT by SunkenCiv (Putin should skip ahead to where he kills himself in the bunker.)
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