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Earliest evidence for magic mushroom use in Europe
newscientist ^ | 06 March 2011

Posted on 03/08/2011 9:18:21 AM PST by JoeProBono

EUROPEANS may have used magic mushrooms to liven up religious rituals 6000 years ago. So suggests a cave mural in Spain, which may depict fungi with hallucinogenic properties - the oldest evidence of their use in Europe.

The Selva Pascuala mural, in a cave near the town of Villar del Humo, is dominated by a bull. But it is a row of 13 small mushroom-like objects that interests Brian Akers at Pasco-Hernando Community College in New Port Richey, Florida, and Gaston Guzman at the Ecological Institute of Xalapa in Mexico. They believe that the objects are the fungi Psilocybe hispanica, a local species with hallucinogenic properties.

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


TOPICS: Food; Gardening; Science
KEYWORDS: mushroom

Seeing things on the walls (Image: Akers et al., Economic Botany)

Psilocybe hispanica


1 posted on 03/08/2011 9:18:26 AM PST by JoeProBono
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To: JoeProBono
EUROPEANS may have used magic mushrooms to liven up religious rituals 6000 years ago

Or to liven up boring Friday nights.

2 posted on 03/08/2011 9:21:25 AM PST by SouthTexas (Tea time!)
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To: SouthTexas


3 posted on 03/08/2011 9:28:45 AM PST by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet - Visualize)
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To: JoeProBono

Of course early Europeans used magic mushrooms. They grew there, didn’t they? People were bound to discover them, and equate there qualities with the supernatural.


4 posted on 03/08/2011 9:29:21 AM PST by pallis
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To: SouthTexas

Or, my goodness, since the Ice Melted ~ amanita muscaria, the red one with bands of white dots, is classed with this one ~ both grow in the snow!


5 posted on 03/08/2011 9:35:59 AM PST by muawiyah (Make America Safe For Americans)
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To: JoeProBono

Could be. Or, it could be the droppings of the red bull. Just sayin’


6 posted on 03/08/2011 9:42:20 AM PST by Let_It_Be_So
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To: muawiyah


7 posted on 03/08/2011 9:42:44 AM PST by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet - Visualize)
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To: muawiyah


8 posted on 03/08/2011 9:42:44 AM PST by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet - Visualize)
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To: Let_It_Be_So


9 posted on 03/08/2011 9:50:11 AM PST by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet - Visualize)
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To: muawiyah

I wonder why the antiquity researchers always try to connect hallucinogens to religion?


10 posted on 03/08/2011 9:52:58 AM PST by SouthTexas (Tea time!)
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To: JoeProBono

This explains a lot!


11 posted on 03/08/2011 10:15:48 AM PST by SWAMPSNIPER (The Second Amendment, A Matter of Fact, Not a Matter of Opinion)
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To: SWAMPSNIPER
YUP


12 posted on 03/08/2011 10:22:02 AM PST by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet - Visualize)
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To: JoeProBono

bttt


13 posted on 03/08/2011 10:47:57 AM PST by Pagey (B. Hussein Obama has no experience running anything, except his pedestrian mouth.)
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To: JoeProBono

bttt


14 posted on 03/08/2011 10:48:08 AM PST by Pagey (B. Hussein Obama has no experience running anything, except his pedestrian mouth.)
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To: Pagey


15 posted on 03/08/2011 11:11:22 AM PST by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet - Visualize)
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