Study confirms Egyptians drank hallucinogenic cocktails in ancient rituals

Phys dot org ^ | November 15, 2024 | University of South Florida

[SunkenCiv]

A University of South Florida professor found the first-ever physical evidence of hallucinogens in an Egyptian mug, validating written records and centuries-old myths of ancient Egyptian rituals and practices. Through advanced chemical analyses, Davide Tanasi examined one of the world's few remaining Egyptian Bes mugs.

Such mugs, including the one donated to the Tampa Museum of Art in 1984, are decorated with the head of Bes, an ancient Egyptian god or guardian demon worshiped for protection, fertility, medicinal healing and magical purification. Published in Scientific Reports, the study sheds light on an ancient Egyptian mystery: The secret of how Bes mugs were used about 2,000 years ago...

Tanasi, who developed this study as part of the Mediterranean Diet Archaeology project promoted by the USF Institute for the Advanced Study of Culture and the Environment, collaborated with several USF researchers and partners in Italy at the University of Trieste and the University of Milan to perform chemical and DNA analyses. With a pulverized sample from scraping the inner walls of the vase, the team combined numerous analytical techniques for the first time to uncover what the mug last held.

The new tactic was successful and revealed the vase had a cocktail of psychedelic drugs, bodily fluids and alcohol... The concoction was flavored with honey, sesame seeds, pine nuts, licorice and grapes, which were commonly used to make the beverage look like blood.

[SunkenCiv]

(a) Drinking vessel in shape of Bes head; El-Fayūm Oasis, Egypt; Ptolemaic-Roman period (4th century BCE—3rd century CE), (courtesy of the Tampa Museum of Art, Florida). (b) Bes mug from the Ghalioungui collection, 10.7 × 7.9 cm (Ghalioungui, G. Wagner 1974, Kaiser 2003, cat. no. 342). (c) Bes mug inv. no. 14.415 from the Allard Pierson Museum, 11.5 × 9.3 cm (courtesy of the Allard Pierson Museum, Amsterdam; photo by Stephan van der Linden). (d) Bes mug from El-Fayum, dimensions unknown (Kaufmann 1913; Kaiser 2003, cat. no. 343).

Credit: Scientific Reports (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-78721-8

[SunkenCiv]

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[Carry_Okie]

...including the plants used by Egyptians, all of which have psychotropic and medicinal properties.

What species of plants these were the article doesn't say.

[SunkenCiv]

One of them was probably lotus, which was so popular, I think the Egyptians drove it to extinction. It was like when crack users run out of crack today, and try to smoke anything that might be crack because it looks like it — bits of drywall, whatever. :^)

[SunkenCiv]

I’ll be darned, it’s not extinct. Maybe they just used all of it in Egypt itself.

https://academic.oup.com/milmed/article/188/7-8/e2689/6338457?login=false

[ProtectOurFreedom]

“bodily fluids” — hmmm. Did they really need to make it look like blood? Or other bodily fluids?

[Freeleesy]

Maybe when they enslaved the Jews too (Exodus 1).

[ifinnegan]

These articles are frustrating because I want to know how the analytical chemistry was done, which chemicals were found etc…

Also, when they say bodily fluids, I don’t think they had to out a coloring in to make it look like blood. It probably was.

[SunkenCiv]

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[Texas Eagle]

You mean, like, in order to cope with Pharoah Trumpenkhamen winning the election?

[Rockingham]

There is also evidence that the Egyptian royal elite enjoyed access to tobacco and cocaine from the Western hemisphere.

[BenLurkin]

That is one ugly mug.

[Openurmind]

Why do you want to know? :)

We have to keep in mind that they had a huge far reaching trade network to other regions. So it could have been some of the already known from other regions. Acacia bark and Syrian Rue was a common hallucinogenic concoction in the middle east. The Amanita Muscaria mushroom was a really big deal all over back then. And I am sure they had opium and others imported.

[Adder]

“Dat chit git you high, man”

< img src=< “https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Ftse1.mm.bing.net%2Fth%3Fid%3DOIP.eJ7r1I5NvCG7JfWjC54RHAHaDJ%26pid%3DApi&f=1&ipt=2398213a7f06fda614cf4964aeb72f1ba5c641fbf4838950e70593aada2c0bea&ipo=images” >

[Adder]

dang it!

[dinodino]

There’s a link in the article to the study, which does list the plants identified.

[atc23]

I don’t think it a stretch to assume they were skilled enough to build marine vessels that could make it to the New World for their tobacco and coca plants and probably did have contact with (Ayahuasca) or whatever hallucinogenic plants might be found on their journeys

[Openurmind]

Thank you.

Syrian Rue, Water Lilly/Lotus, and Spider Plant. Syrian Rue needs another agent to be psychoactive like Acacia Bark. So I suspect the other two served this role since no Acacia was found.

[Openurmind]

That is true, I believe that possible also.

[Openurmind]

After thought... They could have been eating the Acacia as a spread on foods separately. This is how they currently do it. Drink Rue tea and eat the Acacia together.

https://www.dmt-nexus.me/forum/default.aspx?g=posts&t=79298