Evidence That The Ancient Egyptians Drank Hallucinogenic Cocktails Was Found In A Mug
Evidence of hallucinogens was found in an ancient Egyptian mug, confirming written records and myths about Egyptian rituals and practices.
A team of researchers conducted advanced chemical analyses on one of the last remaining Egyptian Bes mugs in the world and detected traces of hallucinogens.
These mugs, or vases, are decorated with the head of Bes, an ancient Egyptian god associated with fertility, protection, medicinal healing, and merriment.
The mug the team studied was donated to the Tampa Museum of Art in 1984. Here’s how Bes mugs were used about 2,000 years ago.
“There’s no research out there that has ever found what we found in this study,” said Davide Tanasi, the lead author of the study.
“For the first time, we were able to identify all the chemical signatures of the components of the liquid concoction contained in the Tampa Museum of Art’s Bes mug, including the plants used by Egyptians, all of which have psychotropic and medicinal properties.”
Experts have debated over the function of the Bes mugs and what beverages they contained for a long time.
They were unsure whether the mugs and vases were used in rituals, religious ceremonies, or everyday life.
The researchers of the new study scraped a sample from the inner walls of the Bes vase and identified organic residues like wild rue, Egyptian lotus, and a plant of the Cleome genus. All of them have been shown to possess “psychotropic and medicinal properties.”
Graham King – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only
In addition, there were the remains of pine nuts, sesame seeds, grapes, and licorice, a combination that was often used to make the beverage resemble blood.
The researchers also detected human bodily fluids like saliva and blood, indicating that people drank this concoction. It’s possible the blood was added as an ingredient.
They believe that the strange hallucinogenic cocktail was used in a magical ritual to recreate an Egyptian myth called the “Myth of the Solar Eye.”
In the story, a sky goddess named Hathor, who was associated with fertility, was in a bloodthirsty mood.
So, Bes gave her an alcoholic beverage, spiked with a plant-based drug and disguised as blood, to calm her down and put her into a deep sleep.
The hallucinogenic drink could also have been consumed by people trying to predict their future pregnancies and ensure that they go well.
“Egyptologists believe that people visited the so-called Bes Chambers at Saqqara when they wished to confirm a successful pregnancy because pregnancies in the ancient world were fraught with dangers,” said Branko van Oppen, a co-author of the study and a curator of Greek and Roman art at the Tampa Museum of Art.
“So, this combination of ingredients may have been used in a dream-vision inducing magic ritual within the context of this dangerous period of childbirth.”
The study was published in Scientific Reports.
Sign up for Chip Chick’s newsletter and get stories like this delivered to your inbox.
More About:News
Read This Next
