Psychotropic drugs found in Shaman’s Bag from 1000 years ago
Psychotropic drugs found in Shaman’s Bag includes cocaine and DMT.
Mind altering substances have been a part of humankind for thousands of years. There is evidence of the use of medicinal plants dating back to 60 000 years ago. In point, where there are humans, there is an interest in altering the mind.
Recently archeologists made an interesting discovery when they found a 1000-year-old Shaman’s Bag in Bolivia that contained Psychotropic drugs, including cocaine.
Anthropologist Jose Capriles said this about the discovery:
“We already knew that Psychotropics were important in the spiritual and religious activities of the societies of the South-Central Andes, but we did not know that these people were using so many different compounds and possibly combining them together.”
Alchemists of the Andes
This was the largest number of psychoactive substances found in a single archeological assemblage from South America.
If you think of South America, you think of plant-based rituals and ceremonies that alter perception to aid spirituality and become more spiritual.
The pouch was stitched together from fox snouts and harboured inside were two wooden tablets for grinding psychotropic plants.
The team then took a small piece of the pouch and dated it back to 1000 years. Their findings indicated that at least 3 plants were being used as well as psychedelic tea.
“Chemical traces of Bufotenine, Dimethyltryptamine, Harmine and Cocaine, including its degradation product Benzoylecgonine, were identified” he added.
The crazy part is that none of the psychoactive compounds found in the pouch were indigenous to the area of the Andes they were discovered in, which points to an sumptuous amount of trading going on in order to obtain these plants.
Fast forward to 2019 and Denver has become the first US city to decriminalize magic mushrooms. 50.6 % of residents voted “yes” on “Initiated Ordinance 301, Psilocybin Mushroom Initiative” which appeared on a ballot on Tuesday.
This makes “adult possession and use of psilocybin mushrooms the lowest law enforcement priority in Denver” and prohibits the city “from spending resources on enforcing related penalties.”
So, while possession is still technically illegal, authorities aren’t going to do much if they find you with it.
Psychotropic drugs found in a Shaman’s Bag from 1 000 years ago; and we’re still tripping.
