Ancient ritual bundle contained multiple psychotropic plants

Regarding the objects, a triple fox-snout pouch stash bag[0] is quite an item. Why the snout? Implications of sensitivity and a conveniently pre-angled form? Why the fox? According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxes_in_popular_culture#Ameri... at least one South American society believed the fox to be a warrior that would use his mind to fight. The fox would not ever use physical attack, only mental. Potentially a sort of a professional deity of a shamanic class, then.

Lovely iconography on the wooden utensil[1] with a pair of people in comfortable looking robes and differing posture. Could this be suggestive of paired consumption or a guided experience? Could the void-like gap for face indicate ideas associated with possession or channeling, eg. a symbolic "not-self" or implication of self-departure? In the absence of additional finds, I suppose surviving modern shamanistic rites of the region might only provide minimal evidence toward a tenuous interpretation.

[0] https://3c1703fe8d.site.internapcdn.net/newman/gfx/news/hire... [1] https://3c1703fe8d.site.internapcdn.net/newman/gfx/news/hire...

It's an interesting find, probably confirms what I think would be a default theory: the ritual use of psychoactives in modern south america is a continuation from ancient times.

What they found is: (1) Cocaine & benzoylecgonine (also from coca) (2) harmine & dimethyltryptamine (DMT), which are combined to make ayahuasca, still commonly used ritually in SA even by some catholic communities. (3) bufotenin (frog smoking stuff), which still exists ritually to an extent and (4) possibly psilocin (magic mushrooms).

So basically, if you were to find a bag of ritual psychodelics in SA today, it would have all these same things in it. The only thing missing is tobacco. Maybe the snuff kit is for tobacco, or maybe the article omitted it. Also, I don't think these are all found in the same regions, so it's also probably evidence of trade. Drugs can be major trade goods.

Most of how we see the ancient world is dictated by monuments, tools and other stuff that survives well. Bits of perishable culture like this give us a whole different layer.

I'm not sure on its academic validity, but Hallucinogens and Culture by Peter T. Furst is an interesting look into the use of hallucinogens by different peoples around the world and the role of these plants in forming our religions and cultures.

I wonder how this chemical compounds have survived for 1000 years without disintegrating. Are those molecules so stable to survive 1000 years against microorganisn activity?

A simpler explanation would be that this skin was recycled and used in much more recent times. The ritual skin bag can be old, but the substances around can be more modern.

What do people here think Soma was? Had a major role in at least two civilisations.

> The researchers identified the presence of multiple psychoactive compounds—cocaine, benzoylecgonine (the primary metabolite of cocaine), harmine, bufotenin, dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and possibly psilocin (a compound found in some mushrooms)

So basically your average burning man tent.