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Ancient ritual drug use found at Chavín de Huántar

Archaeologists have identified traces of psychoactive plants used in ceremonial rituals at Chavín de Huántar in Peru’s Ancash Region.

Chavín de Huántar was the religious centre and political capital of the Chavín, a major pre-Inca culture that inhabited the region from as early as 3000 BC until around 400–500 BC.

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The site contains several major structures, including a massive flat-topped pyramidal structure, and important areas designated as the Major Plaza and the Circular Plaza.

Excavations carried out in 2017 and 2018 uncovered a set of ancient instruments, including tubular artefacts made from bird and mammal bones, discovered within an underground gallery reserved solely for ceremonial purposes.

In a recent study by the Chavín de Huántar Archaeological Research and Conservation Program, archaeologists have conducted a chemical and botanical analysis of residue found on the instruments.

Image Credit : Peruvian State

According to the study authors, the reside contains the presence of vilca (Anadenanthera), a hallucinogenic snuff, and nicotine, likely from wild tobacco or related plants.

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This has revealed that psychoactive plants were used in ceremonial rituals at Chavín de Huántar over 2,800 years ago during the Andean Formative Period, and one of the oldest examples on record in the Andes.

“The use of these plants was not recreational, but rather part of ritual ceremonies linked to the exercise of power and the establishment of religious authority in a hierarchical society,” said the Peruvian State. “This discovery confirms Chavín de Huántar as a space of ideological, technological, and spiritual innovation in the pre-Hispanic Andes, where rituals and altered states of consciousness were integral to the dynamics of social and political control.”

Header Image Credit : Shutterstock

Sources : Peruvian State

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Mark Milligan
Mark Milligan
Mark Milligan is a multi-award-winning journalist and the Managing Editor at HeritageDaily. His background is in archaeology and computer science, having written over 8,000 articles across several online publications. Mark is a member of the Association of British Science Writers (ABSW), the World Federation of Science Journalists, and in 2023 was the recipient of the British Citizen Award for Education, the BCA Medal of Honour, and the UK Prime Minister's Points of Light Award.
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