Prehistoric psychotropic consumption in Andean Chilean mummies
Nature Precedings December 3, 2007 Juan Pablo Ogalde, Bernardo Arriaza, Elia C. Soto 4 citations
Hallucinogenic plants are often considered the main source of psychoactive drugs in antiquity for reaching deep altered states of consciousness. During the Tiwanaku empire expansion (500–1000 A.D.) along the Atacama Desert of Chile, highly decorated snuffing tablets and tubes were common grave goods, but the specific drugs consumed remained unclear. Analysis by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry of hair from naturally mummified human bodies from the modern city of Arica detected harmine in 3 of 32 samples, likely from the Banisteriopsis vine (ayahuasca). This is the first confirmed evidence of psychoactive plant consumption in pre-Hispanic Andean populations along the Atacama coastal region.