Chemical evidence for the use of multiple psychotropic plants in a 1,000-year-old ritual bundle from South America.

Chemical analysis of a ritual bundle from a Bolivian rock shelter, dated to about 1,000 C.E., detected traces of bufotenine, dimethyltryptamine, harmine, and cocaine (with its breakdown product benzoylecgonine). These compounds come from at least three different psychoactive plants, including the two key ingredients of ayahuasca—harmine and dimethyltryptamine—found together in a single artifact for the first time in this region. The plants originated from distant and ecologically distinct areas of South America, indicating that hallucinogenic substances were traded or transported over long distances. This suggests that pre-Columbian peoples possessed sophisticated botanical knowledge and incorporated such plants into shamanic rituals.

Study at a glance

Abstract

Over several millennia, various native plant species in South America have been used for their healing and psychoactive properties. Chemical analysis of archaeological artifacts provides an opportunity to study the use of psychoactive plants in the past and to better understand ancient botanical knowledge systems. Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was used to analyze organic residues from a ritual bundle, radiocarbon dated to approximately 1,000 C.E., recovered from archaeological excavations in a rock shelter located in the Lípez Altiplano of southwestern Bolivia. The site is located at an elevation of ∼3,900 m above sea level and contains evidence of intermittent human occupations during the last 4,000 years. Chemical traces of bufotenine, dimethyltryptamine, harmine, and cocaine, including its degradation product benzoylecgonine, were identified, suggesting that at least three plants containing these compounds were part of the shamanic paraphernalia dating back 1,000 years ago, the largest number of compounds recovered from a single artifact from this area of the world, to date. This is also a documented case of a ritual bundle containing both harmine and dimethyltryptamine, the two primary ingredients of ayahuasca. The presence of multiple plants that come from disparate and distant ecological areas in South America suggests that hallucinogenic plants moved across significant distances and that an intricate botanical knowledge was intrinsic to pre-Columbian ritual practices.