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

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.

Keywords: archaeometry; exchange; hallucinogen; liquid chromatography mass spectrometry; shamanism.

Fig. 1.

The study area is located in the south-central Andes (A), in the Lípez highlands of southwestern Bolivia (B). An aerial view of the Sora River Valley (C) shows Cueva del Chileno on its eastern side (c/o GeoEye Foundation), and a photograph (D) of the exterior of the rock shelter during excavation.

Fig. 2.

The Cueva del Chileno ritual bundle consisting of: outer leather bag (A), expertly carved and decorated wooden snuffing tablets with anthropomorphic figurines (B and C), intricate anthropomorphic snuffing tube with two human hair braids attached to it (D), animal-skin pouch constructed of three fox snouts (L. culpaeus) stitched together (E), two camelid (L. glama) bone spatulas (F), two small pieces of dried plant material attached to wool and fiber strings (G), and a polychrome woven textile headband (H). Artifacts (E and G) were tested using LC-MS/MS analysis.

Fig. 3.

LC-MS/MS results from the fox-snout pouch indicating the presence of cocaine, BZE, harmine, bufotenine, DMT, and peak potentially corresponding to psilocin.

Fig. 4.

LC-MS/MS results from the larger piece of plant tissue indicating the presence of cocaine, BZE, and bufotenine.