Humans have had a longstanding past with the coca leaves, and its offshoot cocaine. Dating back thousands of years, indigenous people in South America honed in on the plant’s stimulating effect and would chew on the leaves for various purposes from curing altitude sickness to travel. It turns out they were also synthesizing early forms of the drug for over a millennia as well, given the discovery of a drug bundle by anthropologists in a Bolivian cave.
The leather satchel found contained “two snuffing tablets used to pulverize psychotropic plants into snuff; a snuffing tube for smoking hallucinogenic plants; and a pouch constructed of three fox snouts,” advised the press release on the discovery by Penn State. Traces of cocaine were found, in addition to ayahuasca tea ingredients and “possibly psilocin,” all of which were possibly used simultaneously at the time by spiritual leaders in these societies. The ayahuasca discovery helped to prove arguments against substances like DMT being recent entries into the human drug arsenal.
It’s also worth noting that the bundle is “This is the largest number of psychoactive substances ever found in a single archaeological assemblage from South America.”
H/T: Mixmag and Penn State
Photo credit: Joaqin Sarmiento/Getty
Source: dancingastronaut.com
