Egyptians drank cocktails of psychedelic drugs in ancient mugs, research reveals
Researchers found a cocktail of psychedelic drugs, bodily fluids and alcohol when analysing DNA from a mug used by ancient Egyptians thousands of years ago.
Sky News Wednesday 20 November 2024
A portrait of the ancient god, Bes, who the mugs depict. Pic: iStock
An Egyptian mug from 2,000 years ago was last used to serve up a cocktail of psychedelic drugs, according to ground-breaking research.
University of South Florida professor Davide Tanasi used advanced chemical analysis on what's known as a Bes mug - cups left behind by ancient Egyptians.
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| Davide Tanasi holds a 3D-generated replica of the Egyptian Bes mug. Cassidy Delamarter |
Historians have only ever been able to speculate about the mugs' contents, with some believing they were used to hold "sacred" water, wine or beer, according to Branko van Oppen, curator of Greek and Roman art at the Tampa Museum of Art.
But through scraping chemical and DNA analysis from the inner walls of a mug donated to the Tampa Museum of Art in 1984, Prof Tanasi and his research team discovered a cocktail of psychedelic drugs, bodily fluids and alcohol.
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| Researchers analyzed a 2,000-year-old Bes mug for chemical and DNA traces. Cassidy Delamarter |
It's a combination that he believes was used in a magical ritual re-enacting an Egyptian myth, likely for fertility, based on both the findings and written records detailing centuries-old myths.
The concoction was flavoured with honey, sesame seeds, pine nuts, liquorice and grapes, he said, which were commonly used to make the beverage look like blood.
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| Tanasi scanned the Bes mug to conduct a three-dimensonal study of the vessel. Cassidy Delamarter |
"For the first time, we were able to identify all the chemical signatures of the components of the liquid concoction contained in the Tampa Museum of Art's Bes mug, including the plants used by Egyptians, all of which have psychotropic and medicinal properties," Prof Tanasi explained.
"This research teaches us about magic rituals in the Greco-Roman period in Egypt," Mr Van Oppen said.
"Egyptologists believe that people visited the so-called Bes Chambers at Saqqara when they wished to confirm a successful pregnancy because pregnancies in the ancient world were fraught with dangers," he continued.
"So, this combination of ingredients may have been used in a dream-vision inducing magic ritual within the context of this dangerous period of childbirth.
The Bes Chambers at Saqqara were located near the Great Pyramids of Giza, historians say.
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