Archaeologists Explored Secret Mountain Rooms—and Found Ancient Psychedelic Paraphernalia

The discovery of ancient bones carved into tubes in the mountains of Peru led researchers to conduct chemical analyses.
Results of chemical and microscopic studies showed that the tubes contained hallucinogenic substances—the first direct evidence of its kind from the region.
The the substances were used as part of a hierarchical class system, as well as for their hallucinogenic impact.

Researchers discovered that pre-Inca stone structures from the mountains of Peru had secret rooms accessible to only the most exclusive in society. In those rooms, they found bones carved into tubes used as psychedelic paraphernalia—part of a ritualistic experience in which special leaders smoked psychoactive plants.

“Taking psychoactives was not just about seeing visions,” Daniel Contreras, an anthropological archaeologist at the University of Florida, said in a statement. “It was part of a tightly controlled ritual, likely reserved for a select few, reinforcing the social hierarchy.”

A team of researchers from multiple institutions published a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences detailing their examination of the mysteries behind caves found at an elevation of 10,000 feet in the Peruvian mountains. These areas were once controlled by the Chavin Phenomenon, a group that dominated the terrain 2,000 years before the Inca empire controlled the Andes.

The Chavin people were known for agricultural innovation in the first millennium B.C., but the society’s elite class may have also been innovating in the hallucinogenics space. In the study, the team showed that these 23 tubes carved from hollow bones are the earliest known direct evidence of psychoactive plant use in the Andes. They found the tubes in monumental stone structures at the prehistoric Chavin de Huantar ceremonial site, and claim that the objects demonstrate that “even in their early stages, socio-politically complex societies incorporated psychoactive plants into ritual activity.”

A range of chemical and microscopic tests of the tubes showed traces of nicotine (from wild relatives of tobacco) and vilca bean residue, which is a hallucinogen related to DMT. The tubes were in private chambers within the massive stone structure—rooms that could only hold a handful of people at one time, giving a cloak of secrecy to the space. The study noted that “evidence argues that ritual activity often included inducement of altered mental states.”

Controlling access to the altered states gave Chavin’s rulers the ability to govern under the guise of working within a mystical power structure that was part of the natural order, the researchers wrote. “The supernatural world isn’t necessarily friendly, but it’s powerful,” Contreras said. “These rituals, often enhanced by psychoactives, were compelling, transformative experiences that reinforced belief systems and social structures.”

John Rick, professor emeritus at Stanford, believes that the ceremonies helped establish class structures, and that leadership tightly controlled access to the personal visions to retain power.

“One of the ways that inequality was justified or naturalized was through ideology—through the creation of impressive ceremonial experiences that made people believe this whole project was a good idea,” Contreras said about the potential that class structure was used to to convince Chavin’s builders to construct stone monuments.

Having rooms designed for specific purposes within the mountain society wasn’t limited to just the use of hallucinogenics. Archaeologist also found trumpets made from conch shells in chambers that had seemingly been designed to enhance the shell’s musical attributes.

The research team believes they’ve helped answer questions about a site first discovered over a hundred years ago. The Chavin have been linked to earlier more egalitarian societies, and the mountain-spanning empires ruled by elites that came later. “Controlled access to mystical experiences helps explain this major social transition,” the team wrote.

“It’s exciting that ongoing excavations can be combined with cutting-edge archaeological science techniques,” Contreras said, “to get us closer to understanding what it was like to live at this site.”

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