A study published in April detailed how it’s not just your disappointing sibling who loves getting high and doing “creative” things out in the desert.
Ancient rock carvings in southern Peru may have been made by ancient humans who were tripping on hallucinogenic drugs, a trend still observed today at basically every major music or arts festival in the Western world, according to a study published in the Cambridge Archaeological Journal.
The carvings appear on more than 2,000 boulders within the gorge of Toro Muerto in the Majes River valley. It’s believed the carvings are anywhere from 1,400 to 2,100 years old, having been created sometime between 100 B.C. and 600 A.D. by the Siguas people.
It’s almost like Big Pharma makes money by keeping people sick on drugs that don’t really work..?
Nature has a great remedy for almost everything tho
Study Shows How Psychedelics Work Better And Faster Than Antidepressants | @DailyCaller https://t.co/iNo17UQPPw
— KAY SMYTHE (@KaySmythe) March 3, 2023
The Siguas people are said to have been inspired by the Nazca culture, best known for their mega-geoglyphs in the desert, which look pretty trippy themselves.
The new research highlights how the Toro Muerto artwork is pretty similar to the indigenous Tucano peoples of the Amazon rainforest who created wavy lines in their rock carvings through the 1970s. The group created their art by drinking tea made from the vine of Banisteriopsis caapi, better known as ayahuasca.
Shutterstock/ToroMuertoArchaeology
Shutterstock/ToroMuertoArchaeology
Shutterstock/ToroMuertoArchaeology
Shutterstock/ToroMuertoArchaeology
The people of Peru may not have necessarily consumed ayahuasca, given that it currently grows hundreds of miles away from the site. The Wari people, who lived between the years 400 and 1000 A.D. used to trip on the seed pods of the Anadenanthera colubrina tree.
As these trees were probably around when the carvings at Toro Muerto were made, it stands to reason that they may have been part of the process. (RELATED: Archaeologists Uncover Evidence Of Psychedelics, Female Worship At Ancient Biblical Site)
So it’s not just your disappointing family member who likes to get high and be creative. It turns out this is probably an ancient human pastime that probably isn’t going anywhere any time soon.