Two thousand years before the Inca empire dominated the Andes, a lesser-known society known as the Chavín Phenomenon shared common art, architecture, and materials throughout modern-day Peru. Through agricultural innovations, craft production, and trade, the people of the Chavín culture (900 to 250 BC) shaped a growing social order and laid the foundations for hierarchical society among the high peaks.
But one of their most powerful tools wasn’t farming. It was access to altered states of consciousness.
That’s according to a new study that uncovered the earliest-known direct evidence of the use of psychoactive plants in the Peruvian Andes. A team of archaeologists from the University of Florida, Stanford University and South American institutions discovered ancient snuff tubes carved from hollow bones at the heart of monumental stone structures at Chavín de Huántar, a prehistoric ceremonial site in the mountains of Peru.
By conducting chemical and microscopic analyses of the snuff tubes, the researchers revealed traces of nicotine from wild relatives of tobacco and vilca bean residue, a hallucinogen related to DMT. The leaders, it seems, wielded these substances not just for personal visions but to reinforce their authority.
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Unlike communal hallucinogenic use common in other ancient cultures, Chavín’s rituals were exclusive. Archaeologists discovered the snuff tubes in private chambers within massive stone structures that held only a handful of participants at a time, creating an air of mystique and control.
Front view of the castle in the archeological site of Chavín de Huántar. (Martin St-Amant/CC BY-SA 3.0).
“Taking psychoactives was not just about seeing visions. It was part of a tightly controlled ritual, likely reserved for a select few, reinforcing the social hierarchy,” said Daniel Contreras, Ph.D., an anthropological archaeologist at UF and co-author of the new study that revealed these rituals at Chavín.
These experiences were likely profound, even terrifying. To those who inhaled, the supernatural might have felt like a force beyond comprehension. And that was precisely the point. By controlling access to these altered states, Chavín’s rulers established a potent ideology and convinced their people that their leadership was intertwined with mystical power and part of the natural order.
“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.”
Contreras has spent nearly thirty years studying the site as part of a team led by John Rick, Ph.D, professor emeritus at Stanford University. The team argue that these ceremonies were pivotal in shaping early class structures. Unlike forced labor societies, Chavín’s builders likely believed in the grandeur of the monuments they were constructing, persuaded by these immersive rituals.
Snuff tubes carved from hollow bones and used to inhale tobacco and hallucinogenic vilca. (Daniel Contreras).
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Those rituals extended beyond the use of psychedelics. Archaeologists have also uncovered trumpets made from conch shells and chambers seemingly designed to enhance the awe-inducing musical performances.
"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.
Their study was published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
The findings help solve a century-old mystery about this site, located at an elevation of 10,000 feet (3,000 meters). Since its first excavation over a hundred years ago, Chavín has been seen as related to both earlier, more egalitarian societies and the mountain-spanning empires ruled by powerful elites that came later.
Controlled access to mystical experiences helps explain this major social transition, a finding only made possible by decades of intense excavations and advanced analytical methods.
A rendering of the chamber, or gallery, where the snuff tubes were discovered. This private chamber had restricted access, suggesting that the use of psychedelics was a special ritual reserved for the elite. (Daniel Contreras).
“It’s exciting that ongoing excavations can be combined with cutting-edge archaeological science techniques to get us closer to understanding what it was like to live at this site,” Contreras said.
The Hidden Hand of Hallucinogens in History
Research into ancient societies has established a clear and strong link between religion and the use of hallucinogens, stimulants, alcoholic beverages and other mind-altering substances. In 1973, an anthropologist who studied 488 ancient human societies published a paper revealing that 437, or 90% of them had incorporated data obtained during altered states of consciousness (ASC) into their fundamental belief systems.
Chemical residue studies have been performed on ancient artifacts, and these have shown that people used alcoholic beverages nearly everywhere for thousands of years, mildly stimulating betel leaves in Asia as far back as 13,000 B.C., hallucinogens derived from the San Pedro cactus in the Andes as far back as 10,600 years, hallucinogenic mescal beans in Texas and northern Mexico 11,000 years ago, and peyote in the same regions from between 9,000 and 5,600 years ago.
An image of Chavin de Huantar at its height, in the first millennium BC. (Daniel Contreras).
And that’s not all. People also apparently got high on opium as the poppy was domesticated in the western Mediterranean 8,000 years ago; the mildly stimulating (among other benefits) coca leaves for tea and chewing were in use in South America from at least 6,000 BC; cannabis (marijuana) appeared in central Asia 7,000 years ago and hallucinogenic nightshade was harvested all over the world in 3,000 BC.. There was tobacco and hallucinogenic yopo snuff in the New World 4,000 years ago, and hallucinogenic mushrooms were consumed broadly in various places and during different time periods around the world.
And yet the subject of ancient hallucinogen use is still an under-researched topic, perhaps as a consequence of taboos about drug use in the modern world. As a result, studies like the one completed by Dr Rick and his team covering the practices of the Chavín Phenomenon culture still have much to reveal about this often overlooked aspect of ancient religious practice.
Top image: The site of Chavin de Huantar in modern-day Peru, which includes several monumental buildings overseeing a large plaza at an elevation of 10,000 feet (3,000 meters).
Source: Daniel Contreras.
This is an edited version of a press release from the University of Florida, entitled ‘How Ancient Psychedelics Helped Create Class Hierarchies In the Andes.’
