Archaeologists in Peru recently discovered evidence that pre-Inca elites conducted secret rituals while tooting on potent psychoactive substances, according to a study published in PNAS Monday.
While conducting research at the site of Chavín de Huántar in the central highlands, the team discovered a sealed chamber that contained 23 carved bone and shell artifacts, including hollowed-out “snuff tubes” bearing traces of nicotine and DMT, the hallucinogen found in ayahuasca.
The study marks the first time researchers have identified specific drugs used in Chavín rituals, long suspected to have involved mind-altering substances. Chemical and microbotanical analysis revealed that six of the tools contained organic compounds from tobacco and vilca (Anadenanthera colubrina), whose seeds and leaves contain DMT. The materials were likely dried, toasted, and ground into a powerful snuff, then inhaled through the nose.
“The tubes would have been used—we think—as inhalers for taking the snuff through the nose,” archaeologist Daniel Contreras of the University of Florida told LveScience,
If that description wasn’t quite on the nose enough, Contreras added, “The tubes are analogous to the rolled-up bills that high-rollers snort cocaine through in the movies.”
The inhalers—possibly made from peregrine falcon wing bones—were found in a gallery sealed around 500 B.C.E., accessible only to a small number of participants. Their location suggests drug use was both restricted and ritualized. As the researchers wrote, the practice likely “reinforced the social hierarchy,” distinguishing spiritual elites from the laborers who built Chavín’s imposing stone complexes.
“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,” said Contreras.
The authors suggest these findings could shed light on how ritualized drug use helped underpin broader social transitions in the Andes—from loosely organized societies to the more stratified worlds of Tiwanaku, Wari, and the Inca.
