Rick John W, Lema Verónica S, Echeverría Javier, Valverde Giuseppe Alva, Contreras Daniel A, Arias Espinoza Oscar, Rosenfeld Silvana A, Sayre Matthew P
Department of Anthropology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305.
Programa de Investigación Arqueológica y Conservación Chavín de Huántar, Chavín de Huántar 02396, Peru.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2025 May 13;122(19):e2425125122. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2425125122. Epub 2025 May 5.
Ritual is broadly accepted as an important locus of social interaction in the pre-Hispanic Central Andes, and research into the development of durable sociopolitical inequality in the region often focuses on the social and political roles of public rituals. At the Middle-Late Formative Period (ca. 1200-400 BCE) monumental center of Chavín de Huántar, as well as at contemporary sites, ritual has long been hypothesized to include the use of psychoactive plants. However, neither psychoactive plant remains nor chemical traces of psychoactive compounds in likely ritual contexts have been identified at any of these sites. Recently excavated deposits sealed in an underground gallery at Chavín contained twenty-three artifacts of forms (especially bone tubes) associated with consumption of psychoactive plants elsewhere in the region. We here report, based on independent microbotanical and chemical analyses, two kinds of direct evidence for use of psychoactive plants in institutionalized ritual at Chavín. These results are direct evidence of psychoactive plants in archaeological bone tubes used as inhalers and the northernmost direct evidence of vilca and use in the pre-Hispanic Andes.
在西班牙殖民前的安第斯中部地区，仪式被广泛认为是社会互动的一个重要场所，该地区关于持久社会政治不平等发展的研究常常聚焦于公共仪式的社会和政治作用。在中晚期形成期（约公元前1200 - 400年）的查文·德万塔尔巨型中心以及同时期的遗址中，长期以来人们一直推测仪式包括使用具有精神活性的植物。然而，在这些遗址中的任何一处，都未在可能的仪式环境中发现具有精神活性的植物残骸或精神活性化合物的化学痕迹。最近在查文一处地下廊道中发掘出的沉积物里，有二十三件与该地区其他地方食用具有精神活性植物相关的器物（尤其是骨管）。在此，我们基于独立的微观植物学和化学分析，报告在查文制度化仪式中使用具有精神活性植物的两类直接证据。这些结果是考古出土的用作吸入器的骨管中存在具有精神活性植物的直接证据，也是前西班牙时期安第斯地区最北部使用威尔卡（一种植物）的直接证据。
