Ancient Andes society used hallucinogens to strengthen social order

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, Chavín 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 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.

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.

“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.

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.

The findings help solve a century-old mystery about this site, located at an elevation of 10,000 feet. 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.

“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.

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Journal

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Women from the Bronze Age already carried heavy loads on their heads

An interdisciplinary study led by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) reveals that women living in the region of Nubia (present-day Sudan) developed skeletal changes adapted to bearing heavy loads on their heads starting in the Bronze Age over 3500 years ago. The results, published in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, shed light on a largely invisible practice that has been ignored by written history and which has been carried out primarily by women for millennia.

For generations, the most common images of physical labour in prehistory have been dominated by depictions of men. However, a recent study published in the Journal of Anthropological Archaeology challenges this male-centered view: in what is now Sudan, more than 3,500 years ago, Nubian women from the Kerma culture (2500-1500 BCE) were already carrying heavy objects — and sometimes even children — on their heads daily, using techniques passed down through generations, such as head straps known as tumplines.

The research, led by Jared Carballo from the UAB Department of Antiquity and Middle Ages Studies and affiliated to Leiden University in the Netherlands, and Uroš Matić from the University of Essen, Germany, combines the anthropological analysis of skeletal remains with ethnographic and iconographic studies of various African and Mediterranean cultures, including representations of Nubian women in Egyptian tombs. The aim of the study was to understand how daily labour shapes the body and how load-carrying tasks were distributed between men and women.

The study of 30 human skeletons (14 women and 16 men) buried at the Bronze Age site of Abu Fatima, located near Kerma, the capital of the kingdom of Nubia – also called Kush and a rival of ancient Egypt –revealed significant sex-based differences, thanks to the material provided by the excavations by the Sudanese-American Mission led by Sarah A. Schrader and Stuart T. Smith, co-authors of the research. While men showed signs of strain in the shoulders and arms, especially on the right side — likely from shoulder-carrying — women exhibited specific skeletal changes in the cervical vertebrae and areas of the skull associated with the prolonged use of head straps that transferred weight from the forehead to the back.

One of the clearest examples was the woman classified as "individual 8A2": a woman who died over the age of 50 and was buried with luxury items such as an ostrich feather fan and a leather cushion. Biochemical analysis of her dental enamel indicates she was born elsewhere, suggesting she was a migrant. Her skull displays a significant depression behind the coronal suture and severe cervical osteoarthritis, consistent with a prolonged use of tumplines. It is likely that, in addition to migrating from her homeland, she spent much of her life transporting heavy loads in the rural Nile environment — perhaps even carrying children from her family or community. A way of life as common as it is overlooked by written history.

"This way of life is as common as it is overlooked by written history", explains Jared Carballo. "In some way, the study reveals how women literally have carried the weight of society on their heads for millennia."

This study supports a growing perspective that sees the human body as a biological archive of lived experiences. In this sense, bone modifications are not simply the result of ageing; they also reflect social patterns, such as the division of labour and gender roles. Therefore, anthropological concepts like "body techniques" (ways in which people use their bodies in different societies in everyday activities such as walking, running, or using tools) or “gender performativity” (differences in movements dues to imitation or social conventions) offer a framework for interpreting how repeated tasks shape bones and configure bodies according to identity.

Such practices, also observed in representations of Nubian women in later Egyptian tombs and still documented today in rural communities across Africa, Asia, and Latin America, have long been invisible in historical narratives. However, as this research shows, their impact was so profound that they literally reshaped the anatomy of those who performed them. Head-loading was not only a physical effort but also a material expression of inequality and resilience.

As a result, the study opens new avenues of research into women’s mobility, the physical implications of motherhood, and the economic and logistical roles of women in rural societies. “Abu Fatima thus offers a new window into the deep past of the fascinating Nile Valley and a powerful reminder of how heavy the silences around women in history still are”, Jared Carballo concludes.

The research included the participation of archaeologists from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Leiden University, the University of Essen, and the University of California Santa Barbara.

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Journal

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology

DOI

10.1016/j.jaa.2024.101652 

Phoenician culture spread mainly through cultural exchange

 

Study challenges long-held assumptions about the Mediterranean Phoenician-Punic civilization, one of the most influential maritime cultures in history

Peer-Reviewed Publication

Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology

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Punic Necropolis of Puig des Molins on the island of Ibiza. The new ancient DNA study sequenced human remains from this and other important Phoenician-Punic archaeological sites.

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Credit: © Photo Raymar, MAEF

To the point

• Secret of the Phoenician-Punic civilization's success: Their culture spread across the Mediterranean not through large-scale mass migration, but through a dynamic process of cultural transmission and assimilation.
• Melting pot of ancient people: The study found that Punic populations had a highly variable and heterogeneous genetic profile, with significant North African and Sicilian-Aegean ancestry.
• Highly interconnected: Ancient Mediterranean societies were cosmopolitan, with people from different regions trading, moving often over large distances and having offspring with each other. This provides new insights into the region's cultural and population history in the first millennium BCE. 

The Phoenician culture emerged in the Bronze Age city-states of the Levant, developing prominent innovations such as the first alphabet (from which many present-day writing systems derive). By the early first millennium BCE, Phoenician cities had established a vast maritime network of trading posts as far as Iberia, spreading their culture, religion, and language throughout the central and western Mediterranean.

By the 6th century BCE, Carthage, a Phoenician coastal colony in what is now Tunisia, had risen to dominate this region. These culturally Phoenician communities associated with or ruled by Carthage became known as “Punic” by the Romans. The Carthaginian empire left its mark in history, particularly well-known for the three large-scale “Punic Wars” with the rising Roman Republic, including the Carthaginian general Hannibal’s surprise campaign to cross the Alps.

Within the framework of the Max Planck-Harvard Research Center for the Archaeoscience of the Ancient Mediterranean, co-directed by Johannes Krause, Director at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, and Michael McCormick of Harvard University, an international team of researchers has now presented a study on the genetic history of these ancient Mediterranean civilizations.

New perspective on the spread of Phoenician culture

The new study aimed to use ancient DNA to characterize Punic people's ancestry and look for genetic links between them and Levantine Phoenicians, with whom they share a common culture and language. This was made possible by sequencing and analyzing a large sample of genomes from human remains buried in 14 Phoenician and Punic archaeological sites spanning the Levant, North Africa, Iberia, and the Mediterranean islands of Sicily, Sardinia, and Ibiza.

The researchers revealed an unexpected result. “We find surprisingly little direct genetic contribution from Levantine Phoenicians to western and central Mediterranean Punic populations,” says lead author Harald Ringbauer, who was a post-doctoral scientist at Harvard University when he began this research, and is now a group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. “This provides a new perspective on how Phoenician culture spread—not through large-scale mass migration, but through a dynamic process of cultural transmission and assimilation.”

The study highlights that Punic sites were home to people with vastly different ancestry profiles. “We observe a genetic profile in the Punic world that was extraordinarily heterogeneous,” says David Reich, a professor of Genetics and Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University who co-led the work. “At each site, people were highly variable in their ancestry, with the largest genetic source being people similar to contemporary people of Sicily and the Aegean, and many people with significant North African associated ancestry as well.”

Ancient DNA reveals cosmopolitan nature of Punic world

The results underscore the Punic world's cosmopolitan nature. Individuals with North African ancestry lived next to and intermingled with a majority of people of mainly Sicilian-Aegean ancestry in all sampled Punic sites, including Carthage. Moreover, genetic networks across the Mediterranean suggest that shared demographic processes—such as trade, intermarriage, and population mixing—played a critical role in shaping these communities. The researchers even found a pair of close relatives (ca. second cousins) bridging the Mediterranean, one buried in a North African Punic site and one in Sicily.

“These findings reinforce the idea that ancient Mediterranean societies were deeply interconnected, with people moving and mixing across often large geographic distances,” says Ilan Gronau, a professor of Computer Science at Reichman University in ​​Herzliya, Israel, who co-led the work. He adds: “Such studies highlight the power of ancient DNA in its ability to shed light on the ancestry and mobility of historical populations for which we have relatively sparse direct historical records”. 

Roman-era skeleton from Britain is rare evidence of human-animal gladiator combat

 

The bones show evidence of bite marks from a large cat such as a lion, used in some gladiator shows

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

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Puncture injuries by large felid scavenging on both sides of bone.

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Credit: Thompson et al., 2025, PLOS One, CC-BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

A skeleton from Roman-era England has bite marks consistent with those of a large cat like a lion, suggesting that this individual may have died as part of a gladiator show or execution, according to a study published April 23, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Tim Thompson from Maynooth University, Ireland, and colleagues.

Records of gladiator combat in the Roman Empire have been well-documented, with evidence of both human-human conflicts and fights between humans and animals such as lions and bears. But actual gladiator remains are relatively scarce in the archaeological record — and in Britain specifically, which was occupied by the Romans from the first through fifth centuries, there has so far been no confirmed evidence of human-animal combat.

The skeleton described in the new paper was likely buried sometime between 200-300 CE, near the Roman city of Eboracum, which is now York. This site contains the remains of mostly younger men, often with evidence of trauma, which has led to speculation that it could be a gladiator burial site. This specific skeleton has a series of depressions on the pelvis, which had previously been suggested as possible evidence of carnivore bites. By creating a three-dimensional scan of these marks, the researchers on this new study could compare these marks to bites from a variety of different animals.

They determined that these marks were likely bite marks from a large cat, possibly a lion. Since they were on the pelvis, they note it’s possible that these bites came as a result of the lion scavenging on the body around the time of death.

This skeleton is the first direct, physical evidence of human-animal combat from Europe during the Roman Empire. By demonstrating the possibility of gladiatorial combat or similar spectacles in modern York, this finding also gives archaeologists and historians new insight into the life and history of Roman-era England.

Lead author Prof. Tim Thompson, of Maynooth University, adds: "The implications of our multidisciplinary study are huge. Here we have physical evidence for the spectacle of the Roman Empire and the dangerous gladiatorial combat on show. This provides new evidence to support our understanding of the past."

Co-author Dr. John Pearce, of King's College London, adds: "As tangible witnesses to spectacles in Britain's Roman amphitheatres, the bitemarks help us appreciate these spaces as settings for brutal demonstrations of power. They make an important contribution to desanitizing our Roman past."   

David Jennings, CEO of York Archaeology, adds: “One of the wonderful things about archaeology is that we continue to make discoveries even years after a dig has concluded, as research methods and technology enable us to explore the past in more detail; it is now 20 years since we unearthed 80 burials at Driffield Terrace. This latest research gives us a remarkable insight into the life – and death – of this particular individual, and adds to both previous and ongoing genome research into the origins of some of the men buried in this particular Roman cemetery. We may never know what brought this man to the arena where we believe he may have been fighting for the entertainment of others, but it is remarkable that the first osteo-archaeological evidence for this kind of gladiatorial combat has been found so far from the Colosseum of Rome, which would have been the classical world’s Wembley Stadium of combat.”

 Yhe freely available article in PLOS One: https://plos.io/4jpsL5

Ancient grape seeds show gradual domestication from Bronze Age to Medieval Period in Italy

The domestication of grapevine was a slow process in Italy, taking place over thousands of years, according to a study published April 23, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS One by Mariano Ucchesu of the University of Montpellier, France and colleagues.

Each year, worldwide grape cultivation produces roughly 80 million tons of fresh grapes and 26 billion liters of wine, with Italian wine featuring prominently. While the deep history of viticulture is well-studied in parts of Asia and Europe, data is lacking in the western Mediterranean region. In this study, Ucchesu and colleagues analyzed more than 1,700 grape seeds from 25 archaeological sites in and around Italy spanning seven millennia from the Neolithic Period to the Medieval Period.

Morphological analysis revealed that in sites older than 1000 BC, nearly all of the grape seeds share the size and proportions of modern wild grapevine, suggesting that these fruits were gathered from the wild. Then, from roughly 1000 BC to 600 AD, the majority of grape seeds are more akin to modern domesticated varieties, although there is considerable variation in seed size and proportions, as well as the ratio of domestic to wild grapes from site to site. And in sites from the Medieval Period, starting around 700 AD, domestic grape seeds are abundant and highly similar to modern cultivated grapes.

These results indicate that grape cultivation in Italy likely began during the Late Bronze Age, followed by many centuries of gradual domestication, likely involving the mixing of wild and cultivated vines to produce new domestic varieties. The authors note that these results align with previous genetic and archaeological research, but stress the importance of future study at a wider variety of archaeological sites to fill in the picture of grape cultivation across the Mediterranean.

The authors add: “This research has made it possible, for the first time, to trace the history of the origins of viticulture in Italy. The appearance of the first domesticated grapes during the Bronze Age, in Italian archaeological contexts, points to a long-standing tradition of Italian wine heritage within the broader landscape of Western Europe.”

“This research was made possible thanks to funding received through the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Curie Fellowship (2021–2023 n. Agreement-101019563-VITALY) and supported by the ANR MICA project (grant agreement ANR-22-CE27-0026). The successful outcome of the research is also due to the valuable collaboration of the archaeobotanical colleagues from CNRS-ISEM in Montpellier and all the Italian colleagues who generously provided the archaeobotanical materials, valuable advice and suggestions for this research.”

 The freely available article in PLOS One: https://plos.io/3G9l44M

Ancient Chinese swamp forest collapse linked to human activity

Chinese scientists have discovered that fragile swamp forests in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) region suddenly collapsed around 2.1 thousand years ago (ka)—with human activity as the cause.

The study, led by researchers from the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry and the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, sheds new light on the role of human activity in ecosystem collapse.

Published in Science Advances, the study focuses on Glyptostrobus pensilis (G. pensilis), a critically endangered species of Chinese swamp cypress that once thrived in extensive swamp forests in the PRD. Through palynological (i.e., pollen and spore) records, chronological data, and sedimentological evidence, the team found that the collapse of these forests approximately coincided with military conquests by the Qin and Han Empires in the region.

Pollen records from sediment cores in the PRD revealed a dramatic decline in G. pensilis—from high dominance to near-extinction—indicating a sudden anthropogenic disturbance. Burn marks on the tops of standing stumps of G. pensilis are consistent with fire attacks by the Han army during its conquest of the Nanyue Realm in 111 B.C. Additionally, increases in the presence of Poaceae—a plant family comprising cereals and other grasses—as well as pioneer plants after 2.1 ka suggest large-scale migration and the adoption of advanced agricultural practices following the conquests. The conclusion that human activity played a decisive role in the forest collapse is further supported by the presence of charcoal and anthropogenic metals like copper and lead in the region.

Principal component analysis indicates that G. pensilis is highly sensitive to human activity. The loss of G. pensilis forests marked the beginning of a decline in biodiversity due to human intervention in the PRD, contributing to the local extinction of various species, including elephants, tigers, rhinoceroses, green peafowl, crocodiles, and others.

The researchers also used pollen and organic carbon records to identify previous episodes of forest degradation in the area—at 4.2 ka and 3.5 ka—from which the ecosystem later recovered.  The 4.2 ka event is a pronounced climate extreme. The 3.5 ka event was likely a regional climate extreme, as evidenced by numerous records from low latitudes and the Southern Hemisphere. The 3.5 ka event was probably caused by volcanic activity, i.e., the Santorini eruptions (VEI=7) from 3550–3577 BP. This finding illustrates the impact of climate change and deep earth processes on vegetation.

This study explores the historical roots of environmental change, revealing the lasting impact of human activity—such as war and agriculture—on a fragile ecosystem, while identifying the temporary effects of climate and deep earth processes on the same system.

 

Treasures prove Thetford was pagan until 5th century

 

Jewellery in a Roman treasure hoard found in Thetford Forest, East Anglia, indicates that Thetford was pagan until the 5th century, which is longer than previously believed, a new paper published by Cambridge University Press in Journal of Roman Archaeology reveals.

The Thetford treasure was first found by a metal detectorist trespassing on a construction site at Fison’s Way on Gallows Hill, Thetford in 1979. It consisted of 81 objects, including 22 gold finger-rings, other gold jewellery, and 36 silver spoons or strainers. It is now in the collections of the British Museum and can be seen on display there.

The author of the research, Professor Ellen Swift of University of Kent, argues that there is compelling evidence that the treasure was buried in the 5th century rather than the late 4th.

Swift says: “Since wider evidence found at the site confirms the religious context previously established by inscriptions on the spoons within the hoard, this means, remarkably, that the re-dating of the Thetford hoard suggests a pagan cult centre survived there into the 5th century.

“The site’s economic assets, indicated by the value and variety of the hoard, also show that it may have wielded significant power and authority locally.”

This new chronology is supported by detailed comparisons of multiple objects (both spoons and jewellery) with context-dated finds from continental Europe, and with objects from the 5th century Hoxne hoard in the British Museum, which was found more recently than the Thetford hoard and contains many similar items.

The paper also shows that Britain was less isolated than previously believed, with the items in the treasure originating from across the Roman empire.

The Thetford jewellery especially is highly varied in style, suggesting the different pieces originated in different places. Some of the latest-dating finger-rings in the hoard likely originated in northern Italy or adjacent regions, and the necklace with conical beads from the Balkans area of Europe.

Most of the jewellery is generically ‘Mediterranean Roman’ in style illustrating a geographically widespread shared culture among elites.

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Journal

Journal of Roman Archaeology

DOI