Earliest evidence for magic mushroom use in Europe

From New Scientist:

EUROPEANS may have used magic mushrooms to liven up religious rituals 6000 years ago. So suggests a cave mural in Spain, which may depict fungi with hallucinogenic properties - the oldest evidence of their use in Europe.
The Selva Pascuala mural, in a cave near the town of Villar del Humo, is dominated by a bull. But it is a row of 13 small mushroom-like objects that interests Brian Akers at Pasco-Hernando Community College in New Port Richey, Florida, and Gaston Guzman at the Ecological Institute of Xalapa in Mexico. They believe that the objects are the fungi Psilocybe hispanica, a local species with hallucinogenic properties.
Like the objects depicted in the mural, P. hispanica has a bell-shaped cap topped with a dome, and lacks an annulus - a ring around the stalk. "Its stalks also vary from straight to sinuous, as they do in the mural," says Akers (Economic Botany, DOI: 10.1007/s12231-011-9152-5).
This isn't the oldest prehistoric painting thought to depict magic mushrooms, though. An Algerian mural that may show the species Psilocybe mairei is 7000 to 9000 years old.

[Thanks Ben!]

» more at: www.newscientist.com

Posted By jamesk at 2011-03-07 12:42:10 permalink | comments

» More ways to bookmark this page

motley. : 2011-03-11 13:19:13

well in -regard to the Bee Mushroom shaman .I saw him one profane evening whilst going for a pee.It took me by complete surprise. It was dark in the toliet and quiet ( downstairs was noisey with music and chattering ) s/he appeared out of the blue and it had been years since i'd read Food of the Gods so it was not something that was on my mind.i watched s/he and it them morphed into 2 pre raphalite females who danced and then vanished back into the void all with my eyes open not doubt a product of deranged mind.
Archeologists makes lots of speculative ideas about early man from cave painting obvioulsy we will never know but what was going on in their minds but Letcher says we can not say there were taking mushrooms, pictures of mushrooms in cave painint implies i think we can or why else paint them?

jamesk : 2011-03-08 14:48:43

Not to be overly protective of my own work, but my book contains testable hypothoses for everything I assert. Books about mushroom use in prehistory cannot make such claims.

Anonymous. : 2011-03-08 14:23:08

I'd have to agree with jamesk on this one. Letcher was saying that all the evidence presented is highly speculative and is filtered through the ideology of those presenting it (for example, the editorializing that Kat Harrison did in making the line drawings of Mr. Mushroom Shaman), and I don't think what's presented here refutes that.

Letcher's main thesis was that people bend over backwards to validate their use of mushrooms by an appeal to tradition (understandable -- even if somewhat ironic -- considering the marginalization of the practice), but that the use of mushrooms can and should stand on its own without appeals to tradition. Personally, I think he was spot-on in this, regardless of the particulars of the evidence and the refutation thereof.

motley. : 2011-03-08 13:29:24

my response to your comment appears to moderated to the void. strange .
yes James its all speculation including Letcher's book , cosmology , your book , you name it
.But if our ancestors were chewing psilocybin mushrooms then it is not too much of a leap of imagination to say they would of had a big affect upon their minds , their society and their beliefs and their language skillls. Give TM the credit he deserves and just to clarify i think there were many thing he got wrong for example crop circles and MDMA for two.

motley. : 2011-03-08 12:43:21

James I said seems not proof without doubt and who said they know for sure Letcher i thought was arrogantly dismissive of Mckenna ideas but his book i thought got a lot of undesereved attention.
.Anyway the evidence seems to stacking up to support theories of mushroom use amongst our ancestors .

jamesk : 2011-03-08 12:17:11

@motley, evidence is not proof. Anyone who claims they know for sure what was happening 6000 years ago based on some paintings is full of it. It's all speculative.

motley. : 2011-03-08 12:06:53

seems to kick letcher,s book Shroom in o touch .His thesis was that Mckenna was wrong there is no evidence of mushroom use amongst our ancestors , its all a modern day phenomena. Looks like Terrance was on the money. good news i'd say

The comments posted here do not reflect the views of the owners of this site.

Follow DoseNation

» More subscription options

Earliest evidence for magic mushroom use in Europe

Posted By jamesk at 2011-03-07 12:42:10 permalink | comments

Follow DoseNation

Recently @ DoseNation