Is this wacky cave painting the result of hallucinations or is it more obvious?

California has a cave whose ceiling is about an hour’s drive from Santa Barbara. Conspicuous features like a windmill Figure..A fascinating new study suggests that this painting is literal, not a drug-induced abstraction. Expression of what makes psychedelics You can travel.

Psychedelics plant bite debris Datura According to the new, it provides “a clear confirmation of hallucinogen intake” at the Windmill Cave in California. the study It was published in the bulletin of the National Academy of Sciences. The rocky area was frequently visited by indigenous Californians about 500 years ago. Equally important, the dazzling red windmill on the low ceiling represents the plant itself. Rather than portraying a shaman’s visual experience when stumbling on a drug scientist Insist. As a result, the new treatise challenges the general altered state of consciousness model (ASC), which claims that “hallucinogens influenced prehistoric imaging in caves and rock shelters.” The author writes.

Indeed, it may be time to abolish this seemingly outdated concept. The ASC model proposes abstract images found in cave paintings around the world, such as swirls and zigzags., Dots, geometry, and perhaps even beastmen (some humans, some animals) were inspired by psychedelics.Some experts These abstract images claimed to be self-portraits created by shamans, or depictions of shamans’ experiences in trance... It is rarely considered by anthropologists and archaeologists that ordinary people may participate in these drugs-and in fact, it is often claimed that the location of these caves is unique to shamans, Not space for the rest of the group.

The problem is that there is a great lack of evidence to support the ASC hypothesis, as pointed out by a new treatise led by David W. Robinson of the University of Central Lancashire. Instead, these ambiguous shapes are likely to be “myths and stock iconographic images of anthropomorphic astronomical elements such as insects, animals, plants, and the sun,” the paper said.

But in this case, the drawing in question is not ambiguous. The picture of the windmill actually looks like this: Datura A plant where the flowers are unraveled and the pentagram can be seen, A windmill-like configuration. In addition, ethnographic accounts explain how indigenous Californians consumed these plants as a means of entering the trance state. Datura “To gain supernatural powers for doctors, to counteract negative supernatural events, to drive away ghosts, to see the future, to find lost things, but especially for a variety of medicines. As the author writes, it can be ingested for a variety of reasons. ” Datura It was prepared in a variety of ways, including as a drink, but the easiest was to chew the roots and other parts of the plant.

Robinson and his colleagues have been exploring the windmill cave since 2007. Importantly, the team found cracks packed with quids along the ceiling of the cave. These fibrous bundles of plant material are often buried in archaeological sites and are quids consisting of yucca, agave, tulle and tobacco that prehistoric people chewed for nutrients and stimulants. there is.

The quid’s DNA analysis found in the windmill cave could not identify the original plant, so scientists turned to other methods. The scanning electron microscope confirmed the item as a quiz, as the discarded padding showed evidence of chewing.Mass spectrometer detected the active ingredient of psychedelics DaturaThat is, scopolamine and atropine.

“this is, Datura Ingested in the cave, the rock painting represents the plant itself and helps to codify a joint ritual that includes this powerful hallucinogen. [hallucinogen]”,researcher write. “These results confirm the use of hallucinogens on rock art sites, questioning previous assumptions about trance and rock art images.”

Sure, a windmill-like picture could be a drug-induced abstraction, but researchers seem to be working on something here.The image is a depiction of Datura Almost not stretch like plants It was probably a huge problem for this community.Depiction of Datura The ceiling of the cave could be visually represented by the community Social, cultural and metaphysical importance..

And surely, the windmill cave was a shared space, As other archaeological evidence reveals. Researchers have found evidence of cooking signs such as stone tool making, projectile points, burnt bone and charcoal. So, a space dedicated to shamans? Impossible.

Archeology is difficult and requires time and vast amounts of evidence to reach the truth, or at least something close to the truth. The new research has successfully stripped away the old theory that probably made a lot of sense, but upon further examination, it seems a bit old-fashioned, if not completely ridiculous.