It's an interesting find, probably confirms what I think would be a default theory: the ritual use of psychoactives in modern south america is a continuation fr

It's an interesting find, probably confirms what I think would be a default theory: the ritual use of psychoactives in modern south america is a continuation from ancient times. What they found is: (1) Cocaine & benzoylecgonine (also from coca) (2) harmine & dimethyltryptamine (DMT), which are combined to make ayahuasca, still commonly used ritually in SA even by some catholic communities. (3) bufotenin (frog smoking stuff), which still exists ritually to an extent and (4) possibly psilocin (magic mushrooms). So basically, if you were to find a bag of ritual psychodelics in SA today, it would have all these same things in it. The only thing missing is tobacco. Maybe the snuff kit is for tobacco, or maybe the article omitted it. Also, I don't think these are all found in the same regions, so it's also probably evidence of trade. Drugs can be major trade goods. Most of how we see the ancient world is dictated by monuments, tools and other stuff that survives well. Bits of perishable culture like this give us a whole different layer.