Prehistoric High Times: Early Humans Used Magic Mushrooms, Opium

The ruins of a Mayan temple in Mexico. — Mayan ruins: Chichen Itza Pyramid, in Mexico.

(Image credit: Jeremy Reddington/Shutterstock.com)

Opium, "magic" mushrooms and other psychoactive substances have been used since prehistoric times all over the world, according to a new review of archaeological findings.

The evidence shows that people have been consuming psychoactive substances for centuries, or even millennia, in many regions of the world, said Elisa Guerra-Doce, an associate professor of prehistory at the University of Valladolid in Spain, who wrote the review.

These days, San Pedro cactus — which contains chemicals with hallucinogenic properties — is used in healing ceremonies by people living in the Andean mountains of South America, primarily in northern Peru, according to Guerra-Doce's paper. But the earliest evidence of San Pedro cactus usewas found in Guitarrero Cave, in Peru's Callejón de Huaylas valley. Researchers found pollen and traces of the cactus in the parts of the cave that were occupied the earliest, which date back to between 8600 and 5600 B.C.

"Apart from its use as a food plant, there is also uncontested evidence for the exploitation of its narcotic properties," Guerra-Doce wrote in the review. For instance, traces of an opium poppy capsule were found on the teeth of a male skeleton buried at a mining site near Barcelona that dates back to the fourthmillennium B.C. Traces of opiates were also found in the bones of another male buried at the site.

Nicotine has been detected in the hair of mummies from several periods within the pre-Hispanic times in South America, according to the paper. In North America, the oldest smoking pipes found date back to the second millennium B.C.; however, these pipes could have also been used for smoking other plants, Guerra-Doce reported in the study.The earliest remains of actual nicotine in a pipe in North America date to 300 B.C.